By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer A Canadian County jury last week deliberated just over two hours before finding 59-year-old Bobby Don Priddy guilty of first-degree man-slaughter in the 2003 shooting death of his 26-year-old neighbor, Matthew Lynn Mayes. Priddy, of rural Yukon, had claimed the fatal shot was fired in self-defense, but during the three-day trial before District Judge Edward C. Cunningham, prosecutors claimed Priddy fired the shot outside his property as the younger man was leaving. The jury recommended Priddy, who suffers from a chronic back injury, be sentenced to four years, the minimum sentence the law allows for the felony charge. Formal sentencing is slated Nov. 29. Mayes was fatally shot once in the upper left torso on Sept. 3, 2003, in a neighborhood of modular homes near Foreman Road and Gregory Road, just north of Yukon. Authorities called it a squabble that escalated to violence. Prosecutor Michael Gahan, assistant district attorney, said although the dispute brought Mayes to Priddy’s doorstep where the two men fought, Mayes was outside the fence of Priddy’s property when he was shot. “Matt deserved the protection of the law when he stood in the roadway. The defendant made a choice when he fired the rifle to ‘scare Matt off,’” Gahan said. “He wasn’t afraid of Matt; he was trying to put a fear into Matt.” Gahan said legal force is only permitted if an intruder enters a dwelling. In testimony, Priddy said Mayes never entered his house. Priddy’s wife, Judy Brawley, testified Mayes was sitting in front of the Priddy home screaming threats on the evening of the incident. In the confrontation that ensued, the younger man attempted to choke the older man, testimony showed. Priddy said Mayes was upset because he mistakenly thought the older man was showing his court records around the neighborhood and because Priddy had erected speed bumps along the private road to Mayes’ house. Priddy and other neighbors had complained of his speeding back and forth along the road. Priddy took the stand late in the trial. When the shouting began around 5 p.m., Priddy said he stood at his door and tried to tell Mayes to leave. Three different times, Mayes threatened to kill him, he said, “He took me to the ground and stuck his thumb into my right eye and said, ‘I’m gonna kill you,’ and then he bit my ear — I had to have surgery on it,” Priddy said. He said blood was filling his eyes after Mayes had pressured his thumb into his eye during the scuffle. Mayes released his hold on him, but then turned around and pushed him so that he hit the side of the house and began choking him with his thumb in his esophagus, Priddy said. During the altercation, Priddy’s wife had brought out a .22 caliber rifle and had laid it on the ground to return to the house for a wet washcloth to soothe Priddy’s wounds. Priddy said he picked it up. “I feared for my life at two different points. I picked the rifle up and I wanted Matt off my property…had the shot gone over him like I thought it was going to, I think he would have gotten the gun and killed me, Judy and Levi (a neighbor),” Priddy said. “I was in great danger. I had someone on me that I think it would have taken several people to restrain. He was wild…I think his intent was to kill me. I think he was in such a rage. I’ve never been in that situation with someone as wild.” A state Medical Board toxicologist said Mayes had ingested a “measurable” amount of cocaine four to six hours prior to the incident. He also had a trace amount of Valium in his system, according to Dr. Phil Kemp. At the time of the incident, Mayes was facing a possession of cocaine charge that was pending in Canadian County. Gahan attempted to show Priddy made statements of omission in print media interviews and to authorities. He repeatedly asked Priddy why he failed to mention Mayes’ verbal threats to kill him to deputies who interviewed him shortly after the incident and in three different interviews for newspaper articles. Priddy said he could not recall why he did not mention the verbal threat on his life. Priddy, a veteran of Vietnam, said he’d had seven back surgeries with one scheduled in the future. He wore a back brace outside his clothing and walked back and forth to the witness stand with a limp. The fight continued until a neighbor, Levi Spone, drove up to the house. Spone, on the witness stand, said Mayes was on top of the older man, choking him. As Spone tried to pull him off, Mayes took a swing at him, knocking him to his knees. As Mayes walked toward his pickup parked outside the fence, Priddy, who is left-handed, followed him holding the gun with his right hand pointed to the ground. “I just wanted him to get off my property,” Priddy said. In testimony, Spone said he walked alongside Mayes heading back to Mayes’ pickup, urging him to leave. Spone said Mayes had yelled that he had something in his pickup “that will take care of all you S.O.B.s.” Spone said as Mayes got to his pickup, he acted as if he was going to grab something from its bed, but swung around empty-handed while still cussing them. More words were exchanged, Spone said, and as Mayes lunged over the fence toward Priddy, the man fired the gun. The fatal shot hit Mayes in the upper torso. Mayes stepped backward, saying ‘“Old man, you shot me,’” Spone said. Mayes then said he couldn’t feel his legs. He then slid against the pickup to the ground while both older men were telling him to stay down. Priddy said he fired the shot above Mayes’ head to warn him, but as Mayes made a move to jump the fence toward him, his body moved in front of the bullet. Priddy was hospitalized overnight after the altercation. He turned himself into Canadian County authorities the next morning and was released the same day after posting a $10,000 bond. A pre-sentencing investigation report recommended Priddy be placed on supervised probation and attend anger management classes. Priddy’s attorney, Irven Box, had earlier asked that his client receive a five-year deferred sentence in a plea bargain. But Priddy asked for a jury trial. Victim impact statements and reports from arresting officers were made part of the record. Mayes’ mother has requested Priddy serve jail time for her son’s untimely death. The woman told The Tribune after the trial she was happy “justice has been served.”