Sweet Home man gets 7 years for killing son with gunshot to chest

SWEET HOME, Ore. (AP) — A 66-year-old man accused of killing his son has been sentenced in plea bargain to more than seven years in prison.

The Albany Democrat-Herald reported Thursday that Jerry Ray Milligan was sentenced last week on charges of criminally negligent homicide and unlawful use of a weapon

Police said he and his 41-year-old son, Jerry Tyler Milligan, were drinking in February and got into a fight. The younger man died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

The father originally was charged with murder.

Prosecutor Michael Wynhausen said the sentence was similar to what he would have expected had the case gone to trial.

But he said there was no guarantee how a jury would respond to the evidence, and a self-defense claim was viable.