Killington Man Pleads Guilty In Traffic Fatality Caused By His Bull

By NINA KECK • 2 HOURS AGO
VPR News

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Craig Mosher, of Killington, sits with his attorney Paul Volk in Rutland Criminal Court Wednesday. Mosher pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in the death of 62-year-old Jon Bellis of Connecticut. 
NINA KECK / VPR 



A closely watched legal case involving a bull that caused a traffic fatality in Killington has come to a close.
Killington resident Craig Mosher, pleaded guilty Wednesday to reckless endangerment in the death of 62-year-old Jon Bellis, of Woodbridge, Connecticut.
In July 31, 2015 Bellis and his wife, Kathryn Barry, were driving to their condo in Killington when their car struck an 1,800 pound Scottish Highland bull that had wandered onto nearby Route 4.
Rutland State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy initially charged Mosher, the animal’s owner, with involuntary manslaughter, arguing his bulls had gotten loose on multiple occasions and Mosher had failed to act. She played a number of 911 calls in court from frightened motorists who reported seeing the animals in the busy roadway on several different occasions.
Farmers, worried about the precedent such a charge would create -- along with Mosher’s many friends -- were outraged by the criminal charges, saying the incident was an accident.
The 63-year-old  Killington resident owns an excavating company and is something of a local hero for road repair work he did after Tropical Storm Irene.
In the plea deal, approved by Judge Cortland Corsones, Mosher was sentenced to six months to a year of prison, all suspended, with two years of probation. Mosher will also have to perform 50 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine.
Addressing the court, Mosher sighed audibly before speaking: “My deepest condolences and prayers go out to the Bellis family for this tragic accident…. It’s broken my heart and I live it every day.”
When Kathryn Barry had a chance to speak, she described how difficult her life had become for her without her husband of 37 years and how difficult it was for their two children.
“Jon was my rock and he was the glue that held our family together,” she said.
While Barry told the judge she accepted his  sentence, she said she would have preferred to see Mosher go to trial for manslaughter saying the crash that killed her husband was no accident.