Pine County man gets jail time, probation after 3-year-old son accidentally shot himself

Court records show a Hinckley man will be spending time in jail for a charge filed in connection to his son’s death last summer.

Roy Dean Pauza-Moore, 27, has been sentenced to spend 150 days in the Pine County Jail and five years of probation for one count of child endangerment. Three other charges that were initially filed against him — two counts of second-degree manslaughter and one count of negligent firearm storage — were dismissed, according to records. The dismissal was part of a plea deal, which was filed in mid-April.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, warrants state the boy shot himself after finding Pauza-Moore’s gun last August. The 3-year-old died at the home, located on 1st Street Southwest.

RELATED: Authorities investigating Pine County child’s death

Search warrant applications reveal that the child’s father and his roommate told law enforcement that they were in the basement of the home when they heard something fall upstairs, where the child was alone.

A short time later, they heard a gunshot and the child’s father ran upstairs to find his son lying in the father’s bedroom, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.

The father said he had a 9 mm handgun in his room that the child got ahold of.

The affidavit adds that authorities found the gun lying on top of a safe, but it had been moved in the process of trying to save the boy.