MENDOCINO COUNTY (MNG) — A Piercy man facing a litany of charges stemming from a domestic argument that escalated to a shooting in late December awaits disposition on a Lake County charge of vehicular manslaughter, according to Mendocino County District Attorney C. David Eyster.
Anton Kloiber, 34, faces a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, stemming from a September incident in Lake County. The charge could get him probation or a prison sentence for as many as 10 years, if convicted.
Kloiber is due in Lake County Superior Court Feb. 28 for a preliminary hearing on the charge.
“If Lake County sends him to prison on gross vehicular manslaughter, he needs to go to prison on our charges too,” Eyster said.
Kloiber pleaded guilty at his Feb. 10 trial readiness conference in Mendocino County Superior Court to two felony counts of negligent discharge of a firearm in two incidents on Christmas Eve and Dec. 28, according to Eyster.
Kloiber was also facing charges of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, assault with a firearm, child endangerment, damaging a phone line and making threats, all stemming from the most recent incident. Those charges were dropped, according to Eyster, but could be reinstated if Kloiber were to change his plea.
On Dec. 28, Kloiber allegedly fired a shotgun into an inside wall of his Piercy home during a dispute with his wife, and debris from the blast hit the couple”s 10-year-old son in the back.
He allegedly ripped a phone out of the wall and threw it on the ground, pointed a shotgun at his wife and hit her in the forehead with it and threatened to kill her when she tried to take it away, according to an initial report from the Mendocino County Sheriff”s Office.
“I believe (Kloiber”s) case has a mental health component,” Eyster said.
Deputy District Attorney Beth Norman met with Kloiber”s wife to get her input on the ideal outcome of the case, Eyster said.
“This serves the interest of justice; the victim and her family are very happy with the resolution; and we”re trying to coordinate criminal charges in two counties, which is not always done,” Eyster said of the resolution.
The two felonies that Kloiber pleaded guilty to in Mendocino County Superior Court were not the most serious charges against him, Eyster said, but stemmed from the same behavior.
“We got a resolution where he will be prohibited from possessing a firearm in the future,” Eyster said. “That”s what we wanted, because this is a case where someone with mental issues was acting dangerously with a firearm.”
The two felony counts of negligently discharging a firearm could add up to eight months apiece to a prison term if Kloiber is convicted in Lake County and sentenced to prison, according to Eyster.
Kloiber is due in Mendocino County Superior Court on March 25 for sentencing on the two firearm counts, but Eyster said he plans to ask that the sentencing trail the Lake County proceedings if the case there hasn”t been resolved by that date.
