The teen who fatally shot 15-year-old Jacob Peglow appeared in court Friday.
Austin Hovarter, 18, Waupaca, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide.
Hovarter is currently in custody on a $100,000 cash bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
According to the criminal complaint, paramedics and deputies were dispatched to Hovarter’s home on Rieben Road in Farmington shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 26.
They found Peglow with a .22-caliber bullet wound in his shoulder.
Ambulance personnel attempted unsuccessfully to revive him, but Peglow died at the scene.
Deputy Jon Loken spoke to Hovarter, who said he, Peglow and a 14-year-old boy had been outdoors shooting a .17-caliber rifle earlier that day.
Hovarter, who was 17 at the time of the incident, told Loken that when they finished shooting the gun, Peglow made sure the gun was unloaded and the safety was on.
The three boys then went into the house and upstairs to the bedroom of Hovarter’s parents.
While Peglow and the other boy were examining an antique musket in the bedroom, Hovarter removed a .22-caliber handgun from an open safe and unholstered it.
Hovarter told Loken that he held the revolver up, slightly canted, to the right of his head in what he described as “a gangster display,” the complaint says.
Hovarter then pulled the trigger.
Peglow reportedly said, “Oh my god, you shot me!” He then ran downstairs and out through the east side door toward the driveway. The younger boy immediately followed behind Peglow.
Hovarter told Loken that he returned the gun to its holster and placed it on a shelf next to the safe. He then ran after Peglow.
“Austin said he has never used the gun himself and never witnessed the gun used,” Loken reported. “Austin said he believed the gun was unloaded.”
Hovarter also told Loken that he had played Cops and Robbers with the other boy before, indicating that he had actually pointed the .22-caliber revolver at him and pulled the trigger. He said the gun had never been loaded.
Deputy Pat McClone interviewed the 14-year-old boy who said Hovarter had played with the pistol previously. He told McClone that about a year ago Hovarter had pulled the trigger three times but the gun had not fired.
McClone reported that the boy “told me Austin had never checked to determine if the revolver was unloaded.”
After reviewing the reports, District Attorney Veronica Isherwood asked for further investigation of the shooting.
Chief Deputy Al Kraeger then contacted the state Division of Criminal Investigation.
DCI Special Agent Kyra Schallhorn reported that the 14-year-old boy said on Thursday, Sept. 14, that when Hovarter shot Peglow, he “held the gun out in front of him in his right hand, with his left hand supporting the shooting hand, he aimed the gun at Jacob and pulled the trigger.”
Hovarter told the DCI investigator on Sept. 14 that “he has used the revolver four or five times playing Cops and Robbers” and had pointed the gun at the 14-year-old boy and pulled the trigger “many times” on each of those occasions. He also said he and Peglow were playing Cops and Robbers when the shooting occurred, the complaint says.
Hovarter faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted of first-degree reckless homicide.