"Man convicted in mom's death, cited puppy concern in trial."

"Defendant wanted to make sure puppy would be OK."

Larry W. Clark of Big Flats was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, forgery, identity theft and false information on a missing person in the 2010 shooting death of Marcella Clark.

Much more here:

Clark told jurors he awoke the day after he accidentally fired a revolver in the kitchen of the home he shared with his mother to find his mother on the kitchen floor.

“She was still as a person possibly could be; her eyes were open, and I knew she was deceased,” Clark said. Clark testified he sat on the couch to think about what to do next. He looked down and saw the cage that kept the cocker spaniel puppy his mom had brought home a few weeks earlier. The dog, which didn’t have a name, had soiled the cage, so Clark decided to take the puppy outside....

“I felt really guilty,” Clark said. “I knew it was all over; I thought calling (authorities) would mean I’d end up in jail right away.”

Clark said he thought the puppy deserved a chance, so he decided to delay reporting the shooting while he trained it to interact with people, so it could get a home... He took the dog out for a longer walk and saw a tarp covering the wood pile in his mother’s yard. Clark took the tarp inside, slid his mother’s body onto it and then rolled the tarp around her, he said....