Man gets 4 to 8 years after plea in stepson's shooting death

EASTON, Pa. (AP) - A man has been sentenced to four to eight years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his stepson during what authorities said was a drunken argument.

Fifty-three-year-old Dennis Long accepted a plea agreement Monday, the day his Northampton County homicide trial was slated to begin.

Prosecutors say the Lower Mount Bethel Township resident and 26-year-old Ryan Boomer argued last October about the stepson's lack of a job, and Boomer was shot in a struggle.

Defense attorney Ed Andres said his client said from the beginning that the gun had "just gone off" and he immediately regretted what occurred. But he said the deal allows Long the chance to be paroled in a few years and to return to work and his family.