Minister Pleads Guilty to Shooting Granddaughter

ROCHESTER (AP) - A Rochester minister who shot his granddaughter after mistaking her for an intruder has pleaded guilty to a felony charge.

Sixty-one-year-old Stanley Warren Wilkinson was charged with one count of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety.

His sentencing was set Monday for April 15. The charge carries a maximum of five years in prison.

Wilkinson, a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor, told police he grabbed his pistol after hearing a noise outside his house Dec. 10 and fired two rounds after seeing what he thought was someone trying to open the deck door. It turned out to be his 16-year-old granddaughter, who was struck once in the neck.

She had been living with her grandparents and told police she left the house without telling them.

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