Convicted defendant termed a menace to Oconee
A lifelong Oconeean approaching his 40th birthday was sent to prison today for 17 years, credited with jail time awaiting trial. This, after a jury convicted William David Gunn in a burglary that occurred one year ago. Defense lawyer Catherine Wyse appealed for leniency for her client, but prosecutor Beth Blundy called Gunn “a menace” to Oconee County considering his lengthy criminal record. And it was that history that Judge Sprouse called attention to at sentencing. Gunn was arrested April 18, 2023 after deputies, while investigating the burglary, found Gunn on the property and his explanation as to why he was there to be unsatisfactory. Just before sentencing, burglary victim Toby Shaw addressed the court and took offense at the defense argument that the structure burglarized was a building instead of a home. “It is a home,” Shaw insisted, that’s full of mementoes and memories of his late mother.