South Jersey man sentenced to 17 years after killing acquaintance with a bow and arrow
Timothy Canfield received 17 years in prison after a Camden County jury convicted him of manslaughter in the bow-and-arrow death of Kereti Paulsen in Canfield's Berlin Borough, N.J. backyard.
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A Camden County man was sentenced to 17 years in state prison on Monday on a charge of aggravated manslaughter from when he killed an acquaintance with a compound bow and arrow in January 2013.
Timothy Canfield, 31, of Berlin, will have to serve 85 percent of his term before he will be eligible for parole under the sentence by Superior Court Judge David Ragonese in Camden. After Canfield’s first trial ended in a mistrial last year, a second panel found him guilty in April of killing Kereti Paulsen, 25, of Cape May Court House, in Canfield’s driveway.
The arrow fired by Canfield pierced Paulsen’s stomach and severed an artery.
Before he was sentenced, Canfield, a former car mechanic, apologized to Paulsen’s family, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey Zucker. Canfield was also found guilty of hindering apprehension and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office recommended that Canfield be sentenced to 45 years, with 27 years of parole ineligibility.
Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Pratter argued during the trial that Canfield attempted to conceal his involvement in the homicide by hiding the arrows in his attic and then driving to Winslow Township, where he hid the bow in the woods. He also lied to police when he was first questioned about the incident.
Paulsen had been in a fistfight with another man over Paulsen’s former girlfriend, who was living with her family and Canfield in the house on Brill Avenue.
The altercation brought the family outside, but after it ended, the others went back inside. Then, Paulsen got into a fistfight with another man, and Canfield went inside to get the bow and arrows to confront Paulsen.
Zucker then argued that Paulsen was a violent heroin addict and that the incident was self-defense because Paulsen had threatened Canfield and his then-girlfriend, Ashley Dunn, now his wife.
After Paulsen was shot, a neighbor heard him crying for help and called 911. Paulsen was still breathing when the EMS squad arrived, but died at the hospital soon afterward.