BILLINGS, Mont. — An Army veteran was convicted Friday of slashing the throat of a former Marine during a drunken argument over which branch of the military was better.
Jurors found William Earl Cunningham, 63, guilty of deliberate homicide in the Aug. 2 death of Nathan Horn, 40, near a picnic table in Laurel, according to The Billings Gazette.
Prosecutors said Cunningham told responding deputies: "I cut him, he's dead."
Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Christopher Morris told jurors during closing arguments Friday the facts do not support Cunningham's story that the two men were standing up when Horn's throat was cut.
"There would have been arterial spurting, it would have covered the shirt of Mr. Cunningham," Morris said. "There is zero evidence that that occurred."
But Public defender Gregory Paskell urged jurors to look at the whole picture.
"This isn't a one-note samba," he said. "This is an entire picture of two nights, in which Nathan Horn drank along with Buddy Cunningham and antagonized Buddy Cunningham and threatened Buddy Cunningham."
Cunningham, who argued he acted in self-defense, is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced June 25.
