A former Florida deputy sheriff was found guilty Wednesday of killing his girlfriend last year in what he claimed was an “accidental discharge.”
The jury, composed of six members, took approximately 90 minutes, factoring in their lunch break, to reach a verdict. They found Leslie Dale Boileau Jr. guilty of manslaughter involving a firearm in the tragic death of 25-year-old Polina Wright, as reported by the Ocala Star-Banner.
At the time of the incident, Boileau, aged 33, was serving as a deputy at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. On September 19, 2024, he fatally shot Wright in the head with an AR-style rifle, according to CrimeOnline. Boileau dialed 911, explaining that after dining out with Wright, they returned home to clean their firearms, during which they reportedly aimed them at one another.
During the trial, Boileau was the sole witness to take the stand for his defense. He testified that post-dinner, he was cleaning the rifle when Wright expressed curiosity about the firearms and their operation. In response to her interest, he demonstrated the process, as the Star-Banner detailed.
As noted by Law&Crime, Boileau recounted in a post-Miranda interview that he permitted Wright to handle the rifle after ensuring it was unloaded, subsequently reloading it himself. He then noticed that Wright had a loaded handgun and took it in order to remove any live ammunition. After allowing her to “dry fire” the handgun safely, he resumed his focus on the rifle.
By that time, he had forgotten he reloaded it.
According to an affidavit, Boileau stated, “I dry fired the rifle once,” but during a second dry fire attempt, he inadvertently shot Wright because he had forgotten that the magazine was loaded, resulting in her death. He asserted that he did not chamber a live round into the rifle’s firing position.
At the end of the interview, he described his behavior as “sloppy.”
During the trial, Boileau admitted that his firearm training included strict instructions never to aim a weapon at another person, as reported by the Star-Banner. Nonetheless, he insisted that he did not aim the rifle at Wright and was unable to explain how she was hit in the forehead if it hadn’t been aimed at her.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Tucker O’Neill told the jury that an intentional act that results in an unintentional death is the very definition of manslaughter and that Boileau had intentionally pointed the gun and intentionally pulled the trigger.
Boileau’s attorney, Anthony Tatti, argued that Boileau hadn’t pointed the gun and that the evidence did not support the prosecution’s case. It was, he said, negligence but not manslaughter.
The judge remanded Boileau to jail to await sentencing. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
