By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

GRANBY, Mo. — Newton County authorities on Monday were investigating what witnesses described as a hunting accident that left a 19-year-old dead.

Sheriff Ken Copeland said officers were summoned about 11:45 p.m. Sunday to property at 6646 Raven Road, northeast of Granby. They found Steven R. Cox, of rural Granby, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

“It’s still under investigation,” Copeland said late Monday afternoon.

Copeland said Cox, along with a friend later identified as Jacob Shamblin, 25, and Cox’s brother-in-law, later identified as Shane Schmelzer, 20, allegedly had been out hunting deer on the property. Cox reportedly separated from the other two. The land apparently is owned by Cox’s father-in-law, although Copeland alleged that the three might technically have committed “poaching” since they were not hunting during firearms hunting season and in compliance with a number of state hunting regulations.

Cox lived on the Raven Road property, in what Copeland described as a former dog kennel that had been remade into a dwelling, with limited access to water and electricity. Shamblin and Schmelzer also lived in the rural Granby area, he said.

At some point, according to what Cox’s companions told officers, Shamblin heard a noise from bushes that he took for a deer and fired in that direction. The bullet ended up striking Cox, Copeland said. None of the men was wearing a colored vest. Cox was shot with a .30-.30-caliber rifle, a common hunting rifle.

The sheriff said deputies have estimated the distance between Cox and Shamblin at between 20 and 25 yards, although Copeland said the incident took place in “the dead of night” in a thickly wooded area.

“It’s thick out there,” he said. “It’s brush and thicket.”

Efforts to obtain comment from Shamblin and Schmelzer were unsuccessful Monday.

The sheriff said officers re-interviewed the two men Monday morning. He said it apparently was “not unusual for them” to go out at night on the property and hunt for deer, often by using a flashlight.

Copeland said the results of the investigation would be forwarded to the Newton County prosecutor’s office for review, possibly today. He would not comment on whether and what charges his department would seek.

A phone message left for a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation on Monday was not returned.

The department’s Web site lists a number of regulations even for those with access to resident landowner permits. Those regulations include specific dates for firearms season; “shooting hours” that allow shooting only between a half-hour before sunrise and a half-hour after sunset; and restrictions that bar the use of “any sighting device that casts a beam of light on the game.”