A Decatur, Tn., man who said he was able to start his own business after running out of gas in Tennessee and living for a year and a half in a tent at a campground was sentenced in Federal Court on Monday.
Judge Sandy Mattice ordered that Thomas Albert Brown serve 42 months in federal prison.
A tearful Brown said he had been able to start a business offering training and riding horses, "but because of one night everything I had is gone."
The Meigs County Sheriff's Office responded on Oct. 24, 2012, to his residence on Carl Holt Lane on a shooting call. Preston Miller, 18, had been shot in the thigh.
Brown said he had been handling a revolver and it went off. He said the teen had been interested in buying a gun from him and that it went off accidentally.
The probation office had recommended a higher sentence, but Judge Mattice said he could not say that the shooting was intentional.
Deputies found two other guns at the residence, including a sawed-off shotgun. As a convicted felon, he was not suppose to have any weapons.