Former Olympian Acquitted in Student Shooting by Reason of Insanity

AI-generated context summary requested by a Free News Reader user. Sourced via Gemini from publicly available information — no paywalled content was accessed.

You hit a paywall. Here’s the context on this topic based on publicly available information. We did not access any paywalled content. View original article.

Former Olympian Acquitted in Student Shooting by Reason of Insanity

Full Summary — powered by AI

Kanarek sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest on August 7, 2019, at Barisone’s Long Valley, New Jersey, farm.

In August 2019, Olympic dressage trainer Michael Barisone was charged with attempted murder after shooting his student, Lauren Kanarek, twice in the chest at his New Jersey horse farm. Authorities also stated he fired at Kanarek’s fiancé, Robert Goodwin, but missed. The incident followed escalating tensions between Barisone and the couple, who were living as tenants on his property. Kanarek had posted on social media about feeling bullied by Barisone, while Barisone claimed the couple was making his life miserable and damaging his reputation.

Kanarek suffered extensive injuries, including a damaged lung, and spent several weeks in the hospital, including four days in a coma. She has since undergone multiple reconstructive surgeries.

During the trial in spring 2022, Barisone’s defense team argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming the ongoing feud had pushed him to a mental breaking point. Prosecutors, however, maintained that Barisone was sane and knew his actions when he shot Kanarek. After approximately 18 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity on the attempted murder charges related to Kanarek and not guilty on all other counts, including the attempted murder of Goodwin. Following the verdict, Barisone was civilly committed to a psychiatric facility and was later released in 2023 after receiving positive reports from psychiatric professionals.

Generated by Free News Reader. This summary provides topic context based on publicly available information. We encourage supporting quality journalism by subscribing to the original publisher.