By Brian Lockhart
A Flushing man who tried to use sleepwalking as a defense for attempting to shoot his estranged wife with a shotgun more than three years ago was sentenced last Wednesday to between 12 1/2 and 25 years in prison, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Robert Bedford, 50, was convicted March 15 of attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon following a two-week jury trial.
Brown said the murder attempt occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 14, 1997.
The Queens DA said that around 7 a.m. Bedford placed his pump- action, 20-gauge shotgun inside a cardboard carton and carried it out of his house.
According to Brown, the defendant proceeded to walk three blocks to the home of his estranged wife, whom he planned to ambush on her way out the door to work.
When the victim left her house, she saw Bedford and while attempting to flee back inside, was shot in the buttocks with more than 100 buckshot pellets, Brown said.
He said Bedford dropped his weapon, fled the scene and managed to elude police for three months. He was found and arrested in Orlando, Fla. on April 3, 1997.
“During the course of the trial the defendant claimed to have been sleepwalking at the time of the shooting and argued that he could not form the requisite intent to be responsible for the crime,” Brown said. “The jury wisely rejected that contention and found him guilty as charged.”
Mary De Bourbon, a spokeswoman for Brown, said Bedford would be up for parole consideration in 12 1/2 years.
