Pasco woman convicted of shooting teen over bad joke

NEW PORT RICHEY — Jurors deliberated for less than an hour this morning before finding Christine Lightfoot guilty of shooting a teenager who had cracked a joke about her ex-boyfriend.

Lightfoot, 37, was convicted of aggravated battery. She faces 20 years in prison when she is sentenced next month.

On Jan. 15, 2008, prosecutors said, Lightfoot and two of her teenage children were hanging out at home in Moon Lake, shooting pool in the garage with a friend, Russell Litten.

Litten, then 16, was riding around the driveway on a scooter and made a joke to Lightfoot about her former boyfriend who went by the nickname Scooter.

"Does this remind you of anybody?" Litten said.

Lightfoot, Litten testified, was angered by the teasing and told her 13-year-old son to go retrieve a gun from the house. The boy returned with a .22-caliber rifle, which Lightfoot took, cocked and fired at Litten's abdomen.

She gave authorities varying accounts of what happened, including that the gun went off accidentally when it fell off a bench.