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A jury has awarded $1.49 million to the family of a woman killed when a man set off an 80-year-old cannon to celebrate Independence Day.
Clara Smith, 63, was killed in 1999 by shrapnel from the cannon fired from a yard several lots away. She was hit in the head with a 2-pound piece of metal while playing host to her own party guests.
Ryan Hively, who fired the cannon, was a guest of Smith’s neighbors.
Hively pleaded no contest to reckless discharge of a firearm causing death, and was sentenced in February 2000 to 11 months in jail.
