A 34-year-old Hayes resident was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary last week for involuntary manslaughter. 

Chad Brian Sayers was charged in connection with the shooting death of his 58-year-old mother, Cheryl Barnes Sayers, last year at the Hayes home the two shared. 

On Sept. 22, 2017, Gloucester Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the report of a gunshot victim at the Sayers’ residence in the 7000 block of Chapman Drive. They found Cheryl Sayers had been shot at the home and she died shortly afterward at a local hospital.   

GSO Chief Investigator Jamie Sharp said Sayers had been adjusting a handgun in his waistband when the gun discharged inside the house. The bullet fatally struck Cheryl Sayers, who was also inside of the house.

“It was clearly an accident,” Sharp said. “There was nothing to make us believe it was intentional.”

Sayers pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on April 3 and his sentencing ...