A Carter Lake man will not spend time in jail for shooting and killing a Plattsmouth man. Instead, 23-year-old Shane Hollenbach was sentenced Monday to two years probation for involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor.

Hollenbach was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service teaching firearm safety and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine as well as restitution to the family of 20-year-old Steve Hurd.

Hollenbach was holding a friend's gun at a party in a Council Bluffs apartment near 35th and G streets on October 18th when the gun went off. Hurd was wounded in the chest and died at the hospital during surgery.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said several people at the party, including Hurd, had handled the loaded .22-caliber handgun. He said there was also a cigarette lighter being passed around that looked like a gun. The lighter would ignite whenever the trigger was pressed. He believes Hollenbach may have gotten the two mixed up.

"I don't think it would serve us as taxpayers well to put him in jail,” said Wilber. "I think he can do more good on the outside. I was pleased to see the judge give him the community service with regard to firearm safety."

Hollenbach apologized to the Hurd family in court before the sentence was announced. "I am so sorry for this. I did not mean for this to happen. I'm a good person. I know Steven was a good person. If there was anything in my life that I could do to repay you guys and to tell you how sorry I am, I would do it."

Shirley Harbin, Hurd’s aunt, wanted the sentence to include some jail time. "I think this is sending a huge mixed message to our youth, to society that it's okay to play with guns. If it's an accident, you shoot someone, you walk away and that is not okay."

Hollenbach met with Steven's mother Cindy Hurd after the sentencing. "She was very understanding and just wants him to see if he can make something good come out of this,” said Hollenbach’s attorney, Thomas Lustgraaf. “It's just a horrible situation for everybody."