A Victorian man who gunned down a burglar at his factory has been found not guilty of murder, but a jury has accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Ivan Joe D'Angelo, 39, shot Wade Vandenberg in the forehead from a window in the loft of his Thomastown factory in March last year.
A Victorian Supreme Court jury on Thursday found D'Angelo not guilty of murder, but accepted his plea of guilty to Mr Vandenberg's manslaughter.
D'Angelo awoke just after 2am to find Mr Vandenberg and two other men with bolt cutters at the gate of his panel beating factory.
During his trial, prosecutor Anne Hassan said D'Angelo was an experienced gun handler who had shot to kill, lining up Mr Vandenberg with the telescopic sight on his rifle.
She told the court he was a careful shooter and licensed gun owner who had experience hunting animals with his firearms.
But D'Angelo maintained he never intended to shoot his victim.
The trial heard he told police he had attempted to fire a warning shot into the ground.
In a phone call with his brother minutes after firing the shot, D'Angelo told him: "I panicked. I freaked out."
The matter will come before the court again on October 7 for a pre-sentence hearing.
D'Angelo was remanded in custody.
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