A Berks County jury convicted Daniel Baumert of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Dawson Mohl.

Involuntary manslaughter is the conviction both outlets reported. It is not a murder verdict. The year of the shooting is not printed the same way, and neither is the safety the stories say failed. Nov. 20 is the date WFMZ said the district attorney gave. The Eagle said November and did not print the day. The sentence has not been imposed.

The Reading Eagle reported Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that a Berks County jury on Thursday found Daniel Baumert, 25, of Tilden Township, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of recklessly endangering another person in the shooting death of Dawson Mohl, 24, of Leesport. The Eagle reported sentencing is scheduled in November and did not print the day. WFMZ reported District Attorney John Adams said jurors found Baumert, of Hamburg, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and of recklessly endangering another person, and that Adams said sentencing is Nov. 20. WFMZ did not print three counts. The Eagle called him a Tilden Township man. WFMZ called him a Hamburg man.

The date of the shooting is not the same sentence in the two stories. The Eagle's verdict story says Mohl was killed Dec. 14, 2025, shortly before midnight, in the basement of Baumert's home in the 1300 block of Hex Highway. WFMZ says the shooting was just after midnight on Dec. 14, 2024, at a home in that same block, and that state police described it as a negligent homicide. The Eagle's own charging story, published May 19, 2025, described a December killing and a Friday arraignment that spring. A Dec. 14, 2025, death would fall after that charging story. WFMZ's 2024 date fits that earlier Eagle story. The Eagle's Oct. 23 verdict story still says 2025.

Who was in the basement, and which safety failed, are also printed differently. The Eagle reported five young men were drinking beer and whiskey and looking at Baumert's M1911 pistols, that he and Mohl each had a .45-caliber pistol, that he had put his loaded gun in a safe, and that Mohl asked to see it. The Eagle reported he told troopers he pointed the loaded weapon at Mohl with his hand around the grip and that it discharged as he handed it over. The Eagle reported investigators said holding it that way disengaged the grip safety, so the gun could fire if the trigger was pulled. WFMZ reported three men, including Baumert, were at the home with Mohl, that they had been drinking beer after dinner, and that a witness said the room lit up and Baumert was standing over Mohl in a chair. WFMZ reported Baumert told officials the thumb safety was not engaged and the gun discharged as he handed it over. The Eagle reported troopers found Mohl in a reclining chair with a chest wound and that a deputy coroner pronounced him dead. WFMZ reported the Berks County coroner pronounced him dead at the scene. WFMZ reported court documents said Mohl and the other two men were excluded as contributors on the gun. The Eagle's verdict story did not print that DNA line.

The Eagle reported Mohl was a son of longtime Berks police officer Ronald Mohl and a graduate of Camp Cadet Troop L, a summer camp that introduces children in Berks, Lebanon and Schuylkill counties to law enforcement work. That is the paper's account of who he was. The guilty verdicts are what the Eagle and WFMZ reported the jury returned. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.