An upstate New York man has admitted accidentally shooting his wife to death while he was getting his pistol ready for a hunting trip.

Eric Rosenbrock of Corinth pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide Monday in Saratoga County Court. The 35-year-old man was charged with shooting 34-year-old Ashley Rosenbrock last November while cleaning his .9-mm handgun.

In court Monday, Rosenbrock said he didn’t check if there were bullets in the magazine as he reassembled his gun, and it fired when he racked the slide.

A grand jury indicted Rosenbrock on a manslaughter charge. By pleading guilty to a lesser homicide charge, he avoids the risk of prison and can continue to care for the couple’s three young children.

He’s on paid leave from his high school teaching job.