An Upshur County jury has found a woman guilty of murdering her husband, after finding two different claims she had made as to how her 10th husband met his demise to be faulty, as reported by the Tyler Paper from East Texas.
Evidence presented in court included one videotape of the defendant, S.M., stating that a relative killed her husband, and a second videotape, recorder earlier, she claimed that her husband, G.M., had attacked her with a gun and it discharged accidentally.
The first videotape shown was recorded on March 6. The second tape was recorded by Upshur County Fire Marshal P.S. on the day of G.M.'s death, on August 30.
In the August 30 tape S.M. is heard saying that G.M. "tried to kill me" by putting a pistol in her mouth. During the course of the incident, according to S.M., G.M. slammed her down and the gun discharged, killing him by mistake.
G.M. was discovered – his body had been burnt – in his pickup truck just outside of the couple's residence. An autopsy revealed that he had not died due to his burns, but instead had been a victim of homicidal violence. Numerous gunshot wounds were found on the victim and bloodstains were found throughout the home's master bedroom.
The August 30 tape taken by P.S. records S.M. stating that the couple had argued after dropping of their children at Ore City School that morning.
According to P.S., once the two returned home G.M. "grabbed me by the hair of the head, slammed me down in the bed, and told me I wasn't going anywhere… the gun went off. I don't know what happened. … I didn't have it."
S.M. claimed that she was only "trying to get away" from her husband and did not intentionally shoot him.
On the same tape S.M. stated that a relative – the same one she would implicate in the other videotape – was asleep during the incident.
On the 911 tape that jurors heard in court, S.M. makes another claim, that her husband's truck was on fire and she did not know where he was. S.M. later said that she had doused her dead husband with gasoline in his truck and set him on fire because she didn't want to discredit him – allegedly due to G.M. being a minister.
R.M., G.M.'s former wife, testified that in the 16 years they were married he was never violent.
One of S.M.'s former husbands, R.C., testified that the two had been married twice and S.M. had abruptly divorced him both times while he had been out of town working.
Another man that S.M. had an affair with testified that she bit his arm when he broke it off with her and, fifteen days before G.M.'s death, he had another sexual encounter with her.
The Upshur County District Attorney, Billy Byrd, told the judge that he believed that S.M.'s motive for murdering her husband was due to "sleeping with several men" while Mr. G.M. "was walking out the door" on their marriage.
Whether you are facing a charge so serious as murder or not, you still require the best defense possible. Contact a criminal defense attorney for help with your own case right away!
