January 8, 1981

Defendant did not intend to shoot anyone

      Mary Louella Wilson, 47, Wheel Estates, told the jury in her voluntary manslaughter trail Wednesday: “I had no intention of shooting anyone, anytime.”  Mrs. Wilson, charged with the March 24, 1980 shooting death of her husband, Jimmie Bob Wilson, 47, testified in her own defense Wednesday afternoon as defense attorney Larry Combs began his case.  By 10:15 a.m. today, both the prosecution and defense had completed their introduction of evidence in the trail.  Judge Larry McKinney scheduled final arguments for 1 p.m. and expected the case to reach the jury for deliberation by 3 p.m.  Mrs. Wilson told the jury she and her husband were discussing how to mount a scope on her .22 caliber rifle the night of the fatal shooting.  Mrs. Wilson said she held the gun up and asked her husband how to set the safety switch.  She pushed the button as he told her, she said.  “Then he said to pull the trigger and I pulled it,” she said, and the gun accidentally discharged.  Mrs. Wilson testified she did not know the gun was loaded, and said she did not know how to load the weapon.  She had enjoyed target shooting a few years before she met and married Wilson, she said, and the couple was thinking of taking up the pastime again. She said there was “a little” unrest in the home while Terry Wilson, 21, Wilson’s son, was living there, but she denied the younger Wilson’s testimony that she and her husband argued the night of the shooting.

         Mrs. Wilson, who called herself a “non-drinking alcoholic,” admitted to taking “half a shot” of whiskey that night for some unknown reason.”  Prosecutor D. Charles Gantz had Mrs. Wilson re-enact the shooting Wednesday with Lt. John E. Lasiter of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department posing as Wilson.  With Mrs. Wilson holding the gun approximately the way she did just before the shooting, Gantz noted that the bullet would strike Lasiter just above the hip, while the bullet that killed Wilson struck the victim’s upper rib cage.  Lasiter is about ¾ of an inch taller than Wilson.
 

Rev. Tobey

         Johnson Circuit Judge Larry McKinney overruled a motion by Combs for a mistrial Wednesday and let stand the testimony of the Rev. Robert Tobey, the pastor of Calvary Southern Baptist Church in Greenwood, who was with Mrs. Wilson just after the shooting.  Tobey said Wednesday morning that he was called to the Wilson’s mobile home to “comfort and console” Mrs. Wilson.  He said Mrs. Wilson seemed “remorseful” and “sorry,” and was blurting out statements here and there” while they talked.  Tobey testified that Mrs. Wilson told him, “I guess they’ll put me in jail and arrest me,” and “Well, I’m guilty.”  Under Combs’ cross examination, Tobey said Mrs. Wilson appeared in “great distress” after the incident.  Combs asked if Tobey believed Mrs. Wilson intended to shoot her husband.  “In my opinion, no sir, I don’t,” the minister said.

         In a hearing last July Combs had challenged plans to have Tobey testify in the trial.  He said the statements from Mrs. Wilson were made in a religious, counseling atmosphere “in the mind of the defendant,” even though other people were present in the room during their discussion.  McKinney ruled in July that the statements were “not made in obedience to a religious duty or obligation” and thus allowed Tobey to testify.  Gantz asked Tobey Wednesday if he remembered Mrs. Wilson saying “He (Wilson) asked me to pull the trigger, and I did.”  Combs objected, saying Gantz had made “leading, inflammatory and prejudicial statements” before the jury, and called for the mistrial.  But McKinney, after dismissing the jury for a brief hearing, allowed the trial to continue, ruling that Gantz was trying to refresh Tobey’s memory of his testimony in the July hearing.  After the jury was brought back into the courtroom, Tobey testified Mrs. Wilson had told him her husband said “go ahead and shoot me,” but the minister said Mrs. Wilson did not indicate her response.  During testimony in the trial this morning, David McDaniel, a White River Township firefighter, told the jury he heard Mrs. Wilson say over her husband’s body, “Honey, don’t die – I would never hurt you.”  McDaniel was one of several firefighters and emergency medical technicians summoned to the Wilson residence the morning of the fatal shooting.  Another White River firefighter, Jerry Harrington, said he observed Mrs. Wilson “laying across the body” of her husband and it appeared she was trying to revive him.  The Rev. Gordon W. Paschall told the jury he believed Mrs. Wilson “has a reputation for honesty.”  A Baptist minister, Pascall said Mrs. Wilson has attended his Wheel Estates mission since May 1980.  Mrs. Wilson initially was charged with murder following the March 24 fatal shooting of her husband.  However, a Johnson County Grand Jury returned an indictment on voluntary manslaughter April 15.  The grand jury reached its decision on the lesser charge after determining evidence in the case was not substantial to warrant a murder charge.  The six member grand jury delivered the indictment following several days of closed hearings.
 
 

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