Medford, Ore. — On Monday, jury members saw the interview Bourne Huddleston gave detectives just hours after his wife died.
Prosecutors say Huddleston shot and killed his wife Kristy two years ago in the home they shared outside of Medford.
“I didn’t do it … I didn’t shoot her,” said Huddleston in a recorded interview with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office just hours after his wife was discovered dead.
Huddleston claimed innocence and claimed his wife shot herself.
During the interview, Huddleston said he was on his way to his girlfriend Lori Roberts’ home and Kristy didn’t want him to leave. He said he spent roughly five nights a week with Roberts.
“I got to leave and pow. It’s quiet. I knew exactly what she did,” said Huddleston.
He claims he turned on the bathroom light to discover she had shot herself. However, it didn’t end there. According to Huddleston, after she was shot, she jumped up and began running around. In previous testimony from a witness with the prosecution, it was said Kristy appeared to have blood stains on her feet. At that point, he said he pushed her back onto the bed and that’s when he said he became scared and knew he’d become a murder suspect.
“I tried to think what am I going to do How am I going to make it look like I didn’t do this,” recounted Huddleston.
However, the detective questioning him – who said he’d been involved in about 100 suicide cases – pointed out inconsistencies in Huddleston’s story.
“I want to believe every word you say but there are some things that don’t make sense,” said Detective Eric Fox with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Fox said some of those inconsistencies were no 911 call, no attempt to save Kristy’s life – despite Huddleston’s EMT training, and then grabbing the gun and trying to dispose of it.
The defense began bringing up their own witnesses to the stand on Monday as well.
One of them, Ken Meneely, a retired Oregon State Police forensic scientist who now owns his own practice. He talked about the way evidence was stored in the case, saying items could have been more carefully handled.
The defense also called Bourne Huddleston’s daughter to the stand. She said she had seen Kristy handle a gun before and used a finger on her left hand as the trigger finger. However, the prosecution pointed out she had only seen Kristy handle a gun a couple times and the gun was switched between her left and right hands.
Huddleston’s daughter also said that Huddleston and Kristy were close to a divorce and that it was possible that Kristy was willing to move to North Carolina by herself.
In addition, the defense questioned Detective Eric Fox about procedures related to releasing a crime scene. Bob Abel, the defense attorney, said in the Oregon State Police handbook it states that a crime scene should not be released until the autopsy is done.
However, the detective said the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is a different organization than OSP with different rules. He said if officers treated all crime scenes the same, nothing would get done. It was the determination of JCSO officers that the crime scene could be released.
In addition the defense brought up the couple’s lifestyle. Huddleston said his wife was not the jealous type and that they both participated in an open marriage. He said the day after she died, they were supposed to leave on a trip to Las Vegas.
Stay with NBC 5 News for continuing coverage of the Huddleston murder trial.
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