Patricia Darlene Yaeger died as a result of a gunshot wound she received to her neck. Her husband of 30 years, appellant Trammell Starr Yaeger, was arrested for, charged with, and convicted of her murder.1 He now appeals from the judgment of conviction entered against him.
1. The State presented evidence that Mrs. Yaeger had filed for divorce and was living with her twin sister. The victim, her sister, her stepbrother, and another male relative went to the marital home to remove Mrs. Yaeger’s possessions. After an hour of loading furniture into a leased truck, the victim’s stepbrother and the other male relative left. The victim’s sister testified that she and her sister were at the point of leaving when appellant told the victim he could not live without her, pulled her around, told her he was going to kill her, and pushed her toward a couch, causing her to fall. The witness saw appellant straddle the victim, point a gun at the victim’s head, and pull the trigger. In a tape-recorded telephone conversation with emergency personnel several minutes later, appellant stated he had killed his wife. During an interview with law-enforcement investigators later that day, appellant stated he had planned to kill his wife if she would not stay with him and had put a loaded gun in his waistband before she and the other relatives arrived to move her possessions. At trial, appellant testified that the victim had hugged or kissed him as she and her sister were leaving and he suggested that they talk. She turned around, kicking his right foot and stepping on it. He grabbed her to keep from falling and they hit the couch. Somehow, his gun got from his waistband to his hand and it went off, fatally wounding the victim. Appellant deduced that he must have shot her from the fact that “the next thing he knew there was a puddle of blood at her head. . . .” The evidence presented by the State was sufficient to authorize the jury to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 281, 61 LE2d 560 1979.
