Military Husband Makes Bombshell Statement About Wife’s Death

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: So, I want to talk to you a little bit about some of your testimony. You were asked, probably no fewer than 15 times, the emotions you were feeling after you found your wife dead and dumped her body. You described deception, right? [00:00:22] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:00:23] Speaker 1: You described guilt. [00:00:24] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:00:25] Speaker 1: You described disgust. [00:00:26] Speaker ?: Yes, ma'am. [00:00:27] Speaker 1: You described shame. [00:00:28] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:00:29] Speaker 1: You described anger at yourself. Yes, ma'am. You described betrayal. Yes, ma'am. You described fear. Yes, ma'am. Substantial fear. Yes, ma'am. You described stress. Yes, ma'am. You described exhaustion. [00:00:40] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:00:41] Speaker 1: In all of the times you were asked, you never once said grief, did you? [00:00:45] Speaker 2: I did not, but I did say loss. [00:00:47] Speaker 1: Okay. You never said sadness, did you? [00:00:50] Speaker 2: I said emptiness. [00:00:52] Speaker 1: Okay. You testified that you went through this elaborate lie of your wife being missing and telling everybody that she was missing because otherwise people would assume the worst. [00:01:08] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:01:09] Speaker 1: What's the worst? [00:01:11] Speaker 2: The situation I'm in now. [00:01:14] Speaker 1: What is the worst? [00:01:18] Speaker 2: Going to jail. [00:01:19] Speaker 1: They would assume that you murdered your wife? [00:01:30] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:01:31] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:01:32] Speaker 1: And you have testified that after you were at Willowa, essentially, you have no memory of the evening? [00:01:41] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:01:42] Speaker 1: Okay. That gun's a loud gun to shoot? [00:01:45] Speaker 2: Say again? [00:01:46] Speaker 1: That gun is a loud gun to shoot? [00:01:49] Speaker 2: I mean, relatively to a normal person, yes. [00:01:54] Speaker 1: Okay. What do you mean, to a normal person? [00:02:02] Speaker 2: To someone who didn't shoot artillery, say the sound of a nine mil is loud, but. [00:02:12] Speaker 1: And you went to bed next to your wife? [00:02:18] Speaker 2: I can't tell you for sure because I don't remember. Okay. [00:02:24] Speaker 1: And you have no idea what happened until the next morning? Yes, ma'am. Despite the neighbor, more than, you know, 80 feet away, hearing that weapon. Is that an argument in? [00:02:35] Speaker ?: Unruled. Okay. [00:02:37] Speaker 1: How do you know, sir, that she didn't confront you with those Instagram and Snapchat messages? And you didn't put the gun to her head and tell her you were going to kill her? How do you know that you didn't pull the trigger? [00:02:53] Speaker 2: I don't. [00:02:54] Speaker 1: Okay. You don't know? [00:02:56] Speaker 2: No, ma'am. [00:02:57] Speaker 1: You want the jury to believe that she did this to herself? Objection. [00:03:02] Speaker 2: Overruled. It's not up to me what the jury believes. [00:03:06] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:03:07] Speaker 1: Despite the fact that she was otherwise happy in your marriage. Yes. [00:03:13] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:03:13] Speaker 1: And planning for her future. [00:03:15] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:03:15] Speaker 1: And your future. [00:03:17] Speaker 2: Yeah. [00:03:18] Speaker 1: And tried to have a good evening with you on your birthday. And had forgiven you for text message infidelity in the past. Right? [00:03:29] Speaker 2: Yeah. [00:03:29] Speaker 1: Okay. So you don't know that you didn't kill her. [00:03:34] Speaker 2: Can you restate that question? [00:03:37] Speaker 1: You don't know that you didn't kill her? [00:03:45] Speaker 2: I'm not sure I answer that. There's a lot of do's and don'ts. It's just a complicated... [00:03:49] Speaker 1: Do you know if you pulled the trigger, sir? [00:03:51] Speaker 2: I do not. [00:03:52] Speaker 1: Okay. Do you agree that Soraya wasn't drunk? [00:04:01] Speaker 2: I don't remember much from that night. [00:04:03] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:04:04] Speaker 1: Would you agree that up until the part you can remember, she was the least drunk of your group? [00:04:12] Speaker 2: Her or someone else I was with us, yeah. [00:04:15] Speaker 1: Who's someone else? Let's be specific. [00:04:17] Speaker 2: One of my friends, Zach. [00:04:19] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:04:19] Speaker 1: So her or Zach were the most sober? Yes, ma'am. [00:04:22] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:04:23] Speaker 1: And was Soraya taking care of you? [00:04:25] Speaker 2: From what I've been told, yeah. [00:04:26] Speaker 1: Okay. Do you recall her helping you to the gaslight? I do not. Do you recall her helping you into the Uber? [00:04:34] Speaker 2: I do not. [00:04:35] Speaker 1: And into the house? [00:04:36] Speaker 2: I do not. [00:04:37] Speaker 1: Okay. You kept that gun loaded? [00:04:51] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:04:51] Speaker 1: With a bullet in the chamber? [00:04:53] Speaker 2: I did. [00:04:53] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:04:55] Speaker 1: What do you have to do to fire it? [00:05:00] Speaker 2: Take the safety off and pull the trigger. [00:05:02] Speaker 1: How do you take the safety off? [00:05:03] Speaker 2: It's a thumb switch. [00:05:05] Speaker 1: And pull the trigger? [00:05:07] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:05:07] Speaker 1: Once? So I want to get to, because you don't remember anything about her death, I want to get to the morning when you wake up. Okay. You were soaked in blood? [00:05:23] Speaker 2: I was not. [00:05:24] Speaker 1: Okay. You've seen the photographs of the mattress? I have. And you were laying in bed with her? Yes, ma'am. Okay. You didn't call 911? Correct. You didn't take life-saving measures? No, I did not. Okay. You didn't run outside and ask for help? No. You didn't call her mom? I did not. You didn't call her best friend? [00:05:45] Speaker 2: No. [00:05:46] Speaker 1: You didn't call her command? [00:05:47] Speaker 2: No. [00:05:48] Speaker 1: You started planning how to protect yourself? [00:06:02] Speaker 2: I wouldn't phrase it that way, but... [00:06:04] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:06:05] Speaker 1: You started planning how to dispose of her body? [00:06:10] Speaker 2: I started planning on what I was going to do next. [00:06:12] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:06:13] Speaker 1: And the first thing you did is you went to the Alaska Bush Company homepage, right? [00:06:17] Speaker 2: I don't remember doing that, but... [00:06:20] Speaker 1: Were you looking for a potential other alibi or excuse, some other thing you could blame her death on? [00:06:27] Speaker 2: I can't tell you what was going through my mind because I don't really remember looking that up. [00:06:32] Speaker 1: You mapped to the Castle Megastore before you texted her in to work? [00:06:39] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:06:40] Speaker 1: Why'd you do that? [00:06:40] Speaker 2: I can't really tell you because I don't remember. [00:06:43] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:06:45] Speaker 1: Again, were you planning some other potential excuse for what had happened for her? [00:06:50] Speaker 2: At that point, I hadn't had a plan together. [00:06:55] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:06:56] Speaker 1: But you started getting the plan together when you texted her work. [00:07:01] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:07:01] Speaker 1: And you texted Nadia Jones, her immediate manager. [00:07:06] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:07:07] Speaker 1: And you told her that she had food poisoning. You texted her as Soraya. [00:07:11] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:07:12] Speaker 1: And you told her that she had food poisoning. [00:07:15] Speaker 2: I did. [00:07:15] Speaker 1: And that she wouldn't be into work today. [00:07:17] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. [00:07:18] Speaker 1: And she told you to call Craig or message Craig. [00:07:22] Speaker 2: I believe so. [00:07:23] Speaker 1: Okay. And you didn't know that Soraya had Craig's number saved in her phone under a different name. I did not. Okay. So you didn't call or text Craig. Right. [00:07:36] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:07:39] Speaker 1: What was the first thing you did to clean up her body? [00:07:53] Speaker 2: Clean the surrounding areas. [00:07:55] Speaker 1: Does that mean the floor? [00:07:56] Speaker 2: Clean the surrounding areas in the bedroom. The floor. [00:07:59] Speaker 1: When did you discover the gun? [00:08:04] Speaker 2: That would have been after I saw that she was, my wife was dead with a gunshot wound. [00:08:11] Speaker 1: You didn't say on direct examination, where was it? Do you remember? [00:08:16] Speaker 2: I do not. [00:08:17] Speaker 1: Okay. So you can't even tell the jury that it was near her? [00:08:19] Speaker 2: I cannot. [00:08:20] Speaker 1: Was it in the bathroom? [00:08:22] Speaker 2: I don't know. [00:08:22] Speaker 1: Was it on the floor? [00:08:23] Speaker 2: I don't know. [00:08:24] Speaker 1: Was it on the dining room table? [00:08:26] Speaker 2: I don't know. [00:08:28] Speaker 1: You remember finding her deceased, but don't remember where you found the gun? [00:08:34] Speaker 2: Yes. [00:08:35] Speaker ?: Okay. [00:08:36] Speaker 1: Did you clean the gun? [00:08:38] Speaker 2: I don't know. [00:08:40] Speaker ?: Okay.