Background: The home in Murray, Kentucky, where authorities say the shooting occurred (Google Maps). Inset: Russell Cleaver (Murray Police Department).
A man in Kentucky is accused of shooting his wife in the chest when she arrived at their home to collect her things — before allegedly admitting that he “did something very bad.”
Russell Cleaver has been charged with attempted murder and is being held in the Calloway County Jail, the Murray Police Department announced on Tuesday. The incident occurred on Monday at a home on Sunset Drive in Murray, Kentucky. The Calloway County city is located in the southwest of the state, about 120 miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
The defendant’s wife arrived at the house and went inside to retrieve some items, according to a citation obtained by the Murray Ledger & Times. As she did, Cleaver allegedly shot her in the chest.
The woman reportedly managed to call 911 and tell the dispatcher that her husband had shot her. At about 5 p.m., officers with the Murray Police Department arrived at the home and said they found Cleaver in the front yard. They detained him, and when they asked if he knew why they wanted to interview him, he apparently made the comment about having done “something very bad.”
Inside the house, officers found the victim sitting on the floor with a gunshot wound to her chest. She was brought to a nearby hospital and then flown to another medical center, where she is said to have repeated her account that her husband shot her.
Police were familiar with the suspect and victim, as they had been called to the Sunset Drive home before, according to the court document.
On Tuesday, Cleaver was arraigned virtually in Calloway County District Court, per the local newspaper. When the judge asked him if he wanted to apply for a public defender, the defendant said, “I’ll probably have to hire my own, sir. You wouldn’t let me apply last time.”
“Well, I tried to let you apply, I just probably didn’t grant you one,” the judge replied in an apparent reference to the man not having the financial qualifications for a court-appointed attorney. Cleaver had reportedly pleaded guilty in two prior cases involving DUI and harassment with physical contact.
Cleaver is due in court on Aug. 26 for a preliminary hearing. He has been ordered held in jail on a $250,000 cash bond.
The post Man shoots his wife in the chest and then complains that he can’t hire a public defender just like ‘last time’: Authorities first appeared on Law & Crime.