An Indiana man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife after he called 911 and reported that she had killed herself.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Stephen Gower, 53, called Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputies to his home, claiming that Christina Gower had shot herself in the head with a short barrel AR-style rifle. When deputies arrived, Gower reportedly told them to “shoot me” or, alternatively, “take me to jail,” the documents says.
Deputies found Christina Gower lying in the doorway between the master bedroom and the kitchen/living room area of the home. They did not see any burns or stippling on her head or face that would indicate a close shot. That was later confirmed by an autopsy, which said that the fatal gunshot came from at least three feet away, making it impossible for the victim to have made the shot, especially with a rifle.
When deputies interviewed the victim’s husband, he said he had found messages on his wife’s phone “indicating that she was talking with other men.” That led to an evening of drinking and “escalating events, including verbal arguments and physical actions, such as breaking a chair and a light fixture in the spare bedroom.”
Gower said that at one point he held the victim down on the kitchen floor by the wrists but denied any further harm and said he damaged the bathroom door at one point. He also said he twice took out a gun — first a handgun and then an AR-style rifle — and held them to his head expressing “suicidal ideation, stating that he had hoped his wife would pull the trigger.”
The affidavit says that Gower changed his story about where he was when he allegedly heard the gunshot that killed his wife, first saying he was in the kitchen and then later in the master bedroom (where she was found) or possibly the bathroom. He explained his “shoot me” and “take me to jail” statements by saying he thought “it would be easier to go to jail than to explain the incident to his children and his wife’s family.”
Gower appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a murder charge, WAVE reported. The judge denied the state’s request for a non-contact order with the victim’s family and told them to seek a restraining order instead.
The accused killer is due in court again on September 16.
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[Featured image: Stephen Gower/Clark County Sheriff’s Office]
