Man says gun accidentally fired in fatal Chesapeake shooting

CHESAPEAKE

Sounding distraught and sobbing, Eric Spencer Baugher kept asking the police dispatcher for an officer, but he wouldn't or couldn't say why.

Finally he blurted, "I just shot my girlfriend,"

A Circuit Court jury Tuesday heard Baugher's 911 call late on Jan. 24 to report what he says was the accidental killing of Karen Kittell in her Greenbrier home, plus a nearly hour long video of him in the back of a police car, alternately sobbing, moaning and asking how Kittell was.

Tuesday's testimony ended with the 36-year-old defendant on the stand, describing a day of heavy drinking and finding Kittell, 46, sitting on her bathroom floor holding a gun to her head.

"I tried to take the gun from Ms. Kittell and it went off," Baugher said. "And I ran to call 911."

In police statements and earlier testimony, though, Baugher had said Kittell told him the gun never was loaded and she owned no ammunition, a point Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Heather Shelton pressed.

"So why would it bother you that she had an unloaded gun to her head?" she asked.

Earlier, a blood-spatter expert said Kittell, 46, was standing and bent over when she was shot - not sitting down - and fell backward.

Police witnesses said that Baugher cooperated and appeared sober after they arrested him at the house. Baugher said he and Kittell hadn't argued, but that he was extremely drunk.

A friend testified last week that Baugher turned up "stumbling drunk" earlier the same night, venting about an argument with Kittell.

The defense expects to present evidence today that Baugher suffered from "settled insanity," a form of mental illness caused by long-term substance abuse.

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-5221, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com