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Provo • Six hours after his wife had been shot and killed in their Orem home, Conrad Mark Truman told interrogating officers that he loved his wife and didn't kill her.
"I swear to God, I'd never hurt her," Truman said. "I never hit her, ever … I loved her to death."
In a video-recorded statement played for a jury Thursday, Truman told officers that there was an 80 percent chance that Heidy Truman shot herself, and a 20 percent chance that someone shot her through their bathroom window.
The recordings were played during the second day of evidence in Truman's murder trial, which is scheduled to continue through the month.
In the video, Conrad Truman gets increasingly upset as police question his version of events: that he heard a loud pop and saw his wife — who had just taken a bath — walk out of the bathroom and collapse on the kitchen floor.
"Is there any chance you shot your wife?" an officer asked during the interview.
"There's no chance," Conrad Truman replied, "No f—-ing chance!"
"Even an accident?" the officer asks.
"No!" Truman yells.
Before police formally questioned Truman, he sat for about an hour in a room, hanging his head, fidgeting in his chair and playing with his wedding ring.
While waiting, Truman made sporadic, mumbling statements to an officer who was watching him, saying there was "nothing wrong" between him and his wife, Heidy Truman, who had died after being shot in the head.
"We've been married for three years this year," he said. "We'd been doing good. We'd been doing great."
He talked about future plans he had with his wife, and said they had discussed the possibility of having children.
Conrad Truman, 32, is charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstructing justice for allegedly killing his 25-year-old wife the night of Sept. 30, 2012.
His motive, prosecutors have claimed, was to collect nearly a million dollars in life insurance benefits. But Conrad Truman told police during the recorded interview that "he had nothing to gain from a dead wife."
Police began to suspect the man of murder when he told conflicting stories about her death and even threatened the life of a responding police officer.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich told the jury Wednesday during opening statements that Conrad Truman's remarks and odd behavior are not evidence of guilt.
"All of these statements that were made, they are fairly stupid, at least," Yengich said. "But they are under the influence of alcohol."
Truman and his wife were drinking Maker's Mark and had been watching the television shows "Dexter" and "Homeland" before the shooting, according to testimony.
Police testified that blood drawn from Conrad Truman at 5 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2012 — six hours after the shooting — shows he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.07, which is close to the legal limit for driving of 0.08.
Yengich said that at some point during the evening, there had been a suspicious person in the area who may have put the couple on edge. Yengich said Heidy Truman could have accidentally shot herself when she slipped and fell — her feet still wet from her bath.
Both the defense and prosecution agree it is unlikely that Heidy Truman killed herself. Her mother, Janet Wagner, testified Wednesday that her daughter was making plans for the future and she was never aware that her daughter had suicidal thoughts.
On the subject of suicide, Conrad Truman told police during his formal interview, "I just don't know why she would kill herself."
Prosecutors have argued that evidence from the medical examiner — that the gun that killed Heidy Truman was pressed up against her skin when it was fired — ruled out an accidental firing, leaving only suicide or murder. No suicide note was found, and the only other person who was in the home on the day of Heidy Truman's death was her husband.
Inside the house, police found blood everywhere — in the kitchen where Heidy Truman's naked body lay, in the front entry, the living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and on Truman himself.
Conrad Truman told investigators that he was in another room when his wife was shot. The two had bickered that night, and she went into the bathroom to take a shower, he allegedly told police. He said that she finished showering about 20 minutes later, while he was watching TV in the living room.
That's when Truman told police he heard a pop and saw his wife collapse and begin to bleed from her head.
Conrad Truman called 911, and his wife was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died.
Conrad Truman claimed someone else shot his wife through a window, but several officers testified at his preliminary hearing that there was no bullet hole anywhere in the home that would indicate she was shot from outside the home.
Orem police Detective Tom Wallace testified last year that the shot that killed Heidy Truman came from Conrad Truman's gun.
However, the state crime lab could not identify any definitive fingerprints on the gun, Wallace testified.
Twitter: @jm_miller