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Provo • After Conrad Mark Truman's wife was fatally shot at their Orem home, Truman told conflicting stories about her death and even threatened the life of a responding police officer.
But defense attorney Ron Yengich told a jury on Wednesday during opening statements in Truman's murder trial that the man'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 watching a movie that night, when Heidy Truman went to take a bath, Yengich said.
At some point, she left the bathroom and was shot in the head while standing in a hallway near their kitchen.
Prosecutors say it was her husband who pulled the trigger. But Yengich offered another theory to jurors Wednesday: that Heidy Truman accidentally shot herself.
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 may have had the gun with her when she left the bathroom, and could have slipped and fell — her feet still wet from her bath — and the gun went off.
Both the defense and prosecution agree that it is unlikely that Heidy Truman killed herself. Her mother, Janet Wagner, testified on Wednesday that her daughter was making plans for the future and she was never aware that her daughter had suicidal thoughts.
Conrad Truman, 32, is charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstructing justice for allegedly killing 25-year-old Heidy Truman on Sept. 30, 2012.
His motive, prosecutors have claimed, was to collect nearly a million dollars in life insurance benefits.
According to testimony at a December preliminary hearing, Conrad Truman has offered a number of theories of how his wife died.
He told police that she may have killed herself, or that someone outside their Orem home may have shot her. In a Facebook post, he called his wife's death a "complete freak accident" and that "she had a gun in her hand and slipped."
Prosecutors played Conrad Truman's 911 call in court on Wednesday, in which he is yelling, sobbing and hard to understand.
"You f—-ing better get her quick," he tells a dispatcher. Then later, "My wife! My wife!"
"I really don't know what happened. Oh my God," he screams to dispatcher. "She got out of the shower and I heard a pop."
Orem police Sgt. William Crook testified on Wednesday that after he arrived at the couple's home, Conrad Truman became angry and violent when officers told him to back away from his wife so medics could work on her.
"He threatened to kill me, he threatened to kill everyone I know if Heidy died," Crook testified.
Crook said police tried to talk to Conrad Truman, but his statements were confusing, and there was no real timeline the officer could follow.
"Everything he said was so jumbled and mixed up," Crook testified. "He said he was out walking the dog and Heidy had heard somebody behind the house."
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.
Several police officers testified during the preliminary hearing that they thought they were responding to a suicide at the Truman's home. But Conrad Truman's strange, erratic behavior made them consider the home a crime scene.
In 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. Then, according to his initial account recorded by police, Truman heard a loud pop and saw his wife walk out from the bathroom area and collapse on the kitchen floor.
Conrad Truman called 911, and Heidy Truman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died.
Though Conrad Truman claimed someone else shot his wife through a window, 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