By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News
Published December 12, 2009
A North Texas man shot his estranged wife with a pistol more than a dozen times while she was on the phone with a 911 operator, authorities said Friday.
He also shot one of her dogs before turning his 9 mm handgun on himself, authorities said.
Galveston County sheriff’s deputies called the deaths in a small house in San Leon a murder-suicide.
Friends who knew the couple still in were shock Friday, unable to reason how such a loving man could be capable of violence.
Luvena Hunt, 23, died inside her residence in the 800 block of 18th Street about 4:15 p.m. Thursday of multiple gunshot wounds, Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Pustilnik said.
Brett Priddy, 23, was found inside the same house dead from a single gunshot wound to the head, Pustilnik said.
The couple seemed very much in love during their 3-1/2-year relationship, Kristin Freeman said. They’d lived together for about five months and were planning a June 4 wedding in Fort Worth, according to Hunt’s online wedding page.
“This isn’t something he would do,” said Freeman, who attended Northwest High School in Justin with Priddy and knew him for seven years.
“He’s a very calm, good person. He would not want to harm anybody.”
The couple met at a restaurant where they worked, but Priddy found work in the oil business with his father on the Gulf Coast. The couple then moved to San Leon.
The couple recently had separated, and Priddy was living with Freeman and her fiance, John Dean, in Newark, which is northwest of Dallas.
Gun Found Near Body
Deputies found a semi-automatic pistol near Priddy’s body, Tuttoilmondo said.
“The woman calls 911, and it was a very chilling 911 call,” Tuttoilmondo said. “The estranged husband shows up at the house and starts threatening her with the gun. We think he started shooting her while she was still on the phone with the 911 operator.”
Tuttoilmondo said the woman told her husband twice to put the gun down. Background noise made it difficult to know for sure whether sounds on the tape were gunfire, Tuttoilmondo said. Tuttoilmondo intended to analyze the tape again, he said.
Shot more than 12 times
Hunt told authorities her husband was threatening to shoot himself. Deputies arrived within seven minutes of the call, finding Hunt dead of more than a dozen 9-mm shots to her legs, back and torso. Priddy had to have reloaded the gun, sheriff’s office Capt. Barry Cook said.
Investigators were unsure of a motive, Tuttoilmondo said.
“Apparently the two were estranged or had just recently separated,” Tuttoilmondo said. “It’s yet another very tragic result of family violence.”
Dog Also Shot
One of Hunt’s dogs, a pit bull terrier, was between them and was shot in the hind quarters, Tuttoilmondo said.
Animal control services retrieved the dog and another that was hiding in another room, Tuttoilmondo said. The terrier had to be euthanized because of the severity of its injury, he said.
Investigators are unclear how Priddy entered the home, Tuttoilmondo said.
Hunt Was ‘Sweet, Caring’
Freeman said she thought Hunt was working at a hotel. She didn’t know which one.
“She was a very sweet, caring, hardworking person, and she loved Brett with all her heart,” Freeman said. “They were planning on getting married, having kids and everything. They’d been trying.”
Hunt’s wedding page described Priddy, saying he was tall, handsome and challenging. He also was sweet and sensitive, Hunt wrote.
Hunt described herself as a family oriented person who loved animals and eating junk food, but what she loved most was being next to Priddy, she wrote.
He Asked For Gas Money
Priddy told his friends he’d found work in Stephenville. He asked Danny Logan for gas money Tuesday, so he could buy fuel to return from the site.
Logan and Priddy were friends from school. He came to know Hunt when Logan and his wife went on an Oklahoma camping trip. There was no indication of a violent past, Logan said.
“When I heard about it, it shocked me,” Logan said. “I talked to Brett Tuesday night about 10 p.m. He said he was going to his grandmother’s to borrow $40 to get to the rig 20 miles south of Stephenville.”
Clothing, Shoes Left Behind
After talk of going to Stephenville, Dean and Freeman found Priddy’s clothes, work shoes and toiletries in his room, things he wouldn’t have left if he went to a job.
Dean heard conflicting stories of why the couple split. Freeman said she’d seen Priddy’s 9 mm at her house. He’d even tried to return the weapon to the person he’d bought it from, she said.
“He had made comments, saying ‘if she cheated on me, I’d shoot her and the other guy,’” Freeman said. “We didn’t believe it. He wouldn’t do something like that.”
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