BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle
Wendy Shepherd sits in a Sedgwick County court during her preliminary hearing Sept. 8, 2010 where she has been ordered to stand trial after authorities said she shot a man, then pushed him out of a sports utility vehicle in the parking lot of a Wichita hospital. Wendy Shepherd told friends that Jose Vincente Galan-Delgado had been beating her when she grabbed his gun and shot him, witnesses testified today at a preliminary hearing.
Woman, 33, charged in shooting outside hospital
As Davina Smallwood walked out of the emergency room at Via Christi Hospital on Harry on a Sunday morning in June, she said a Chevy Tahoe pulled up not five feet from her.
The passenger door flung open and Smallwood said she heard a gunshot, then saw a man pushed from the vehicle. In Sedgwick County District Court on Wednesday afternoon, Smallwood identified Wendy Shepherd as the woman driving the Tahoe.
Shepherd, 34, told friends that Jose Vincente Galan-Delgado had been beating her when she grabbed his gun and shot him, witnesses testified during a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors pointed out that Galan-Delgado was shot twice — once in front of a house in the 1700 block of South Roosevelt and again in the back of the head at the hospital. Galan-Delgado, 33, later died of his wounds.
Prosecutor Aaron Breitenbach argued that while the first shot to Galan-Delgado might be considered self-defense, the second shot to the head was "an act of homicide."
Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens, noting he is required by law to weigh the evidence at a preliminary hearing in favor of the prosecution, ordered Shepherd to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery.
Shepherd entered a plea of not guilty through her attorney, Terry Beall.
Witness's testimony
Christopher Reynolds said Shepherd was emotionally distraught when she showed up at an apartment where he was staying on South Rock Road the morning of June 13.
"Wendy said she was getting beat up and was tired of being beat up. So she grabbed a gun," Reynolds testified.
It was Galan-Delgado's gun, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said Shepherd told him that Galan-Delgado attacked her in the yard of her apartment in the 1700 block of South Roosevelt.
During a struggle, she grabbed his gun, Reynolds remembered Shepherd telling him. She shot Galan-Delgado, who was known as "Joe" to the acquaintances.
Reynolds said Shepherd said she then drove Galan-Delgado to the hospital. But he reached for the gun, and she shot him again.
Shepherd had bruises all over her body, Reynolds said, mostly on her legs.
What didn't add up, Breitenbach argued, was Galan-Delgado's wound to the back of his head. It didn't suggest an immediate threat for self-defense, the prosecutor said.
Beall pointed out for the defense that Reynolds, and later a police detective, described Shepherd as emotionally upset, and she said she was scared of Galan-Delgado.
Detective's testimony
Wichita homicide detective Tim Relph said Shepherd began talking the moment he entered a police interview room — before he could tell her of her right to remain silent.
But Shepherd gave several different accounts of what happened, Relph said.
She said she shot Galan-Delgado during a fight. She also said she had the gun to keep him from shooting someone else, and shot him when he tried to grab it from her. She said he tried to rape her, and she took his gun during that encounter.
Relph said he found the gun in Reynolds' possession. Reynolds testified Shepherd had given him the gun, and he wanted to sell it.
"Because I was doing drugs and thought I could get some money for it," Reynolds explained from the witness stand.
Reynolds said he'd been doing a lot of drugs earlier this summer, mostly marijuana and methamphetamine.
"I'd done drugs nonstop for months," Reynolds testified.
Relph said test firings of the weapon matched a casing found in the yard on Roosevelt and another in the Tahoe. It also matched bullet fragments found in Galan-Delgado's head.
A security video from the hospital parking lot showed the second shooting, Relph said.
Owens tentatively set trial for November.
Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment