A 65-year-old Alabama woman was taken into custody on Sunday after police alleged she shot and killed her husband, saying she was irritated with him for “bothering” her.
Authorities say what may have appeared to be a spouse checking in on her following open-heart surgery two weeks earlier instead became, in investigators’ view, the catalyst for a fatal shooting.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) said Sheri Mitchell-Clutts has been charged with ‘murder of a family member using a gun while in the commission of domestic violence’.
According to the agency, deputies were sent to a residence on Duncan Creek Road after Mitchell-Clutts called 911 around 7.30pm Sunday and reported she had shot her husband.
When law enforcement arrived at the Russellville home, they found a man deceased in a chair in the living room.
He was identified as 69-year-old Timothy Clutts.
Officials said Mitchell-Clutts initially claimed her husband had acted in a threatening manner throughout the day, but later provided a different account of what happened.
A spokesperson for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office told People: “It is our belief that Mr Clutts was coming into the bedroom to check on his wife due to her having open-heart surgery recently.
“She stated that Timothy had come in there one time, ‘poked’ her, and asked if she was hungry. She told him that she was, and he brought her some food.”
Investigators allege she became so frustrated that she retrieved a firearm, anticipating he might return.
When he did not come back, authorities claim she went to find him and shot him while he was seated in his recliner.
Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver told 48Waff: “Her demeanour seemed obviously upset from what little interaction I had with her at the scene, but you never know what’s going through somebody’s mind.
“There’s a number of cases where someone does something like this you’re actually having to track them down and find them and build evidence based on the scene and in this situation, she was pretty open.
“You know, which leads us to a bunch of questions like what was going on with her or him.”
Oliver also noted that, over the past six years, there had been no prior police responses to the couple’s residence.
Even so, the sheriff’s office said the investigation remains active as they work to clarify the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Deputies recovered the handgun believed to have been used, which they said was located on top of a cooler inside the house.
Mitchell-Clutts is being held in the Franklin County Jail without bond. Officials have not said whether she has entered a plea.