{"id":5209,"date":"2011-03-01T20:28:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T04:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5209"},"modified":"2011-03-01T20:28:16","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T04:28:16","slug":"manslaughter-trial-karr-said-he-was-unloading-girlfriends-gun-and-it-went-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5209","title":{"rendered":"Manslaughter trial: Karr said he was unloading girlfriend’s gun and it went off"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2011.0228.karr.court_2\"<\/a>

Jesse P. Karr right, sits next to his defense attorney as Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer testifies about the September 2009 fatal shooting of Sara M. Whitson<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS – A jury of eight women and four men began hearing a case yesterday of a fatal shooting in Chehalis the deputy prosecutor suggests comes down to this:<\/p>\n

“An accident is when someone gets hurt accidentally, but (if it’s ) the result of someone else’s reckless behavior, that’s a crime.”<\/p>\n

Jesse P. Karr, now 31, is charged with first-degree manslaughter in the September 2009 death of 28-year-old Sara M. Whitson. He said it happened while he was cleaning her .22 caliber handgun, according to attorneys and police.<\/p>\n

The National Guardsman had just returned home from Iraq about a month earlier and the couple was living together in an apartment on the 1700 block of South Market Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Centralia defense attorney Don McConnell told jurors it is probably one of the saddest cases ever; and the two were very much in love.<\/p>\n

McConnell hinted testimony would show Whitson walked past the barrel of the weapon at the same time it accidentally discharged.<\/p>\n

It took only 10 minutes for both McConnell and Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes to make their opening statements yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. Each described a series of events on Sept. 3, 2009, that were mostly similar, as were the details offered by Chehalis police officers and a firefighter.<\/p>\n

Karr had been sharpening knives for Whitson and offered to clean her .22 caliber Walther Smith and Wesson pistol since he was going to clean his.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Glenn Schaffer and detective Steve Nikander were the first to go inside, with medics right behind them, after the approximately 4 p.m. call to 911.<\/p>\n

Karr opened the door and led them to the upstairs master bedroom where Whitson lay on the floor, her breathing labored, her eyes wide; she was holding a towel on her abdomen.<\/p>\n

Emergency responders picked her up and carried to an ambulance, and she was airlifted to a trauma center.<\/p>\n

There was an empty gun case on the bed, a pistol on the floor next to the right corner of the bed, another pistol in the night stand and a couple knives on the dresser, Nikander said.<\/p>\n

Detective Rick Silva found a .22 shell casing in the bedroom.<\/p>\n

“What he said was he was unloading Ms. Whitson’s firearm and it went off,” Schaffer told the jury.<\/p>\n

“He (said) he was standing at the right corner of the bed facing the window with the gun pointed toward the closet,” Schaffer said.<\/p>\n

Officer Bruce Thompson described two holes and a gunpowder burn on the little finger of Karr’s left hand. Officer Jason Roberts interviewed Karr downstairs.<\/p>\n

Roberts said he asked Karr if he’d gotten in touch with Whitson’s family.<\/p>\n

“I think he said, no, he couldn’t,” Roberts said. “Something like he couldn’t tell (her father) he’d shot his daughter.”<\/p>\n

Karr put his head in his hands and cried, Roberts said.<\/p>\n

“What exactly did he say?” Hayes asked as Roberts reviewed a transcript of his interview.<\/p>\n

“I shouldn’t of shot her, I’m so stupid,” Roberts read.<\/p>\n

A Chehalis police detective learned the following morning Whitson had died during emergency surgery, according to charging documents.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last into Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – A jury of eight women and four men began hearing a case yesterday of a fatal shooting in Chehalis the deputy prosecutor suggests comes down to this: “An accident is when someone gets hurt accidentally, but (if it’s ) the result of someone else’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-5209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5212,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions\/5212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}