Mental abuse may have been root of shooting
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008
Walter
BENTONVILLE - Myrtle Walter claims she shot and killed her husband because she was "at her wits' end"due to his mental abuse.
Walter, 75, is being held without bond in the Benton County Jail. She was arrested for capital murder after Rogers police found her husband dead in their residence at 1105 S. 12 th Place.
Police went to the location in response to a 2: 35 a.m. Saturday 911 call from a woman claiming her mother had been in an accident.
Rogers police officer Tiffany Terral responded with medics from the Rogers Fire Department and found Paul Walter, 74 dead, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
Walter's body will be sent to the Arkansas Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.
Laura Tucker, Myrtle Walker's daughter, came to the home after receiving a call from her mother, the affidavit reflects.
Myrtle Walker told Terral she had an argument with her husband and she shot him, according to court documents.
When questioned by Rogers police detective Brian Hanna, Myrtle Walter claimed her husband was mentally abusing her, the affidavit states. She claimed she was "at her wits' end. "Her husband wanted to have sex, but she did not want to, according to court documents.
During the interview Myrtle Walter said she could no longer take being mentally abused, the affidavit states.
Earlier that evening Walter said she drank four or five beers. Her husband also had been drinking, according to court documents. While sitting on the porch, Walter said she told herself she could not longer take it and that it had to end, according to court documents.
Myrtle Walker later went into the bedroom and took a handbox and then went into the bathroom, ac- cording to court documents. She retrieved a gun and found it was loaded, the affidavit states. She went back in the bedroom and shot her husband once, but also fired two more times after she saw him move, court documents reflect.
She told Hanna she was aiming at her husband's head for each of the shots, according to the affidavit. Myrtle Walter said she did not know where she shot her husband because the bedroom light was off, according to court documents.
Myrtle Walter said her husband was asleep and his back was facing her. She claimed she was sorry for shooting her husband, but she was relieved he was gone, according to court documents.
Police found. 357-caliber revolver lying on the bed.
Paul Walter was shot three times - one bullet grazed his face and the other two were in the shoulder and neck region.
Myrtle Walter made her initial court appearance Sunday morning during a bond hearing at the Benton County Jail.
Walter told District Judge Jeff Conner she's retired and has lived in Rogers for 45 years.
Deputy Prosecutor Stephanie McLemore, citing the seriousness of the case, requested Walter be held without bond.
Kim Webber, Walter's attorney, asked the court to set a reasonable bond for her client - a mother of five, grandmother and great-grandmother. Two of Walter's daughters attended the bond hearing.
Webber wanted a bond set in order to get Walter out of jail and then admitted to a facility for inpatient treatment of a mental illness.
Webber told the judge Walter was not a danger to herself or to anyone in the community.
"She's not a flight risk," Webber said. "She has nowhere else to go."
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