An 88-year-old Oregon man has been prosecuted by an amazing jury for homicide in the demise of his 87-year-old spouse, an executing he advised police he proposed to be homicide self-destruction due to medical issues, the Mail Tribune reports.
James Edward Wheeler, who was summoned Friday on a charge of second-degree murder, allegedly shot Joan Marcella Wheeler in the head with a 20-check shotgun he’d claimed since he was 12 years of age, the paper said. At that point, he went to the pantry and shot himself.
People on call showed up on the scene at the Wheelers’ home in Medford not long before 9 a.m. Monday and discovered Joan Wheeler dead and her significant other with genuine wounds. He was taken to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center for a medical procedure and captured later in the day.
Wheeler told police that they had both been experiencing “clinical issues” and that he’d concluded they would be “lucky to be dead than alive,” as per court reports documented by Jackson County investigators.
Wheeler showed up at the arraignment hearing using shut circuit TV wearing an enemy of self-destruction piece of clothing and sitting in a wheelchair, the paper said.
He was being held without bond because, under Oregon law, those accused of first-or second-degree murder can’t be delivered from prison “when the verification is clear or the assumption solid that the individual is liable.”
