LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a former Fordyce police chief’s first-degree murder conviction in the 2007 shooting of his wife.
Paul Douglas Gill, chief during the early 1990s, was convicted in September 2008 by a jury of nine women and three men in Union County Circuit Court. He also was found guilty of committing the felony with a firearm. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
His wife, Sandra Kaye Gill, 54, was found dead in their bed at their home in Fordyce on March 22, 2007. She had a bullet hole in her head and a .38-caliber pistol beside her left arm. She was a Sunday School teacher and a grandmother.
Paul Gill telephoned 911 and said he had found his wife dead in their bed in a pool of blood. She was his fourth wife.
At the trial, Gill testified that he did not kill his wife but that she had been frustrated and “worn out” from going to college at Southern Arkansas University and working at Ouachita County Medical Center.
The prosecution noted the absence of any suicide note and the presence of gunpowder residue on Gill’s clothes.
On appeal, Gill argued that the evidence was not sufficient to support the verdict. He maintained that “the unconnected circumstantial evidence” didn’t show whether the death was suicide or homicide, nor did it show beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it.
The court said the state’s experts testified that the victim was murdered and that the crime scene was manipulated before investigating officers arrived.
Neighbors heard a shot shortly after 3 a.m., and Gill arrived at work later than usual, the court said. There was testimony that Sandra Gill was terrified of guns, that the couple argued about a large unpaid bill the day before her death, that the night before her death she and a classmate planned to study together, and that she anticipated earning a master’s degree and having a new grandchild, the court said.
The court said the state’s evidence disparaged Gill’s suicide theory, noting the testimony that his wife didn’t know how to use a gun and the presence of a gun in her left hand made a straight shot from right temple to left temple virtually impossible or exceedingly difficult and unlikely.
“The evidence in this case, taken as a whole, supports Mr. Gill’s convictions for first-degree murder and using a firearm in committing the offense,” the court said in a ruling signed by Judge Rita W. Gruber.
Gill also argued that the trial court erred by allowing articles of clothing to be introduced into evidence, allowing the testimony of his third wife, and refusing to grant a mistrial. The appeals court rejected each of those arguments.
Judges John Robbins and Courtney Henry agreed with Gruber.
At the appeals court, the case is CACR 09-368, Paul Douglas Gill v. State of Arkansas.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/24/2010