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South Carolina bookie Brett Parker, on trial for allegedly killing his wife, testified for nearly three hours Friday.
“No,” Brett Parker when grilled about killing his wife, Tammy Jo Parker. “That’s crazy.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he would respond when asked again.
Parker was charged in the April 13, 2012 murder at his home in Columbia, South Carolina.
Prosecutors allege the sports bookie and gambler wanted to escape mounting debt and a rocky marriage.
Parker also is accused of killing his betting clerk, Bryan Capnerhurst.
Accounts of his testimony were published in the Herald:
Parker said he was using the downstairs bathroom when Capnerhurst came to the house, and that Parker instructed him to go to an office on the second floor. He next heard gunshots and ran out of the bathroom to find Capnerhurst waiting at the top of the stairs with a gun pointed in his direction.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Parker said. “I was panicked. I said, ‘What are you doing?’”
Capnerhurst ordered Parker to a safe in the attic, pointing the gun at him as they walked.
“As we walked by the office, I could see Tammy’s feet sticking out of the bathroom,” Parker said.
But on the walk to the attic, Parker said he made a decision.
“I’m walking with a gun at my back, but when I was walking to the safe I made the decision that it was me or him,” he said.
Parker said he had a loaded .410 Taurus revolver called “The Judge” hidden under a blanket on top of the safe.
“I grabbed it and immediately turned, and I kept pulling the trigger,” he said.
After shooting Capnerhurst, Parker said he jumped over his clerk’s body and ran to check on his wife.
“It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen,” he said as he started to cry.
The defendant testified on his own defense. The trial and closing arguments resume on Tuesday (May 28).
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
