Jury convicts Pocahontas man who shot ex-wife with bow, arrow

A Cape Girardeau County man was convicted Wednesday of domestic assault and first-degree assault for shooting his ex-wife with a bow and arrow last year.

The five-man, seven-woman jury deliberated an hour and 55 minutes on the charges against Merriel E. Housman Jr. The decision rested on whether jurors believed he acted in defense of his son when he shot his ex-wife in the back Sept. 1 at their shared Pocahontas residence.

Housman faces a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison on the assault conviction and a maximum penalty of seven years for the domestic assault conviction. A sentencing date has not been set. However, Housman's bond was revoked, and he was taken into custody.

Seven witnesses provided evidence for the state in the case against Housman, including his ex-wife, Betty Housman, and son Merriel Housman III.

The defense didn't present any witnesses during the one-day trial, but Malcolm Montgomery, attorney for Housman Jr., argued the case hinged on the reliability of Betty Housman's story.

Betty Housman testified she and her ex-husband argued during a car ride home from Alton, Ill., earlier on Sept. 1, and he threatened to shoot her with his bow and arrow when they got home.

What Betty Housman said contradicted later testimony by her son on a number of points, including whether she'd left the residence to go to the store, whether she told Housman III and his wife to get out and whether she'd complained about him using all the gas in her truck.

Betty Housman also testified that before shooting her with the bow and arrow, her ex-husband had been striking her with a cordless phone and choking her. She retrieved her .22-caliber handgun from the safe in the house when she could get away, intent on leaving, she testified.

"I got the gun for my own protection 'cause his eyes was wild," Betty Housman testified.

Housman III testified he struggled with his mother over control of the gun and that it went off twice.

On cross-examination, Housman III denied telling a detective with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department that he thought his mother was going to shoot him.

According to Housman Jr.'s statement given to a sheriff's department detective, he said he'd grabbed the bow out of a walk-in closet when he heard the gunshots.

"Common sense tells you shots were fired, she was pointing the gun at him and he was begging for his life," Montgomery said during his closing argument. "He did save his son, or he thought he was saving his son."

Travis Sikes, a detective with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, testified he'd found Betty Housman's purse near where she'd been shot and that the leather was stained with blood.

Cape Girardeau County assistant prosecutor Jack Koester argued the bloodstains on the purse showed Betty Housman had intended to leave the residence when she became embroiled in the struggle with her son.

"You don't bring a purse to a gunfight," Koester said during his closing argument.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Pocahontas, MO