SAN ANTONIO – In his statement to police on the night he shot his wife to death, Lars Itzo, 49, said he fired one shot, at close range, toward someone he thought was an intruder in the couple’s North Side home.
It wasn’t an intruder, though, it was his wife, Debra Kelly.
The medical examiner explained Thursday that Kelly, 48, died almost instantly from a single shotgun blast to the chest. He also confirmed the shot was fired at close range.
“About 3 to 4 feet,” Dr. William McClain testified. “Like anything else, all of this data is put on a bell curve. There’s always a plus or minus in there, but in a general sense it’s about 3 to 4 feet.”
Itzo told police that the lighting was poor in the home that night.
A friend of Kelly who often had stayed in the home overnight testified about lighting in the home at night.
“I had no problem getting around the house that night with no lights on,” Chad Irwin testified.
For Itzo, a guilty verdict could mean life in prison.