MURHA.INFO

Lapset pelkäävät, että lähes 80-vuotias Darlene Green pääsee vapaalle jalalle.

Pitkät parisuhteet sisältävät ylä- ja alamäkiä. Washingtonilaisen pariskunnan 25 vuoden avioliitto sisälsi kuitenkin niin kovan painolastin, että Bill Green, 81, pyysi lopulta vaimoaan Darlenea, 79, tarttumaan aseeseen, kirjoittaa The Daily Weekly -lehti

Vaimon mukaan tapahtumat saivat alkunsa torstaina 17. kesäkuuta, kun hän painui pehkuihin paetakseen "ärsyttävää" miestään.

Seuraavana aamuna Bill ilmoitti hakevansa aseensa, jotta vaimo voisi ampua hänet.

Naisen kertoman mukaan mies antoi vaimolle makuuhuoneessa käynnin jälkeen ladatun revolverin, asettui lepolasseensa, asetti aseen piipun otsaansa ja sanoi lopuksi "ammu minut".

Darlene teki työtä käskystä ja soitti laukaisun jälkeen kahdelle pojalleen.

Pariskunnan lasten mukaan Darlene-äiti ei ollut koskaan antanut miehelleen menneisyyden syrjähyppyä anteeksi ja pisti isän tuntemaan syyllisyyttä asiasta koko avioliiton ajan.

Lasten mukaan äidillä oli myös tapana pahoinpidellä isää juotuaan liikaa brandyä.

Darlenea syytetään nyt ensimmäisen asteen murhasta. Iäkkään äidin lapset ovat vedonneet tuomariin, ettei takuusummaa muutettaisi. He sanoivat olevansa peloissaan perheittensä turvallisuudesta.

Darlene Green and her husband Bill were arguing last Thursday night. The Port Orchard seniors -- she's 79 and pictured at right, he's 81 and no longer living -- had been married for more than 25 years, but not all of them had been happy. Bill had had an affair a long time ago, a transgression the Greens' sons say she never let him forget, especially on days when she'd been drinking brandy, which was most of them.

Darlene told police she went to sleep after Bill had tried to "rile her up." The next morning, she said, he shook her awake.

When she came down to the living room to watch TV, "out of the blue" Bill told her he was going to get his gun so she could shoot him. According to Darlene, he did just that, returning from the bedroom with his revolver, setting the hammer, handing it to her, then sitting down in his favorite recliner, pointing to his forehead and saying "shoot me."

So she shot him. Then she called two of her sons to tell them she'd killed their dad, walked out to the porch and waited for the police to show.

Police records show that cops had previously been sent to the Green home three times in the past five years on domestic violence calls. On the last one, in 2006, Darlene was charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault.

According to police she'd slapped and pushed her husband in front of the deputies. She claimed that Bill had hit her. He countered that she'd just gotten drunk and fallen in the bathtub.

The cops noted that her injuries seemed to be consistent with a fall and she smelled of alcohol. And the Green boys told police they thought their father was in danger.

Darlene is currently being held on charges of second-degree murder. The Kitsap County Prosecutor's office reduced the charges from first-degree, but a judge recently denied her lawyer's attempts at lowering the bail of $1 million after her sons testified that they'd be afraid for their family's safety should she be released.