SKOWHEGAN — Was the shooting that took Rhonda Wakefield-Reynold’s life in January 2007 a botched suicide attempt by her husband, Richard Reynolds, or was it the premeditated act of a jealous, possessive man?
Reynolds’ jury-waived murder trial began Tuesday morning in Somerset County Superior Court, presided over by Justice Andrew Horton and both scenarios were presented.
Reynolds, 41, is accused of shooting his wife in the head at her temporary residence in Fairfield, one day after she was granted custody of the couple’s two young sons. Wakefield-Reynolds, 37, died the next day.
In opening arguments Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea said there is no doubt the killing was premeditated. She said Reynolds believed the courts had failed him and granted his wife custody of the boys, then 4 and 6, despite his allegations of her drug use and a series of extra-marital affairs. There was also an ongoing investigation into sexual molestation of the older son by a grandfather, which later proved unfounded.
“He knew exactly what he was doing,” Zainea said, of Reynold’s actions on the day he shot his wife. Days before the shooting, Zainea said, Reynolds told his sister-in-law “if he couldn’t have the kids, he would do what had to do to get them.” Zainea said that Reynolds also told his son “Sometimes you have to kill the devil” and made his son promise to care for the younger sons in the future. Zaniea also said Reynolds said “Rhonda was going to get what she deserved.”
Defense Attorney Peter Barnett, however, said the shooting was accidental, that Reynolds had gone to the home where his wife was staying to kill himself. “He felt he had nothing left to live for,” Barnett said. “He knows he is responsible and acknowledges his responsibility, but Richard Reynolds did not plan, did not premeditate to kill his wife.”
Barnett told the court that when Reynolds went to the home, he entered the living room area and put a .40 caliber handgun to his chest, intending to shoot himself. Barnett maintained that Wakefield-Reynolds told him “Not in front of the kids,” and took him to a nearby bedroom.
Barnett said that when Reynolds heard his children approaching the bedroom, he was distracted and somehow the gun discharged, striking Wakefield-Reynolds in the head. Reynolds then fled the home with his two sons and within the hour had turned himself into the Waterville Police Department and confessed to the killing.
Six witnesses testified during the morning session of the trial, including police officers that responded to the shooting, and the victim’s brother and sister-in-law, Kempton and Debbie Wakefield Jr. The couple had opened their home to Wakefield-Reynolds and her sons the day before the shooting. But after hearing Reynold’s threats, Debbie Wakefield said “I didn’t feel safe in my own house.”
Both testified that when they last saw Wakefield-Reynolds, on the morning of January 12, 2007, she was making plans for the day.
“She was happy and upbeat,” Debbie Wakefield testified. “She had been reunited with her sons and was looking forward to starting over.”
The state will continue its case this afternoon. Barnett has conducted a limited if any cross examination of the prosecution’s witnesses.
The trial will continue all week.
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