"I told her not to put her finger on the trigger and boom!"
This was a direct statement Springfield resident Darrell Smith, 26, allegedly gave police when trying to explain why he shot his 23-year-old girlfriend Kimberly Walker in the head in December. According to new documents released this week, on view below, Smith gave police a lengthy, at times, inconsistent, account of the shooting that ended up killing his girlfriend.
"I was showing her how to use a gun and it wasn't unloaded," Smith reportedly said.
Are law enforcement officials buying his story?
A probable cause statement says that Smith's confusing account of the incident in many ways does not line up with the findings of medical personnel.
And on Monday, the prosecuting attorney of Greene County formally charged Smith with several counts related to the December 30 shooting.
The "defendant knowingly caused the death of Ms. Kimberly Walker by shooting her," the official second-degree felony murder charge says. Smith is also facing charges of armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm, due to his .38 revolver handgun that he used to allegedly kill his girlfriend. He was also convicted of two felony stealing charges prior to this incident -- in 2005 and 2008.
What happened on December 30?
At around 5:30 p.m. on 1032 East Cherokee Street in Springfield, officers responded to a report of a shooting and found Walker on a porch with a gunshot would to her head, police say. She was transported to a nearby hospital, where she died the next day.
Officers also found Smith whose shirt, hands and arms were covered in blood, police say. He had reportedly stopped at a neighbor's door and screamed, "Help me!" -- telling the resident that his girlfriend was accidentally shot.
Another resident told police that Smith told her "he was trying to show her how to use a gun, and he thought she unloaded it. He said it went off."
Continue for more on the shooting and all the documents in this case.
