Southern Indiana man appears in court after being charged with killing his wife

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Stephen Gower entered a southern Indiana courtroom Monday in shackles, handcuffs, a jail-issued jumpsuit and a stoic expression.

He entered a not guilty plea in the shooting death of his wife, but police said he's far from innocent. In fact, the Charlestown man was charged with murdering her after police said he called 911 to say she shot herself in the head.

On Aug. 4, court documents say Clark County sheriff's deputies and the Charlestown police officers responded to a home in the 10400 block of Charlestown New Market Road in Charlestown on reports that his wife had shot herself.

The caller — identified as Gower — said Christina Gower used a gun to end her life. Despite initially telling officers she shot herself, police said he asked police to "take me to jail" and "shoot me" while at the scene. Gower told investigators the gun used was a short barrel AR-style rifle, which was located by responding officers.

Christina Gower's body was found inside the home "lying on the floor face up with significant blood pooling around the head." Police said she was half inside the master bedroom and half inside the hallway that connected to the kitchen/living room area. She had been shot in the head, but a detective at the scene "did not observe visible burns or stippling to Christina's head or face that would be consistent with a close shot or contact shot to the head."

As officers began questioning Gower, he told them on the morning of Aug. 3, he had "found messages on Christina's phone indicating that she was talking to other men and indicated she was having an affair." He also told detectives he and his wife "had been consuming alcohol throughout the evening leading up to the early morning shootings."

He described a "series of escalating events, including verbal arguments and physical actions, such as breaking a chair and a light fixture in the spare bedroom."

In court Monday, Gower's defense attorney, Eric Weitzel, said there's a lot of evidence he'd like to see before they decide how to approach the case.

"I didn't argue for bond at this time but reserve the right to come back at a later date ... when the state gets me all of their evidence," Weitzel said.

According to court documents, Gower did admit to "holding his wife's wrist while they were on the kitchen floor to hold her down but denied any physical altercation beyond that." During the arguments that led up to the fatal shooting, Gower said he got a handgun from the bedroom and placed it next to his head and said he wanted to kill himself and said "he had hoped his wife would pull the trigger."

That gun was returned to the bedroom before he retrieved the rifle later in the evening. He said he also placed the rifle to his head as well, but "Christina was crawling around the residence due to intoxication."

Stephen Gower told officers he had asked to be arrested because he "he believed it would be easier to go to jail than to explain the incident to his children and his wife's family."

A medical examiner performed an autopsy and determined the gunshot appeared to have been from several feet away or more and concluded that "Christina could not have self-inflicted a gunshot wound to herself from that distance."

Some of Gower's family and his wife's family attended Monday's hearing. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.