On March 18, 2010, D was released from jail on bail. He walked home, where he lived with his father (Jim), a sister (Hanna), an older brother (Brandon), and a younger brother (Brenton). Brandon's girlfriend, Victoria Williams, was also staying there at that time. D and Brenton drove to Marth's house, picked her up, and returned home. D had been dating Marth for about one year and, he testified, was in love with her. However, defendant also had an ex-fiancée and was conflicted about whom he wanted to be with. Around 7:05 a.m., Officer Hibbard responded to a report of a shooting at D's house. When he arrived, he saw Brenton leaning up against the fender of a white Cadillac holding Marth in his arms. Marth had been shot in the face. Officer Hibbard placed Marth on the ground. D came running out of the house with blood on his clothes and face. D told Officer Hayden to “call the ambulance for my girlfriend.” D and Brenton were detained, and Officer Hibbard and two other officers conducted a safety sweep of the house. Inside, the officers found Brandon, Williams, and Hanna. In the bedroom where Marth had been shot, Officer Hibbard saw bloodstains on the bed and pillow. He also saw some marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia in the room. A trail of blood led Officer Hibbard from the bedroom to the kitchen. Officer Hibbard saw a black revolver on the kitchen floor. Both the floor and revolver appeared to be wet with water. The revolver contained five live .38-caliber rounds, as well as one fired round. During a subsequent search of the room where Marth was shot, a box containing a semiautomatic handgun, a box of .38-caliber bullets, and a duffel bag containing a sawed-off shotgun and a box of shotgun shells were found. Williams (who was in Brandon's room) told an investigating officer that she was awakened by a “loud screaming argument between a guy and a girl for at least three minutes.” At trial, Williams did not remember characterizing the sounds she heard as “loud screaming,” and said she was awoken by “loud talking.” A couple of minutes after hearing the “loud talking,” Williams heard a gunshot. Immediately afterward, Williams heard a commotion and screaming; “it seemed like someone was panicking, like yelling or screaming like out of fear.” On the way to the police station, D asked the officer if he knew if Marth was okay. Defendant said: “I can't lose her. I would do anything for her. How is someone supposed to go on with their life when they see something like that? We were just going to watch a movie.” D was crying with his head down for most of the trip. D lied to the two homicide detectives who interviewed him. D claimed that Marth had accidentally shot herself. He said he was showing her a gun he had recently purchased; he did not tell her it was loaded; and as she was playing around with it, she accidentally shot herself. In the second version, he said he shot Marth, but claimed the shooting was accidental and that he did not think the gun was loaded. He explained that they were sitting on the couch; Marth pointed the gun at him, he pushed the gun away, and she pointed it at him again; he then took the gun, pointed it at her, and accidentally shot her. In the third version, D said he knew the gun was loaded. He described the events this way: “She pointed it at me. I slapped it away. She pointed it at me. I slapped it away. We both knew it was loaded. And then I went like that, and I cocked back the hammer just jokingly, and it slipped, pow.” D claimed that his finger was not on the trigger. At trial, this version was placed in doubt by a criminalist with an expertise in firearms who testified that, because of the multiple safeties on the gun, the gun cannot be fired by pulling the hammer back and releasing it before it is fully cocked. D gave yet another version of what happened at trial. That story ended when D took the gun away from Marth and pointed it at her. He knew the gun was loaded when he received it and it “had to be loaded because [he] didn't take the bullets out.” He cocked the hammer back, but did not intend to threaten or shoot her. He was “[j]ust kind of being stupid.” Defendant then described what happened next: She slapped the gun, and as soon as she slapped the gun, the gun went off. I almost dropped it. I tried to grab hold of it. Still the gun didn't drop. As soon as I squeezed it, it went off. D told Brenton “to call the cops,” which he did. D tried to give Marth mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When Marth told D she could not breathe, D and Brenton took her outside to the driveway in front of the house “to get her help.” D went back into the house to get his keys. From inside the house, he heard sirens and panicked. D grabbed the gun and rinsed it off in an attempt to wash off the fingerprints. He tossed the gun into the bottom of a kitchen cabinet. He then ran outside where he was met by police officers. A recording of Brenton's 911 call was played to the jury. Brenton lied to the 911 operator, telling her his name was “Paul” and that he did not know who had shot Marth. D can be heard in the background of the telephone call crying and repeatedly saying things like, “[n]oooo,” “[b]aby,” and “[b]aby are you alive, baby … .” The gun was fired roughly 12 inches from Marth's face. A text message Marth wrote: “I alrea[d]y fuckin wish he was locked back up. … [O]mg [you] have no clue.” At 7:02 a.m., Marth wrote: “Just were [sic] fighting … with him right now.” D was convicted of first-degree murder and appealed.

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