POMEROY — “Oh, God, what have I done ... what have I done,” a tearful Paula Rizer recounted from the witness stand Monday about the moments following the fatal shooting of her late husband, Kenneth Rizer, Sr.

Rizer’s emotional testimony picked up where she left off Friday afternoon when proceedings were recessed after she became ill on the witness stand. On Friday, Rizer recalled April 3, the day of the fatal shooting, saying her husband told her to stop a remodeling project because the couple was going to practice target shooting. Rizer testified her husband told her she could go target shooting or finish a sexual encounter he had initiated earlier that same day. Rizer said she chose the target shooting and that her husband requested she bring a 9-millimeter to him in the living room where he was sitting in his recliner.

Rizer said she handed her husband the pistol who then handed it back to her as she sat on the couch near him. Rizer then said she insisted her husband get out of his chair so they could get the target shooting over with, using a derogatory name to describe her husband which she said angered him, causing him to lunge out of his chair at her.

“It scared me,” Rizer told the jury. “I put my feet up on the couch to hide.”

Rizer said her husband began hitting her on the back of the head, calling her a derogatory name as well. Rizer then said she was on the floor with her husband holding her right hand, in which she held the gun. Rizer described an ongoing physical struggle between the two.

“I don’t want him to hit me anymore,” she emotionally told jurors, often rocking back and forth during her testimony while on the witness stand.

She then said at one point during the struggle her husband was standing over her when the gun began to fire, causing him to fall backward into his chair. Mr. Rizer was shot five times though the gun discharged six rounds.

“Did you intend to kill Mr. Rizer?” Rizer’s defense attorney Herman Carson asked his client.

“No,” Rizer told Carson. “But he won’t stop. I didn’t do anything to make him that mad at me.”

During her cross examination, Meigs County Prosecuting Attorney Colleen Williams painted a picture of Mrs. Rizer on April 3 as a woman angry at her husband over several issues to the point where the couple wasn’t talking after they returned home to their Portland home following a shopping trip to Pomeroy earlier in the day. Williams said immediately after the shooting and during the initial investigation, Rizer never said to family members or investigators that her husband had attacked her.

Williams also painted a picture of Rizer not as an isolated, battered wife under the control of her husband but as a woman who had a level of independence, citing financial records that showed Rizer was in charge of the couple’s finances, had six credit cards in her name, sold auction items on eBay and had a MySpace page.

Witnesses called

David Malawista, a clinical forensic psychologist from Athens, who is also an instructor in the use of firearms, testified for the defense. Malawista said during testing of the gun used in the shooting, he determined it had an average time of 1.19 seconds when discharging six rounds.

Malawista also testified that in his capacity as a clinical forensic psychologist, he’d interviewed Rizer three different times for a total of 10 hours, saying over the course of those three interviews, Rizer opened up to him about sexual and physical abuse by her father at a young age and her relationship with her late husband. Malawista said after the interviews with Rizer, he surmised the relationship between the couple went from a loving marriage, to sex, to Mrs. Rizer being controlled and dominated by her late husband. Malawista also said he believed that during the day of the shooting, Mrs. Rizer responded out of fear and instinctively attempted to defend herself.

Williams called a rebuttal witness, Dr. Bob Stinson, a clinical forensic psychologist from Columbus, who said he interviewed Rizer for over two hours on Oct. 25. Stinson said the issue of Rizer’s sexual abuse came up more quickly than he expected and “without really any prompting.” Stinson said he felt after talking to Rizer about her relationship with her husband, he didn’t feel it was indicative of domestic abuse.

“The relationship did not impress me as a typical domestic batterer’s relationship,” Stinson testified. Stinson also said Rizer had a “vagueness” when recalling an incident of sexual abuse as a child.

Dr. Douglas Hunter of Racine was also recalled to the stand. Hunter had treated Mr. Rizer as a patient since 1989. He said he had treated Mr. Rizer for erectile dysfunction (ED), but that was a secondary issue to his back, shoulder and knee pain. Hunter also said Mr. Rizer had arthritis and said that could make it difficult for him to be ambulatory. The defense has claimed Mr. Rizer’s ED had been a stressor in his marriage to Mrs. Rizer. Hunter referred to Mr. Rizer as a “gentle bear” and said Mr. Rizer always treated him with respect.

Closing arguments

In closing arguments, Williams told members of the jury that this was a case of Mrs. Rizer’s anger and frustration, stressing again and again, that five of the six shots fired were found in Mr. Rizer’s body. Williams reminded jury members Mr. Rizer’s heart was penetrated three times with bullets, saying the placement of wounds in the middle of the chest showed purpose and intent on Mrs. Rizer’s part.

“Look at the facts, put aside your emotions,” Williams told the jury. “The facts show the defendant purposely murdered her husband.”

Williams then asked jurors to consider what Mrs. Rizer did and didn’t say to police during the initial stages of the investigation, including not telling police she was attacked by Mr. Rizer. Williams also asked jurors to look at inconsistencies in Rizer’s statements to police. Williams stressed to jurors there were no stray bullets or wild shots, adding the bullets were found in Mr. Rizer or a pillow that sat in his recliner.

“Each shot was purposefully made to shoot Mr. Rizer,” Williams said.

In his closing arguments, Carson argued Mr. Rizer was the one who was moving toward Mrs. Rizer during a struggle, citing earlier testimony which indicated the trajectory of the bullets supported this theory. Carson said the trajectory of the wounds places the shooter below Mr. Rizer. Carson asked jurors to consider how Mr. Rizer could’ve been shot in the hip if he was sitting in his recliner?

Carson argued this was not a premeditated event and when the Rizers began to struggle, Mr. Rizer went for the gun, tried to get it from his wife who had a “death grip” on the pistol, afraid of what would happen if Mr. Rizer retrieved it. Carson argued this struggle depressed the trigger.

Carson said as for the charge of aggravated murder the state was required to prove prior calculation and design and purpose causing the death of Kenneth Rizer, Sr.

“They haven’t come close to proving either one beyond a reasonable doubt,” Carson said. “All that doubt is as high as this cliff behind this courthouse.”

Jury members were sent home after 11 p.m. last night and resumed deliberation at 8 a.m. today.