A Butler County jury will continue hearing testimony today from a Poplar Bluff woman who alleged she was shot by the her daughter’s father during what apparently began as a child custody dispute at his home.
Sheila Hunt was to return to the witness stand as the state continued to make its case against Jeremy W. Grable, a former Poplar Bluff street department superintendent.
The 41-year-old is standing trial on the Class A felony of first-degree assault and the unclassified felony of armed criminal action. His trial is slated to run through Friday.
Hunt began to sob as Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor asked her to identify the bloody sweatshirt she was wearing the night she was shot.
After Hunt became increasing emotional and appeared to begin to hyperventilate during her testimony, Proctor asked Associate Circuit Judge Joe Satterfield whether a break could be taken to give the woman time to compose herself. Court subsequently recessed for the day.
Grable’s trial begin Wednesday afternoon after a jury of 12 women and two men were chosen from a pool of 90 Butler County residents.
After the jury was seated and sworn in at 3 p.m., it then heard opening statements from Proctor and Grable’s attorney, Danny Moore.
Proctor then played both 911 calls Grable made on the night of Jan. 31, 2015, for the jury.
In the first call, Grable is heard at least twice saying “please leave.”
Grable also was heard identifying himself, providing his address and telling the dispatcher there was a “verbal dispute over custody.”
In the second call, Grable told the dispatcher he needed an ambulance as he had shot someone in the chest.
Hunt testified she has two children, including a daughter, Alyssa, now 7, with Grable.
In response to questions from Proctor, Hunt said, she had “a lot of issues” with alcohol, which sometimes causes her to black out and only remember bits and pieces of what has happened.
Hunt further confirmed she has made bad decisions when drinking.
In 2015, Hunt said, she had known Grable for a few years, having met him when he worked with her ex-husband.
Hunt said she meet Grable’s ex-wife, Courtney Grable Rutledge, while she was dating Grable.
Grable, she said, had visitation rights for his children with both Rutledge and Hunt, and he wanted all his children on the same weekend.
Hunt said her relationship with Grable continued even after he married his wife, Linda.
“We had a sex relationship off and on for all three years,” said Hunt, who indicated she and Grable exchange sexually-explicit text messages.
Hunt said she had issues with Linda Grable, including one occasion when she “came up behind me, she called me a ------- ----- and walked off.”
Hunt said she had no physical altercations with Grable’s wife, who, she said, had made statements that she would be Alyssa’s mother and would be the one to raise her.
Hunt alleged Linda Grable had called her many times cursing at her.
At one point, Hunt said, she had threatened to take Grable back to court to keep his wife away from her daughter. Hunt had sole custody of her daughter.
Hunt said Grable signed a letter, which was shown to the jury, that said he agreed during “periods of visitation” that Alyssa would not be supervised by anyone other than himself or her paternal grandparents or paternal aunt.
Grable, according to Hunt, had two cellphones, a personal one and one for work.
Proctor then showed Hunt screen shots of a number of sexually-explicit text messages and photographs sent by Grable on his city-provided cellphone. Of the three selfies Hunt identified, one was a nude.
On Jan. 31, 2015, Hunt said, she had planned to go horseback riding with her oldest daughter. Alyssa was with her father that weekend.
Rutledge, Hunt said, texted her that morning, telling her she had seen Grable and her children, but not Hunt’s daughter or Linda Grable.
Hunt said she called Grable and told him he had violated their agreement.
“We literally had just talked about it,” she said.
When Hunt spoke with Grable, she said, she asked where her daughter was.
“He said at his house with his niece,” said Hunt, who indicated that “violated our agreement.”
Hunt said she was “tired of this,” having fought with Grable for three years over Linda Grable not being around her daughter.
Hunt confirmed she was concerned for her daughter.
Proctor then took Hunt through a series of text messages that had been sent from her cellphone to Grable and others on Jan. 31, 2015.
Hunt confirmed she did not delete any messages from her phone that day; however, the messages to Grable had been deleted. Those messages later were recovered.
Among the messages were: “I can’t believe U did this again. All I can say is U better get ready for what’s coming. U have driven me to this point. I don’t give a --- anymore” and “I can’t believe U did this again. U know she is not allowed alone with Linda. I will never forgive U for this.”
There were also mentions of “war.”
Hunt said Rutledge texted her at about 6:45 to 6:50 p.m. that day and said Grable was “going to bring her kids home early.”
Although Hunt didn’t know the exact address of Rutledge’s home in the Bluff Estates subdivision, having only been there once with Grable, she said, she went to the area, hoping to contact Grable.
Grable, she said, drove by her parked vehicle and she waved.
Hunt said she subsequently followed Grable to his home in the 2200 block of Barron Road.
Hunt said she followed Grable down his long driveway and parked her vehicle near his.
“I walked over to the truck … I told him I wanted to take Alyssa home,” Hunt explained. “He told me no” and said he was calling the police.
“We were waiting for them,” said Hunt, who admitted she didn’t leave after being told to.
While they were waiting the officer’s arrival, “he had a gun pointed at me. I said ‘Jeremy,’ and he shot me,” said Hunt, who become emotional as she testified. “I put my hand to my chest to stop the bleeding.”
Hunt said she went back to her vehicle.
“I couldn’t breathe; I thought I was suffocating,” said Hunt, who alleged Grable threatened to kill her.
“I thought I’m not going to see my kids grow up,” she said.
Linda Grable, she said, was in the truck. “She saw it all,” she said.
“When he pointed the gun at me, it was fast,” Hunt said. “Three minutes between the phone calls” to 911.
“He pushed me down; I got up,” she said. “He shot me, and it was a matter of seconds.”