On May 01, 1993, former Michigan State Trooper Douglas Wright murdered his ex-wife Kimberly Thompson-Wright [a dispatcher with the Flint Police Department].
Wright covered up the murder of his ex-wife by claiming she had committed suicide.
Former State Trooper Wright was not charged with the murder of his ex-wife Kimberly in 1993. Wright continued to work in law enforcement after Kimberly's death: the Holly Police Department and the Gaines Township Police Department. Later, Wright moved to Boynton Beach Florida with his [and Kimberly's] son
It appeared that Douglas Wright had gotten away with the murder of Kimberly...
In 2000, newly elected Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell decided to reopen cold homicide files.
Sheriff Pickell assigned the case to Detective David Dwyre. In a taped interview, Wright now claimed that he was inside the house when he heard the shot fired by Kimberly: "I get into the stairwell and I hear a gunshot."
- Detective Dwyre asked Wright, "Were you afraid that she was coming after you to shoot you?"
- Wright replied, "No, that never...thought never entered into my head."
- Detective Dwyre asked Wright, "Well, what did you do?"
- Wright's response was, "Well I went outside, and I played..."
With the statement obtained by Detective Dwyre, placing Wright in the house at the time Kimberly was shot and killed, the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office authorized criminal charges against Wright.
In August 2002, Wright was arrested on murder and weapon charges in the MURDER of Kimberly Thompson- Wright.
In 2003, Former Michigan State Trooper Douglas Wright was tried for the murder of his ex-wife, Kimberly. He was found guilty of murdering Kimberly, and was sentenced to 25- 50 years in prison.
Ex-trooper accused in slaying
Wife shot to death in 1993 inside Lake Fenton home
Flint Journal
August 5, 2002
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
Prosecutors were expected to issue warrants today against a former state trooper in the 1993 shooting death of his wife in Fenton Township.
Douglas J. Wright, 52, who now lives in Florida, will be charged with killing Kimberly Thompson Wright, 34.
Kimberly Wright was found shot to death May 1, 1993, inside her home on Lake Fenton.
The death initially was reported as a suicide by a 911 caller about 11:15 p.m., but police had many questions about the circumstances of the shooting.
A few days later, police searched Wright's Grove Park Road home using specialized crime scene equipment. Investigators were tightlipped about the case, saying little about the investigation.
The case was reopened by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department in 1999, shortly after Sheriff Robert Pickell took office. Pickell said the case was reopened at the urging of Undersheriff James Gage, a former state police captain.
Wright was fired from the state police in 1989 after an arbitration case for failing to honor a court subpoena and lying to investigators, Pickell said.
Sheriff's investigators were in Florida this morning to seek Wright's arrest.
Kimberly Wright had been working as temporary clerk in the Genesee County treasurer's office since February 1993.
Funeral services were held in her hometown of Clearfield, Pa.
Woman's cousin weeps with joy at news of arrest
Flint Journal
August 6, 2002
In April 1993, just days before Kimberly Thompson Wright was found dead in her Fenton Township home, family members had a feeling something terrible might happen.
"We just looked at each other and said, He's going to kill her,' " Wright's cousin, Beth Hallstrom, said Monday, referring to the victim's estranged husband, Douglas J. Wright.
"I pictured her standing in the driveway that morning when we left. It had snowed that night. The wind was cold. And she was crying and we were waving. It was just awful.
"I remember saying to her, Get in the car, just get in the car,' and she laughed. I laughed, too, probably.' "
Hallstrom, who was visiting from Pennsylvania at the time, said her cousin fit the profile of a domestic abuse victim.
"We just knew. ... (Killing her) was the ultimate act of control and intimidation," she said. "She was the stumbling block to his new life. He wanted her dead, and he wanted her out of the way."
Douglas Wright had moved out of their Fenton Township home and was living with a girlfriend at the time of the killing, said Hallstrom, who wept with joy Monday after hearing Wright had been charged in his wife's murder.
"This is like winning the lottery, being crowned Miss America and having your mortgage forgiven all in one," the Clearfield, Pa., resident said.
Douglas Wright, 52, was arrested on murder and weapon charges Monday in Boynton Beach, Fla., where he was living with his 17-year-old son by Kimberly Wright. An extradition hearing was set for today.
Kimberly Wright was shot once in the chest in the basement of her home on Grove Park Road on Lake Fenton on May 1, 1993.
Douglas Wright, a former state trooper, called 911 about 11:15 p.m. and reported the death as a suicide.
Authorities said the crime scene had been altered, and police had questions about the circumstances of the shooting. But no charges were brought until Monday.
The Genesee County Sheriff's Department reopened the file in 1999, shortly after Sheriff Robert Pickell took office. It was reopened at the urging of Undersheriff James Gage, a former state police captain who had supervised Wright at the Flint post.
Old-fashioned police work -- not DNA evidence -- broke the case, Pickell and Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch said.
Detective Sgt. Dave Dwyer re-interviewed witnesses and questioned Wright in Florida last spring. The arrest warrant was signed Monday morning by Central District Judge Mark C. McCabe.
"The case was pretty much there," Gage said. "It just had to be put in a chronological order, and you had to draw some (conclusions from the) circumstances.
"The circumstantial evidence, in my opinion, was pretty strong."
Wright was fired in 1989 after 14 years with the state police after failing to honor a court subpoena and then lying about it, Pickell said.
After leaving the state police, Wright worked briefly for the Gaines Township and Holly police departments, Gage said.
Wright moved to Florida in 1994 and held jobs selling insurance and doing sales for a power washing company. He also worked part time as a security guard.
Kimberly Wright, a native of Clearfield, Pa., had been a police dispatcher and was working as a temporary clerk in the Genesee County treasurer's office when she died.
Hallstrom described her cousin as "bright and happy."
"She was just the most exuberant, funny, bright, exciting person," she said. "She could make a trip to Kmart to buy a toaster an adventure."
Kimberly Wright was preparing to move back to Clearfield when the school year ended, her cousin said.
"There was clear excitement about moving (back home)," Hallstrom said. "No one could have convinced me that she killed herself. Everything was set for her to come here. And there was absolutely no reason for her to become despondent."
Her family believed her husband killed her, she said.
"I always knew that he was going to be prosecuted," Hallstrom said. "I always knew in God's time it would happen, that God would send someone to be the avenging angel. And David Dwyer is that angel."
FORMER TROOPER ARRESTED IN WIFE'S DEATH
Palm Beach Post
August 6, 2002
When police found Kimberly Thompson Wright dead in her Michigan home from a bullet through her chest, it looked like suicide.
Her husband Douglas, a former Michigan State Police trooper, told detectives that she shot herself.
The two had been in the midst of ending their nine-year marriage before Kimberly Wright's death May 1, 1993, a day before her husband's 41st birthday, and detectives questioned him extensively. But they didn't have enough evidence to prove her death was not a suicide, and the case went cold - until Monday.
Douglas James Wright was arrested at his Boynton Beach home early Monday on a Michigan warrant for homicide and felony possession of a firearm.
Detective Sgt. David Dwyre of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office in Michigan said Monday at a police headquarters news conference that Douglas Wright had staged the suicide and "altered the crime scene" in the finished basement of Kimberly Wright's home.
"He told me he cleaned up the room because he was afraid of being dragged through the coals," the detective said. He refused to say what evidence exists that links Wright, a trooper for 16 years, to his estranged wife's death.
When the death occurred investigators questioned whether Kimberly Wright was capable of shooting herself because she had a high blood- alcohol level when she died, Dwyre said.
Dwyre first spoke with Douglas Wright in Boynton Beach three months ago.
The cold case, and many others, had been reopened after a new sheriff took office in Genesee County.
No one answered the phone at Douglas Wright's Dalton Place home Monday evening.
Kimberly Wright's brother, Jeffrey Thompson of Rochester, N.H., said that he was too taken aback by the arrest to talk about it. He said he was unsure whether his sister's death was a homicide or suicide.
Wright was being held in the Palm Beach County Jail and will appear before a judge today. He may be extradited to Michigan this week.
Sun Sentinel
August 06, 2002
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2002-08-06/news/0208060159_1_wright-s-son-michigan-state-police-investigators
Boynton Beach — A former Michigan state trooper was arrested at his Boynton Beach home on Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of his estranged wife more than nine years ago in Michigan.
Douglas J. Wright, 50, was arrested without incident on charges of murder and using a firearm. He was taken to Palm Beach County Jail and is to appear in court today
1993 Fenton Township suicide was murder say sheriff, prosecutor
MyFenton.com
Aug 7, 2002
https://www.tctimes.com/murder-suspect-arrested-in-florida---1993-fenton-township-suicide-was-murder-say-sheriff/article_43a4f28c-1d23-5bd0-84d8-fe25746271cb.html
At a Monday morning press conference, Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell confirmed that two of his deputies were in Boynton Beach, Fla., arresting former Holly Police officer
Michigan State Police trooper Douglas James Wright, 50, and charging him with the May 1, 1993 murder of his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright.
Pickell said the victim was discovered dead with a 9mm gunshot wound to the chest in the basement of the couple's Grove Park Drive home, along Lake Fenton the day before the suspect's 41st birthday.
Originally reported a suicide, Pickell said investigators were
not convinced that the evidence at the crime scene pointed to suicide, saying that it appears that the scene had been tampered with, most likely by Wright.
Pickell said enough new evidence has now emerged to persuade Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch to seek open murder charges against Wright, but could not indulge the details of those findings.
"This is a classic example of what can be done if the police don't give up on unsolved cases," Busch said, complementing Pickell and his detective bureau, which reopened the case in 1999.
Pickell said this evidence gathered by the detective bureau was not hard evidence such as a DNA sample, but though hard work of a young detective, who put a lot of energy into developing his skills.
"(The case) was made by good old-fashioned police work," said Pickell. "My hat's off to Sgt. (David) Dwyer and the other detectives involved with this case."
Busch said at the time of her death, Kimberly and Wright were having marital troubles, and said there had been talk of divorce, which police say establishes a motive for the killing.
Pickell said Wright had been disciplined many times by the Michigan State Police during his 14 years as a trooper, and was eventually dismissed after arbitration in 1989 for failing to appear in court after he had been subpoenaed.
At the time of his firing, Pickell said that Wright had more open citizen complaints filed against him than any other trooper in the Michigan State Police organization at that time.
"They recognized a bad apple and worked diligently to get rid of him," said Pickell.
The Holly Police Department confirmed that Wright had also worked for them, and quit shortly after his wife was found dead.
It is expected that Wright will be in Flint by the end of today, pending the signing of the county's extradition papers.
If found guilty of killing his wife, authorities say Wright could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Prosecutors are also seeking to charge Wright with the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, a two-year sentence that must be served before any other sentences can begin.
Pickell said the case is the second murder case he and Busch have pursued since he came into office in 1999, noting that the department has only one more remaining unsolved murder case.
"Somebody, someplace, better start worrying about that, because we're going to make that case, too," Pickell said.
Busch made the same stern warning, noting that Wright had been arrested by deputies, despite having relocated to Florida.
"They can run, but they're not going to hide from us," Busch said. "We are going to be relentless in pursuing those who commit these crimes.
Ex-trooper arraigned
Flint Journal
August 9, 2002
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
A former state police trooper has been arraigned in the death of his estranged wife nine years ago in Fenton Township.
Douglas J. Wright, speaking over a video link from the Genesee County Jail, calmly responded, "Yes, your honor," to questions from Central District Judge Larry J. Stecco.
Stecco ordered Wright held without bond Thursday pending a pretrial hearing Aug. 16. A preliminary examination was set for Aug. 21.
Wright, 50, was arrested on murder and weapon charges Monday at his home in Boynton Beach, Fla., and was brought to Flint on Wednesday night by two Genesee County sheriff's detectives.
He is charged with killing Kimberly Thompson Wright, 34, who was shot to death May 1, 1993, in the basement of her home on Grove Park Road.
Wright's attorney, Dennis R. Lazar, said he had not seen the prosecutor's case, but he expects the facts will show the death was a suicide, as Douglas Wright contended.
"We look forward to the opportunity to clear his name once and for all," Lazar said Thursday.
Police said Douglas Wright, who had separated from his wife, called 911 to report that his wife had shot herself about 11:15 p.m. May 1.
At the time, investigators called the circumstances unusual and combed the house with specialized equipment, but no charges were brought.
The Sheriff's Department reopened the investigation in 1999, shortly after Sheriff Robert J. Pickell took office.
Detective Sgt. David Dwyer re-interviewed witnesses and talked with Wright in Florida before bringing the case to the Genesee County prosecutor's office in April.
Douglas Wright spent 14 years with the state police before being fired in 1989 for lying about missing a court appearance, the Sheriff's Department said.
He worked as an officer in Gaines Township and Holly before moving to Florida, they said.
Kimberly Wright had been working as a temporary clerk in the county treasurer's office for a few months before her death. She also had worked as a dispatcher in the Flint Police Department.
Former officer's court appearances adjourned
My Fenton.com
Aug 27, 2002
https://www.tctimes.com/former-officers-court-appearances-adjourned/article_423e6a31-de69-5ebb-9579-790b1c5d1a00.html
The pretrial and preliminary examinations of former Holly Police officer and Flint Michigan State Police trooper Douglas Wright have been adjourned until next month, while his attorney, Dennis Lazar, establishes his defense
Wright, 50, was arrested in Florida on Aug. 5 and charged with the murder of his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright, in their Fenton Township home. Police say Kimberly Wright was found dead in the basement of her home from one gunshot wound to the chest the evening of May 1, 1993, the day before Wright's 41st birthday.
Police say Wright called 911 and reported the death as a suicide after he found her body.
Later, after Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell took office in 1999, the case was reopened at the urging of Undersheriff James Gage, who was Wright's supervisor at the Flint Michigan State Police post.
Investigators, Pickell said, had reason to believe the scene of death had been tampered with.
Wright is currently being held without bond in the Genesee County Jail, where he awaits a Sept. 13 pretrial and Sept. 18 preliminary examination.
Suspicion came fast; case slow
Ex-cop charged in '93 suicide' of wife
Flint Journal
September 1, 2002
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
Fenton Twp. -- When Douglas Wright told police his wife's shooting death was a suicide, no one believed him.
Not the detectives. Not her friends and relatives. Not his former co-workers in the state police, where he spent 15 years as a trooper before being fired.
Instead, suspicions arose almost immediately after Wright called 911 about 11:15 p.m. on May 1, 1993, to report that his wife had shot herself in the basement of their Grove Park Road home near Lake Fenton.
The two were living apart and in the midst of a divorce when Wright went to the house to discuss a few things, taking a 9mm pistol with him.
Before the night's end, Kimberly Wright, 34, was dead from a 9mm bullet to the chest. The gun was owned by Douglas Wright, who first took it from the house but later turned it over to police.
So why is it only now, nine years later, that prosecutors have made an arrest in the shooting death of Kimberly Thompson Wright?
Douglas Wright is charged with murder and felony firearm possession. A preliminary exam is set for Sept. 18 before Central District Judge Larry J. Stecco.
After the Genesee County Sheriff's Department found Kimberly Wright's body on a blood-soaked couch, several things happened that led critics to claim detectives botched the job:
- * A simple test wasn't done to determine if Douglas Wright had fired a gun that night. Instead, Wright was allowed to go home and change his clothes.
- * Police said Wright later told them he had altered the crime scene because he was afraid he would be blamed for the shooting.
- * Detectives waited almost two days to get a search warrant for the house, but by then there was nothing to find.
"We wondered why certain things weren't done in the course of the (original) investigation," Sheriff Robert J. Pickell says now. "Mistakes caused the case to go unsolved for nine years."
The original sheriff's department investigator, Ives Potrofka, left in 2000 to take a job with the state attorney general's computer crimes unit. He declined to comment on the Wright case.
The case was officially reopened in 2001 after two years of prodding by Undersheriff James Gage.
Gage, who served as Douglas Wright's supervisor when both were with the state police, told Pickell he was convinced the case could be made that Kimberly Wright's death was a homicide.
Wright's attorney, Dennis R. Lazar, declined to discuss details of the case, saying he still hadn't had the opportunity to review police reports and scrutinize evidence. But he said he expects the facts will show the death was a suicide, just as his client contended in 1993.
Always a suspect?
Then-Sheriff Joe Wilson, who knew Kimberly Wright, said his investigators suspected Douglas Wright from the beginning. At one point during the initial investigation, sheriff's investigators met with the prosecutor's office, but Wilson said there was a feeling that police did not have enough evidence.
Wilson said ambulance crews who arrived on the scene first assumed it was a suicide and let Wright re-enter the basement alone.
"As I recall, the body was moved," Wilson said. "Then they allowed him to leave for a while and come back."
And there were the beliefs of those who knew Kimberly Wright that she would not commit suicide. The divorce had been hard on her, but she was ready to start a new life out of state, said Jo-Lee McCabe Wamback, a next-door neighbor.
Kimberly Wright's prized Precious Moments figurines were carefully packed in moving boxes, and she had recently won court permission to take her son, Benjamin, to live with her in Pennsylvania. Plus, he was asleep upstairs when the shot was fired.
"As a mom, she wouldn't have done that to her son," said her best friend, Elinore Sevick.
Kimberly Wright's family didn't buy the suicide explanation, either, said her cousin, Beth Hallstrom of Clearfield, Pa. Wright was excited about starting a new life and was packing to move when the school year ended, Hallstrom said.
And there were more reasons for doubt.
In the days before her death, Kimberly Wright told friends she was afraid because she had found her dog, Zach, a yellow Labrador mix, dead from a 9mm bullet.
Then there is the fact Kimberly Wright had a high blood alcohol level the night she died. Police won't say what it was, but they doubt it would be physically possible for someone that intoxicated to shoot herself.
A binge drinker, Kimberly was known to sometimes have too many drinks but did not fit the profile of an alcoholic, her friends and family said.
Quiet suffering
Quick-witted and with a penchant for sarcasm, Kimberly Thompson -- a native of Clearfield, in northest Pennsylvania -- had come to the Flint area in the 1970s to live with her father. She eventually took a job as a Flint police service officer. After she married, Wright later moved her father into her home and cared for him as he died from cancer.
"She wore her heart on her sleeve," Sevick said.
A mutual friend introduced the 5-foot-2 Thompson to Douglas Wright, a towering, somber state trooper who worked third shift at the Flint post.
Standing 6-foot-4, Wright had a reputation as a stone-faced cowboy who patrolled the streets with an iron fist.
The couple hit it off, and after a small marriage ceremony at Woodside Church in Flint in July 1983, Kimberly quit her job and settled into her dream of being a wife and mother in a quiet neighborhood.
"She always wanted a nice house in the suburbs. She didn't have much growing up," said Hallstrom.
Their tidy, two-story home across the road from Lake Fenton had been Douglas Wright's from his failed first marriage.
Wamback said Kimberly came over frequently, sometimes asking for tips on cooking or showing off her latest culinary mistake.
In October 1984, Kimberly gave birth to Benjamin, the couple's only child. Douglas Wright already had one son.
Kimberly Wright spent hours with her son playing games and challenging him with learning activities, Wamback said. On Sundays, she and Benjamin would go to the United Methodist Church a couple of miles away, where she helped with Sunday school.
But Douglas Wright was having problems at work.
While working under Gage at the state police, Wright had been disciplined numerous times since being hired in March 1975. A 30-day unpaid suspension came in 1984 after a Flint man said Wright stomped him in the back while he was handcuffed, breaking three ribs.
The state twice tried to fire Wright, but both times the penalty was reduced by an arbitrator, according to state records.
By the time he was fired in January 1990 for failing to honor a court subpoena, Wright had been suspended four times for a total of 85 days and received several written reprimands, according to one state police memo.
After leaving the state police, Wright had short stints as a police officer in Holly and Gaines, then tried his hand at being a private investigator.
Gradually, Kimberly Wright's mood began to darken and she became withdrawn, said Sevick.
"She was angry all the time," Sevick said.
Eventually, Kimberly Wright began to detail the horrors of a marriage that she said was dominated by mental and physical abuse.
Up until then, Hallstrom said, her cousin had projected the image of a happy, suburban housewife and mother and was too embarrassed to reveal that she was being physically, emotionally and financially abused.
Hallstrom, who spent a week at Wright's home in April 1993, just before she died, said her cousin claimed Douglas Wright would lift her off the ground by her head and smash her head against the wall.
"A couple of times, when she had bruises on her face, she told people she was (injured) playing tennis," Hallstrom said.
Douglas Wright began divorce proceedings in August 1992, and Kimberly Wright filed a counter-complaint in January 1993. She made no allegations of abuse, according to court records.
Despite the separation, Douglas Wright still paid frequent visits to the Grove Park Road house.
"He still had a key to the house, and he was constantly there," Hallstrom said. "She'd come home, and he'd be there doing yard work."
Kimberly Wright went through a nightly security ritual, putting a baseball bat in the track of a sliding door and checking windows, among other precautions, Hallstrom said. Kimberly Wright claimed her estranged husband often drove around the neighborhood at night, Hallstrom said.
"The hair stood up on the back of my neck the whole time I was there," she said. "I just had a bad, bad feeling. She absolutely was terrified of him."
Kimberly Wright told Sevick that Douglas Wright was trying to persuade her to sign over ownership of their home to him, sometimes sitting for hours in the lobby of the Genesee County treasurer's office, where she had taken a job, waiting for her to leave work.
Sevick last talked with Kimberly Wright by phone the Friday night before she died. Wright said her car had broken down so she called Douglas Wright for a ride to work. Sevick said she angrily asked why Kimberly kept calling him and told her she needed to make a clean break.
Before hanging up, Kimberly Wright told Sevick that Douglas was coming over the next night to straighten everything out about the divorce.
"I told her to call me if she needed anything," Sevick said.
Sunday morning, Sevick got a phone call telling her that her best friend was dead.
In an apparent attempt to intimidate Douglas Wright into confessing immediately after his wife's death, detectives had his car fingerprinted and examined for clues while it was parked outside a Fenton funeral home during his estranged wife's wake. But nothing was found.
The bulldog
The official reopening of Kimberly Wright's death was put on hold until last year, when sheriff's investigators cracked the 1991 slaying of a Clio woman.
Looking to make another arrest in an old case, Pickell said he assigned the Wright case to a young detective with "a face like a choir boy" and the tenacity of a bulldog.
Detective David Dwyer, 31, working his first homicide investigation, talked to old witnesses and tracked down new ones.
In May, he flew to Florida to talk with Douglas Wright, who moved to Boynton Beach with his girlfriend and Benjamin less than a year after Kimberly Wright's death.
He had applied for a job as a crime scene investigator at the time of the interview, Pickell said.
Pickell declined to comment on specifics of Dwyer's interview with Wright, but said the results were enough to convince prosecutors to issue a warrant for his arrest. Dwyer returned to Boynton Beach in early August and arrested Wright on murder and weapon charges.
The nine-year gap between the night of Kimberly Wright's death and the filing of charges could be problematic for prosecutors, said Lapeer County Prosecutor Byron Konschuh.
A defense attorney might argue the elapsed time has changed memories, but quality prosecution witnesses can overcome that, he said.
When asked if someone might reasonably confuse details from an event that happened nine years ago, Pickell scoffed.
"Some things are so horrific they become etched in your mind," he said. "You don't forget something like that."
Konschuh said he has won convictions on decade-old sexual assault cases that relied on circumstantial evidence and witness statements.
"They aren't easy cases, but they can be won," Konschuh said.
While Kimberly Wright's friends and family wait anxiously for the trial, there is no happiness.
Instead, their thoughts go to her son and the pain they say he must be enduring right now.
"I truly feel sorry for him," Wamback said. "It's just incredibly sad for everybody."
Hallstrom said her family bears no ill will toward investigators. The nine-year delay in prosecuting Wright gave him the chance to raise Benjamin, who is now 17, she said.
"These nine years were a gift, and we feel very strongly about that," Hallstrom said. "(Benjamin) at least had the chance to grow up with a father who loves him very much.
"Douglas is still part of our family. We still love him. He's still (Benjamin's) father."
Former cop faces trial in slaying
Suicide account suspicious
Flint Journal
November 2, 2002
Douglas J. Wright, a former state police officer, initially lied to police about details of his wife's suspected 1993 suicide, moved the weapon - which he had brought to the home - and cleaned himself up, according to court testimony.
After seeing his wife with a gun and hearing a shot, instead of investigating, he went outside for nearly an hour before calling police to report a suicide.
Central District Judge Larry J. Stecco said those actions are "inconsistent with innocence" and ordered Wright to stand trial in the slaying of his wife.
Following a preliminary examination Friday, Stecco scheduled a Nov. 25 circuit court arraignment for Wright, 50, on charges of murder and felony firearm use.
Wright is charged in the May 1, 1993, death of Kimberly Thompson Wright, 34, in the basement of her Grove Park Road home in Fenton Township.
Stecco also relied on the testimony of a pathologist in ordering Wright to trial.
Dr. Qazi Azher, who performed the autopsy on Kimberly Wright, said it would have been difficult for her to shoot herself based on the entrance wound and track of the bullet.
He said she was shot in the lower middle chest, and the bullet traveled upward, penetrating her heart and lungs before stopping under her left shoulder.
Azher said the gun used was not pressed against her body, but was an inch away, and that Kimberly Wright had a blood-alcohol level of nearly 0.40. Michigan law considers a person intoxicated at a level of 0.10. The alcohol impairment would have made the gunshot that much harder to self-inflict.
"It is possible, but very difficult," Azher said.
He also said women who commit suicide seldom shoot through their clothing, and most people who kill themselves place the gun against their heart or head.
Azher ruled the death indeterminate because of "doubts and inconsistencies."
He also said there was no gunshot residue on Kimberly Wright's hands.
Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David J. Newblatt told Stecco the physical evidence at the scene leaned more toward a homicide than a suicide.
The case was originally investigated by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, and no charges were brought against Wright, but the case remained open.
Wright, who spent 14 years with the state police before being fired in 1989 for lying about missing a court appearance, later worked as a cop in Gaines Township and Holly before moving to Florida in 1994, where he held sales jobs at an insurance firm and a power washing company. He also worked part time as a security guard.
Kimberly Wright had been working as a temporary clerk in the county treasurer's office for a few months before her death. She also had worked as a dispatcher in the Flint Police Department.
At the time of the shooting, Douglas Wright had filed for divorce and was living with another woman.
But defense attorney Dennis R. Lazar, who represents Douglas Wright, said Wright went to the home that night to talk about the couple's planned divorce.
Wright was interviewed by police after the shooting and said the couple had sex but then began arguing over the divorce.
Wright said he went outside and returned later to find his wife shot in the basement, cradling his 9mm handgun.
Wright said he moved the weapon several times and then wrapped it in a towel. He said he also unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate his wife.
Wright told sheriff's Detective Sgt. David Dwyre that he still does not know why he moved the weapon, but said he cleaned the scene because the place was messy, and he didn't want his cop buddies to see it in that condition.
But he also said he and Kimberly tussled, and she threw glasses at him, which broke on the floor.
He said she had his gun as he was walking out of the basement and told him he would "pay for this for the rest of his life." Then he heard a shot, he said.
Wright told Dwyre he went outside and played for nearly an hour before checking on her.
Dwyre said Wright at one point was crying and hunched over, but would not change his story.
"I'm responsible for her death, but I did not pull the trigger," he told Dwyre.
"I'm going to tell a jury the same thing I've told you guys: nothing," Dwyre said Wright told him.
Lazar's defense will be based in part on Kimberly Wright's death occurring one day before Douglas Wright's birthday to hurt him; Kimberly having lost a parent and reeling out of control; Kimberly being an alcoholic; and that no new evidence has emerged since 1993.
Former Holly officer to stand trial
MyFenton.com
Nov 7, 2002
https://www.tctimes.com/former-holly-officer-to-stand-trial/article_8e1f22ec-ee25-5594-a6e8-7d0d81aab782.html
Genesee County District Court Judge Larry J. Stecco ordered former Michigan State Police trooper and Holly Police officer Douglas J. Wright to stand trial on Friday for the May 1, 1993 shooting death of his 34-year-old wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright.
The trial will begin the morning of Nov. 25. The time of the trial and the judge to be assigned to hear it have yet to be determined.
Police say Kimberly's death was originally reported as a suicide by her husband via a 911 call.
But Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell and County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch reopened the case earlier this year on Aug. 5, and brought charges a few days later, charging Wright with open murder, after a break in the case.
As the two brought charges, Wright was arrested in Boyton Beach., Fla. He waived extradition and arrived in Flint a few days later.
Wright now stands accused of shooting his wife in the chest at close range with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in the basement of their Grove Park Road home in Fenton Township the day before Wright's 41st birthday.
After more than nine years, Pickell said there was a break in the case. He praised Sgt. David Dwyer for uncovering evidence consistent with the belief that the scene of Kimberly's death had been tampered with.
During Friday's testimony, Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David J. Newblatt said Wright's attorney argued that Wright, who had filed for divorce, went to visit his wife at their home the night of her death.
Testimony revealed that the two engaged in sex, Newblatt said, and later quarreled. He added that Kimberly was said to have even thrown glasses at Wright, which shattered on the floor.
Wright said he left his wife alone and then heard the gunshot.
But instead of dialing 911, Newblatt said Wright spoke of going outdoors and "playing" in the yard, where, for 45-60 minutes, he let out his dogs, moved the yard tractor and picked up some of his son's toys.
Newblatt said Wright then went inside the home and found his wife dead on their basement sofa.
But Newblatt said there are several pieces that don't add up.
A toxicology report during Kimberly's autopsy revealed that she had a potentially fatal blood alcohol content of .40 - four times what the state of Michigan classifies as drunk.
Newblatt noted pathology reports confirmed that Kimberly did not have any gun powder from the gun on her hands, nor had she bled anywhere but on the sofa on which she was alleged to have instantly died.
Pathology reports, Newblatt continued, indicated that the direction in which the bullet entered and then traveled through Kimberly's body make it unlikely that Kimberly pulled her own trigger, especially after consuming so much alcohol.
"How can anybody in that state of mind decide to go get a gun, get up and actually go get the gun, come back to the couch and decide to shoot herself the way in which she was supposed to have done?" Newblatt asked. "It just wouldn't happen."
Most people who use guns to take their own lives, Newblatt added, aim for the head or directly at the heart, not at a 30 degree upward angle just under the breastplate.
More incriminating evidence will be revealed as the trial proceeds, said Newblatt, who expects a hard battle.
"He's maintaining his innocence," Newblatt said, noting he anticipates Wright's attorney to refute or justify evidence later entered into the case. "It's going to be a war, this trial."
2002 year in review
MyFenton.com
January 02, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/2002-year-in-review/article_03de0022-19b2-5991-960b-aaeea33c1f35.html
Bad boys - and girls
Police officers did not discriminate while filing charges against local residents in 2002 - a year in which old cases were resolved, while another was reopened after nine years.
On Aug. 5, Genesee County Sheriff's authorities traveled to Florida to arrest former Michigan State Police trooper and Holly Police officer Douglas James Wright, 50, for the May 1, 1993 shooting death of his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright, in the basement of their Fenton Township home. County prosecutors say they plan to demonstrate that evidence found at the scene, believed to have been tampered with shortly after the shooting, will be enough to convict Wright for murder. His trial date has not been set.
MyFenton.com
January 02, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/2002-year-in-review/article_03de0022-19b2-5991-960b-aaeea33c1f35.html
Bad boys - and girls
Police officers did not discriminate while filing charges against local residents in 2002 - a year in which old cases were resolved, while another was reopened after nine years.
On Aug. 5, Genesee County Sheriff's authorities traveled to Florida to arrest former Michigan State Police trooper and Holly Police officer Douglas James Wright, 50, for the May 1, 1993 shooting death of his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright, in the basement of their Fenton Township home. County prosecutors say they plan to demonstrate that evidence found at the scene, believed to have been tampered with shortly after the shooting, will be enough to convict Wright for murder. His trial date has not been set.
Police Files - Douglas Wright - Quash Squashed
MyFenton.com
February 17, 2003
Quash Squashed
A motion (quash) to have the charges against Douglas Wright, who allegedly murdered his wife Kimberly Wright on May 2, 1993, was denied by Judge Geoffrey Neithercut Feb. 1, said Genesee County Assistant Prosecutor David Newblatt. "The defense attorney wanted the case thrown out of court. I knew that was not likely to happen," Newblatt said.
A trial date has been set for March 5, but may be moved, Newblatt said. Wright is charged with open murder and felony firearm. He faces life in prison without parole.
Murder trial begins for former cop
Flint Journal
May 8, 2003
Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David J. Newblatt told jurors that former state trooper Douglas J. Wright killed his wife 10 years ago and took steps to ensure that her death looked like a suicide.
But Dennis R. Lazar, the attorney representing Wright in the murder trial, said Kimberly Thompson Wright was a chronic alcoholic "who planned her death" because she could not save the couple's marriage.
Jurors will have to separate fact from fiction in the trial before Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut.
Wright, 51, could spent the rest of his life in prison if convicted in the case, which hinges largely on circumstantial evidence.
Newblatt and Lazar are expected to call up to 30 witness, and the trial could stretch over several weeks.
What is undisputed is that Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead May 1, 1993, from a gunshot wound to her chest in the basement of her home at 2339 Grove Park Road, Fenton Township.
The case originally was investigated by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, and no charges were brought against Wright, but the case remained open.
Wright, who spent 14 years with the state police before he was fired in 1989 for lying about missing a court appearance, later worked as a police officer in Gaines Township and Holly. He moved to Florida in 1994, where he sold insurance and was a sales representative for a power washing company. He also worked part time as a security guard.
Kimberly Wright had been working as a temporary clerk in the county treasurer's office for a few months before her death. She previously was a dispatcher in the Flint Police Department.
The investigation into her death was reopened in 1999, and Wright was charged after being re-questioned about the death from his residence in Boynton Beach, Fla.
Newblatt told jurors that Wright acted unusually after finding his wife dead.
"He did everything within his power to cover his tracks ... tamper with evidence ... and lie repeatedly," Newblatt said.
Before police arrived, Douglas Wright moved the gun, cleaned himself up, changed clothes and rearranged the scene, Newblatt said, and he then "acted like the bumbling, grieving man" when officers came.
Newblatt said Wright had filed for divorce and was living with another woman, but he wanted custody of their son, then 8, the house and other possessions.
The prosecutor described Wright as a controlling person and said Kimberly Wright was not going along with his plans.
He said Wright threatened, intimidated and stalked his wife, and he even shot her Labrador retriever to regain control of the situation.
Newblatt said Kimberly Wright told friends and relatives that she was frightened by her estranged husband, and she told some that "if anything happens to me, Doug did it."
On the night of his wife's death, Douglas Wright went to the residence to discuss their divorce, armed with a bottle of booze and a gun, Newblatt said.
While their son slept upstairs, the two drank and had sex, and she passed out on the couch after they argued about the divorce, Newblatt said.
Wright told police he went outside and returned an hour later to find her dead.
A pathologist at the time ruled the death indeterminate, saying a drunken woman - Kimberly Wright's blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit - would have had a difficult time shooting herself in the manner suggested by the flight of the fatal bullet.
In addition, no gunpowder residue was found on her hands.
When the case was reopened last year, Newblatt said, Wright's story changed.
Newblatt said Wright now claims he saw her with the gun and heard the shot, but instead of helping, he went outside after she told him, "I'll make you pay for this for the rest of your life."
Lazar said the pathologist cannot rule the death a homicide, and he will present an expert witness who will definitely rule it as a suicide.
He also said he has witnesses who will say Kimberly Wright was a "chronic alcoholic," and Douglas Wright filed for divorce to get her attention on her heavy drinking.
"Kimberly Wright feared her alcoholism would be exposed," causing her to lose custody of her son, Lazar said.
She said she planned her suicide to occur 30 minutes before Doug Wright's 41st birthday, Lazar said, adding, "That was her birthday present to Doug."
Ex-trooper testifies on details of wife's death
Flint Journal
May 22, 2003
Former state Trooper Douglas J. Wright told jurors he did not kill his wife but spoke gently to her as he cradled her body in his arms after her apparent suicide.
"I told her I was sorry ... that it didn't have to come to this ... that I'd protect her and I'd see her in heaven," Wright said.
He also denied telling police he referred to her death as "a little thing 10 years ago" when they reopened an investigation into the death of Kimberly T. Wright.
Wright, 51, who faces murder and weapons charges in the May 1, 1993 death, will be on the witness stand again today after opting to testify in his defense.
The trial is in its second week before Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut. It could be in jurors' hands later today.
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead May 1, 1993, in the basement of her Fenton Township home at 2339 Grove Park Road from a gunshot wound to her chest.
The case was investigated by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and remained open until last year when charges were brought against Wright.
Police and prosecutors believe Wright shot his wife during an argument but took steps to make her death looked like a suicide.
Wright denies that.
Under questioning by his attorney, Dennis R. Lazar, Wright said he married Kimberly Wright in 1983 because she was "smart, witty and athletic."
But he said within 10 years, after the death of her father, his wife's drinking became an issue. He filed for divorce in 1992.
On the night of May 1, he said he went to her home - with a bottle of whiskey and a handgun - to discuss custody issues over the pending divorce.
Wright said they got into an argument, and he left as she threw glasses at him and told him he'd "pay for this" the rest of his life.
Wright said he heard a sound but went outside for at least 30 minutes before returning inside and seeing his wife dead on a basement couch.
After trying to revive her, Wright said, he called a friend and cleaned up the place before calling 911. He admitted to moving the weapon and wrapping it with a towel.
He denied washing up, although a deputy testified he believed Wright had washed his hands.
Wright, who had been fired four years earlier from the state police, eventually moved to Florida.
He eventually was reinterviewed by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and charged after giving a different version of events.
In one version, Wright said he was inside; in the other, he said he was outside. In one version he said he heard the shot; in another, he said he didn't.
Under cross-examination by assistant Genesee County Assistant Prosecutor David J. Newblatt, Wright said "I confused myself" and "I misspoke myself" over some of the statements.
Earlier in the trial, a pathologist said the cause of Kimberly Wright's death is undetermined. He said a drunk woman - Kimberly Wright's blood-alcohol level was more than three times above the limit at which a person is considered drunk for driving - would have a difficult time shooting herself in the manner suggested by the path of the fatal bullet.
But another pathologist hired by Lazar said her death was a suicide.
Former trooper's murder case heads to jury
Flint Journal
May 23, 2003
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today in the trial of Douglas J. Wright, a former state trooper accused of killing his wife a decade ago and making it look like a suicide.
Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David J. Newblatt told jurors during final arguments that he found more than five dozen circumstantial events, all pointing to Wright as a murderer.
"This is how somebody who's guilty acts," Newblatt said.
But Wright's attorney, Dennis R. Lazar, told jurors that police and prosecutors "tried to build their case on half-truths."
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead May 1, 1993, in the basement of her Fenton Township home at 2339 Grove Park Road. She had been shot in the chest.
The case originally was investigated by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, but no charges were brought against Wright until the case was reopened last year.
Witnesses testified that Wright threatened his wife, that she was too drunk to kill herself and she had shown no previous suicidal tendencies.
Newblatt said it is unreasonable to believe she shot herself, as the defense claimed, when her 8-year-old son was sleeping upstairs and she was planning a new life after her divorce.
Lazar said Kimberly Wright took out a huge life insurance policy shortly before her death and witnesses said she was acting strangely the day she died. He also blasted the recent investigation, calling the techniques "repugnant, repulsive and unconscionable."
Wright, 51, who was living in Florida when he was arrested, testified Thursday that Kimberly's suicide "was her choice, not mine."
Newblatt quizzed him on his inconsistent statements and Wright told him that "for every question asked there's several answers."
He told Lazar he wanted to save their marriage. Wright said he brought alcohol to the home that night "as a peace offering," even though he filed for divorce to shock her out of her chronic drinking.
"I don't know if I can (explain that), but it was my goal," he told Lazar.
Wright jury takes break for weekend
Flint Journal
May 24, 2003
Jurors deliberated for about five hours Friday but were sent home for the weekend in the case against former state trooper Douglas J. Wright.
Wright, 51, is charged with murdering his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright, a decade ago.
Police and prosecutors believe Wright shot his drunken, estranged wife after an argument over their pending divorce and made it appear as though she committed suicide.
Wright said he took liquor and his handgun to the home to discuss the divorce, although he said he had only filed to shock her to quit her chronic drinking.
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead from a gunshot wound to her chest May 1, 1993, in the basement of her Fenton Township home, 2339 Grove Park Road.
Douglas Wright, who testified in his own defense, admitted moving evidence at the scene but denied shooting her.
The case originally was investigated by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department, and no charges were brought against Wright until the case was reopened last year.
His defense hinges on accusations of shoddy police work and testimony that Kimberly Wright was a chronic alcoholic.
Both sides relied on the expert witness testimony of pathologists.
The prosecutor's pathologist said Kimberly Wright's death was a homicide, based on her level of intoxication and the difficulty she would have had placing a weapon against her chest in the manner suggested by the path of the bullet and wound.
A defense pathologist ruled her death a suicide.
Jurors will return to deliberations before Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut on Tuesday morning.
Verdict next step in Douglas Wright trial
MyFenton.com
May 27, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/verdict-next-step-in-douglas-wright-trial/article_84ca7e66-6f1f-5287-96ba-9a52c278ae92.html
The jury began deliberations in the murder trial of Douglas Wright Friday morning. Wright, 51, a former Holly police officer and Michigan State Police trooper, is accused of killing his wife Kimberly, 34, in May of 1993 and covering it up to look like a suicide.
Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David Newblatt gave jurors his 60 purple popsicle points during closing arguments Thursday. The points, which he likened to the purple tongue of a child who stole a popsicle, are the numerous circumstances of the case he said "don't add up."
"Circumstances are just as good, if not better, than eye witnesses. Circumstances don't lie. Only people lie," Newblatt said.
As he did in his opening arguments, Newblatt painted Kim Wright as an ambitious woman with a bright future who was looking to get out from under Doug Wright's control. Newblatt put various witness quotes from the trial on an overhead screen for the jury to see. One of the quotes was from Doug's first wife Linda. She said, "There is life after Douglas Wright."
Linda gave Doug a divorce on his terms, Newblatt said, but Kim didn't. He said she wanted custody of their 8-year-old son, Ben, and her share of their house.
"Kim was a fighter. Kim wasn't a pushover," Newblatt said. He went on to say Wright "controlled his problem with the most violent and drastic means possible."
Defense attorney Dennis Lazar also gave the same portrait of Kim he did in his opening argument. He said Kim was a depressed alcoholic afraid of an upcoming divorce hearing where she might lose custody of Ben. She killed herself to punish Doug, Lazar said.
Lazar also attacked the investigation and detectives involved in the case.
"They don't have a single witness or report they didn't have 10 years ago," Lazar said. He called their investigation "criminal" and said it "smacked of injustice and inservice."
The investigation was reopened after Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell took office. Undersheriff James Gage, who had been Wright's supervisor at the Michigan State Police Flint Post, was the one who persuaded Pickell to reopen the case. Wright was arrested in Florida on Aug. 5, 2002 and is being held without bond in the Genesee County Jail. He is charged with first degree murder and faces life in prison if convicted.
Ex-trooper guilty in estranged wife's murder
Flint Journal
May 29, 2003
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
More than 10 years after he called police to report that his estranged wife had committed suicide in her Fenton Township home, a former state trooper on Wednesday was convicted of killing her.
Douglas J. Wright, 51, showed no emotion as a Genesee County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and felony firearm possession in the death of Kimberly J. Wright.
"We're so grateful," said Beth Hallstrom, Kim Wright's cousin. "We knew that justice would come. It just took 10 years and 27 days, but we knew it would come."
Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut set a June 25 sentencing date for Wright, who could face up to life in prison.
The jury deliberated about 14 hours over three days after a hard-fought trial that began May 6. One juror appeared shaken as the panel delivered the verdicts.
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead May 1, 1993, in the basement of her home on Grove Park Road, across from Lake Fenton. She had been shot once in the chest with a handgun her husband brought to the house.
The case remained open until last year, when the Genesee County Sheriff's Department revived the investigation and sought charges.
"I hope this helps the family find some closure," said Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David Newblatt, who argued that Wright shot his wife during an argument and tried to make it look like a suicide.
The circumstantial case hinged on testimony by medical experts and Wright's sometimes conflicting accounts of what happened.
Wright testified that he went to Kim Wright's home on the night of her death to discuss issues of their pending divorce, bringing a handgun and a bottle of liquor with him, he said.
The two began arguing, and he left the basement as she threw glasses at him and said he would "pay for this."
Wright said he was outside for about 30 minutes before returning to find his wife dead on a couch. He tried to revive her, then called a friend and did some cleaning before dialing 911, he said.
Wright admitted moving the gun and wrapping it in a towel.
On cross-examination, Newblatt grilled Wright about inconsistencies in his statements. At one point, Wright said he was inside when the shooting occurred. In another, he was outside. He also gave conflicting accounts about whether he heard the gunshot.
A pathologist at Hurley Medical Center testified that Kim Wright was so drunk that she would have had a hard time shooting herself in the manner suggested by the path of the bullet.
But a defense expert said the medical evidence supported suicide as the cause of death.
Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said Wright probably would not have been convicted had Detective Sgt. David Dwyre not re-interviewed Wright in Florida last year.
"He has unusually good interviewing skills," said Pickell, who also lauded Newblatt's efforts.
Dwyre obtained incriminating statements from Wright, although his tactics were criticized by defense attorney Dennis R. Lazar during the trial as "repugnant, repulsive and unconscionable."
Wright had been fired from the state police about four years before the shooting and worked for two local police departments. He moved to Florida shortly afterward with his son by Kimberly, now 18.
"We are absolutely heartbroken (for the boy)," said Hallstrom, of Clearfield, Pa., one of eight family members who came from out of state to testify or watch the trial. "He will always remain the absolute most important person in all this mess."
The son testified in the trial and was in the courtroom when the verdicts came in.
Hallstrom said she also sympathizes with the rest of Douglas Wright's family.
"I can't imagine what they're going through," she said. "There are no winners here. I feel a sense of justice, but certainly not a sense of triumph."
MAN GUILTY OF KILLING HIS WIFE
Palm Beach Post
May 30, 2003
The probe into a deadly shooting 10 years ago in a Michigan basement, which took a dramatic turn in Boynton Beach last year, has ended in a conviction.
Douglas Wright, 51, a former Boynton Beach resident who served as a Michigan state trooper for 15 years, was convicted Wednesday of killing his 34-year-old wife in May 1993.
Initially, the shooting death appeared to be a suicide, but police became suspicious because Wright cleaned up the scene so thoroughly. Kimberly Wright had been shot through the chest.
The couple had been in the midst of ending their nine-year marriage before Wright's death. Detectives questioned Douglas Wright extensively at the time, but didn't have enough evidence to prove the death was not a suicide. The case went cold.
When a new sheriff took office in Genesee County, Mich., detectives began to reinvestigate. They uncovered mistakes in the original investigation, including the failure to conduct a test to determine whether Wright had fired a gun that night and allowing him to change clothes, according to published reports.
Also, the victim's blood-alcohol level was so high investigators believed she wasn't capable of suicide.
About a year ago, detectives flew to Boynton Beach, where Wright had moved with his son. Investigators obtained incriminating statements from him during questioning, according to reports in The Flint Journal.
In August, they returned with a Michigan warrant for homicide, arrested Wright and got him extradited to Michigan, where he was tried and convicted.
The jury deliberated 14 hours. Wright faces a life sentence.
Douglas Wright found guilty of murder
MyFenton.com
Jun 2, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/douglas-wright-found-guilty-of-murder/article_a750ff56-513c-50b3-a741-d49ffb32b4ba.html
After three days of deliberations, a Genesee County jury convicted Douglas Wright of second degree murder and felony firearms possession Wednesday.
I hope this gives some comfort to the family of Kimberly Wright," said Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David Newblatt.
Wright, 51, a former Holly police officer and Michigan State Police trooper, was accused of killing his wife, Kimberly, 34, in May of 1993 and covering it up to look like a suicide.
During closing arguments last Thursday, Newblatt gave jurors his 60 purple popsicle points. The points, which he likened to the purple tongue of a child who stole a popsicle, are the numerous circumstances of the case he said "don't add up."
"The jury made the right decision and did a very good job," Newblatt said.
Defense attorney Dennis Lazar tried to paint the victim as a chronic alcoholic afraid of losing custody of her son. He also attacked the investigation as "lazy" and "criminal."
The investigation was reopened after Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell took office. Undersheriff James Gage, who had been Wright's supervisor at the Michigan State Police Flint Post, was the one who persuaded Pickell to reopen the case.
Wright was arrested in Florida on Aug. 5, 2002 and is being held without bond in the Genesee County Jail. Sentencing is scheduled for June 25 at 8:30 a.m.
Wright faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Wright gets 25-50 years in murder
Flint Journal
June 26, 2003
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
A judge told Douglas J. Wright that jurors believed he became his own worst enemy when he testified last month in a trial for killing his wife a decade earlier.
Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut said jurors told him that Wright, using his own words during cross examination, "convicted himself" in the May 1, 1993, slaying of his estranged wife, Kimberly.
Neithercut sentenced Wright, 51, a former state trooper, to 25-50 years in prison for second-degree murder and 2 years for felony firearm use.
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead in the basement of her home on Grove Park Road, across from Lake Fenton. She had been shot once in the chest with a handgun that her husband brought to the house.
The death appeared to be a suicide, but doubts and questions about the scene and Doug Wright's actions kept the case open. Investigators revived it last year and charged him with murder.
During his trial and again at his sentencing Wednesday, Doug Wright said his wife killed herself to hurt him for leaving her.
"I can't see it," Neithercut said. "I never bought that."
Still, before his sentencing, Wright spent more than 10 minutes blaming everyone and everything but himself for his wife's death.
Reading from a prepared statement, Wright called his wife a "chronic alcoholic" who could not get over the death of her father and arranged her own death because she was about to lose custody of their son in divorce proceedings.
"She could not live without me," he said.
He accused her of abusing their son and refuted testimony from her relatives that he abused her.
"I have never struck a woman - any woman," Wright said.
He said her suicide was tragic, "but there was no murder."
County Prosecutor David Newblatt disagreed.
"Doug Wright is a murderer, and Doug Wright is a liar," Newblatt said.
Wright testified that he went to his wife's home on the night of her death to discuss issues of their pending divorce, bringing a handgun and a bottle of liquor with him.
The two began arguing, and he left, he said. He was outside for about 30 minutes before returning to find his wife dead on a couch, he said.
He tried to revive her, then called a friend and did some cleaning before dialing 911, he said.
A pathologist at Hurley Medical Center testified that Kim Wright was so drunk that she would have had a hard time shooting herself in the manner suggested by the path of the bullet. A defense expert, however, said the medical evidence supported suicide as the cause of death.
Dennis R. Lazar, Wright's attorney, said the verdict will be appealed.
'Incredible' story gets Doug Wright 25-50 years for murder
MyFentonTimes.com
June 30, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/incredible-story-gets-doug-wright---years-for-murder/article_35f74dc2-01a5-5378-b0c5-78d269b7f001.html
Without regret or apology, Doug Wright took one last chance to blame other people for the murder of Kim Wright at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
"This whole ordeal is beyond unbelief," Wright said, clad in his orange inmate jumpsuit instead of the suits he wore during the trial. "I feel hurt as well as anger. I have been so wronged."
Wright went on to say that he was targeted by Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch because as a Michigan State Police trooper, he missed a court date to attend the funeral of Kim Wright's father.
After reading his written statement, Wright asked Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey Neithercut to overturn his conviction or have mercy on his sentencing.
Kim's cousin, Beth Halstrom, spoke on behalf of her family.
"For a man who loves control, I can think of nothing better than to be told where to go, what to wear and what to eat for the rest of his life," Halstrom said. "We are here to administer man's law, not God's."
After both attorneys and Wright had a chance to speak, Neithercut lectured Wright. He ripped apart the defense theory that Kim Wright was a depressed alcoholic who committed suicide to hurt Doug.
"The court finds it incredible that you could have a theory that she set up her own death to hurt you or her son. I never bought that," Neithercut said. He also said later that jurors told him Wright "convicted himself" when he took the stand.
Neithercut sentenced Wright to 25-50 years on the charge of second degree murder, the maximum sentence allowed, and two years for the felony firearms violation.
"You had a 10-year parole. You lived happy and free before this trial," Neithercut said.
Wright was charged with killing his wife, Kim, and then using his experience as a police officer to tamper with the scene. The case was initially ruled a suicide, but was reopened after Wright's former boss at the Michigan State Police convinced Sheriff Robert Pickell to look into it.
Wright was arrested in Florida Aug. 5, 2002 and was convicted May 28 of this year, after three days of deliberation.
Dennis Lazar, Wright's attorney, said they would be bringing in a specialist to appeal the conviction as soon as possible.
Neithercut ended the hearing by addressing the families in the audience.
"You all say you forgive, it's time to do that.
Flint Journal
December 15, 2003
https://infoweb.newsbank.com
A local murder case gets the national spotlight next week.
"Cold Case Files" on the A&E Network will air a segment on the case of former state trooper Douglas J. Wright, who was convicted this year of killing his wife a decade earlier.
The show, set to air at 9 p.m. Tuesday, will feature interviews with people involved in the case.
The segment, titled "The Bad Cop," will be one of two stories on the program, said Mike West, producer for Kurtis Productions.
The first segment on the program, titled "The Merry Widow," details a Maine woman's conviction after trying to have her husband killed in a murder-for-hire plot.
Wright, 51, was sentenced in June to serve 25-50 years in prison in the May 1, 1993, slaying of his estranged wife, Kimberly.
Kimberly Wright, 34, was found dead in the basement of her home on Grove Park Road, across from Lake Fenton in Fenton Township. She had been shot once in the chest with a handgun that her husband brought to the house.
The death appeared to be a suicide, but doubts and questions about the scene and Doug Wright's actions kept the case open. Investigators revived it last year and charged him with murder.
At his trial, Wright testified his wife killed herself to hurt him for leaving her, but jurors did not believe him. He was convicted of second-degree murder and a felony firearms violation.
Wright said he went to his wife's home on the night of her death to discuss issues of their pending divorce, bringing a handgun and a bottle of liquor with him.
The two began arguing, he said, and he left. He was outside for about 30 minutes before returning to find his wife dead on a couch, he said.
He said he tried to revive her, then called a friend and did some cleaning before dialing 911.
A pathologist at Hurley Medical Center testified that Kim Wright was so drunk that she would have had a hard time shooting herself in the manner suggested by the path of the bullet.
The segment will feature interviews with Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell and Undersheriff James S. Gage, who reopened the investigation in the case after lingering doubts.
Also on the program will be sheriff's Detective David Dwyre, the lead investigator in the case, former sheriff's Sgt. Ives Potrafka, Assistant County Prosecutor David J. Newblatt and Beth Hallstrom, the victim's sister.
Local murder case captures TV audience
MyFenton.Cpm
Dec 17, 2003
https://www.tctimes.com/local-murder-case-captures-tv-audience/article_e649fbc3-6271-59bf-bd68-7ebf2fe5355e.html
Local fans of the show "Cold Case Files" on the A&E network had a surprise Tuesday evening - their hometown was the subject of one of the episodes.
The episode, "Bad Cop" aired Tuesday at 9 p.m. and detailed the murder of Fenton Township resident Kimberly Wright in 1993. The case was originally ruled a suicide but police suspected her husband Douglas Wright, a former Michigan State Police Trooper, killed her. There wasn't enough evidence to charge him originally but that changed last August.
When Robert Pickell took over as Genesee County Sheriff, he began working on unsolved murder cases or "cold cases" in the area. In August of last year, detectives from the Genesee County Sheriff's Department arrestedWright in Florida for murder.
One of those detectives, Sgt. David Dwyer, was interviewed on Tuesday's episode. Pickell cited Dwyer's investigative work during the trial as essential to Wright's arrest.
"It was uncomfortable because I wasn't asking the questions," Dwyer said of the experience.
"But it was kind of exciting. It was a unique experience."
Another figure from the trial interviewed for the show was Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David Newblatt. He said shows like "Cold Case Files" help the community by bringing attention to unsolved murders.
"It puts a positive light on opening up these cold cases," he said. "I was happy to be a part of it."
The "Cold Case File" Web site says that episodes of the show are routinely used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to teach and evaluate investigative techniques.
Newblatt said a crew from A&E came to Flint in September and spent a day interviewing those involved with the case. He also said it was an exciting experience and had everyone he knew on hand to watch the show and said it was strange to see himself on TV.
Wright was convicted of second degree murder in May and sentenced to 25-50 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
The episode was supposed to be aired next week, Newblatt said, but was bumped up for unexplained reasons. It will be re-aired Wednesday at 1 a.m. and throughout the month on A&E.
Ex-cop loses appeal for new murder trial
Flint Journal
March 10, 2005
A former state trooper convicted of murdering his wife a decade after she was shot to death in Fenton Township has lost a bid for a new trial.
Douglas J. Wright raised numerous issues in his appeal, including prosecutorial misconduct, mistakes by his lawyer and errors by the judge as reasons for a new trial.
But in an opinion released Tuesday, a state Court of Appeals panel said he received a fair trial.
Wright is serving 25-50 years for second-degree murder, plus 2 years for felony firearm possession, in the May 1993 killing of Kimberly Wright, 34. He is assigned to a prison in Ionia, corrections records indicate.
Douglas Wright, who was a state trooper at the time, said his estranged wife shot herself in the basement of their Grove Park Road home after they had talked about their pending divorce.
He was not charged until 2002, after the Genesee County Sheriff's Department reopened the investigation and reinterviewed Wright at his home in Florida. A jury found him guilty after a hard-fought trial in May 2003.
Prosecutors argued that Wright, who had come to the house with a handgun and a bottle of liquor, shot his wife after an argument and tried to make it look like she had killed herself.
The case partly hinged on inconsistencies in Wright's statements to police, a pathologist's testimony that Kim Wright was too intoxicated to have shot herself in the chest and statements she made to friends and family that her husband might kill her.
In his appeal, Douglas Wright claimed his case was prejudiced by the long delay in prosecution and the admission of nearly two dozen hearsay statements by his wife.
"I thought there were some pretty good issues on appeal, especially the fact they took about nine years before they decided to prosecute him, as well as use of a lot of statements Mrs. Wright had made to a lot of her friends," said Daniel Bremer, Wright's appellate lawyer.
Wright also raised issues about jury instructions, juror misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct and his trial lawyer's effectiveness.
Bremer said he expects that the appeals court ruling will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Judges Joel P. Hoekstra, Mark J. Cavanaugh and Stephen L. Borello affirmed the conviction in a 13-page opinion.
Convicted killer will not get new trial
MyFenton.Com
Mar 18, 2005
https://www.tctimes.com/convicted-killer-will-not-get-new-trial/article_fe2e8ceb-8e05-5cbf-b255-2f7de2f5f29d.html
In a 13-page opinion released on March 8, Michigan Court of Appeals judges Stephen L. Borrello, Joel P. Hoekstra and Mark J. Cavanagh concluded that Douglas James Wright, formerly of Fenton Township, did receive a fair trial and will remain behind bars with no chance of a new trial.
Wright, now 52, was arrested on Aug. 5, 2002 for killing his wife, Kimberly Thompson Wright, 34, on May 1, 1993 in their Grove Park Road home along Lake Fenton with a single 9mm gunshot wound to the chest.
Wright is a former Holly Police officer and Michigan State Police- Flint Post trooper.
During his closing arguments, Assistant Genesee County Prosecutor David Newblatt gave jurors his 60 purple popsicle points. The points, which he likened to the purple tongue of a child who stole a popsicle, were the numerous circumstances of the case he said "don't add up."
After three days of deliberation, the jury found Wright guilty of second-degree murder and he was sentenced on June 25, 2003 to 25 to 50 years imprisonment for the murder conviction.
The court imposed a consecutive two-year sentence for the felony-firearm conviction.
The conviction was appealed by Wright, who contended he was prejudiced by the nine-year delay in his arrest.
He also contended hearsay statements by his wife, before her death, to family and friends, should not have been allowed during the trial as well as evidence that he had committed certain bad acts prior to his wife's death. In all, Wright issued seven separate items, for which he said he should receive a new trial.
The state of Michigan Court of Appeals judges upheld the decisions of the Genesee County jury.
The shooting occurred at the couple's home after the two spent the evening consuming alcohol and discussing their pending divorce, according to court records.
Wright told investigators he went out into the yard because their discussion was going nowhere, that he did not hear a gunshot, and that Kimberly was dead when he returned a few minutes later.
Police said Wright initially called 911 to report that his wife had committed suicide after he found her body in the home's basement.
Due to lack of evidence, the case was closed and remained closed until Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell took office in 1999.
Pickell and then-County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch reopened it at the urging of Undersheriff James Gage, who was Wright's supervisor at the Michigan State Police-Flint Post. Pickell said at the time, his investigators told him they had reason to believe the scene of death had been tampered with.
The couple's 8-year-old son was asleep in an upstairs bedroom at the time of the shooting and the only other people in the house at the time were Kimberly and Wright, according to court records.
The forensic pathologist who conducted Kimberly's autopsy concluded that she died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, but listed the manner of death as indeterminate.
A second forensic pathologist reviewed the autopsy report in 1993 and again in 2002. On both occasions, he concluded that Kimberly's death was a homicide.
Court records state that in March of 2002, Detective David Dwyer of the Genesee County Sheriff's Department interviewed Wright several times and obtained a formal statement in which Wright admitted to being inside the house when the shot was fired, contrary to what he had said previously.
Wright's statement resulted in his arrest in August of 2002. Sheriff's deputies traveled to Wright's home in Boynton Beach, Fla. to make the arrest and extradite him back to Flint.
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Case #2: The Bad Cop
http://bbs.historytravel.com/tv/shows/coldcasefiles/archives.jsp?aid=10023057
On the night of May 1, 1993, police in Fenton, Michigan are called to the home of Kimberly Wright. The cause? A reported suicide. But, what officials find when they arrive on the scene is confounding. Kimberly’s estranged husband, a former state trooper, has completely contaminated the scene. The victim’s body has been moved, the weapon cleaned and other evidence packed away. Detectives immediately suspect Doug Wright of murder, but with no hard evidence and an inconclusive determination from the medical examiner, the investigation simply stalls.
Eight years later, a new sheriff and his team take a fresh look at Kimberly Wright’s case and determine the only way to shake up their number one suspect is to get him talking. This time a battle of wills is in order. But what will it take to prove that Doug Wright is really THE BAD COP?
Cold Case Files - A Sister Lost; Rumors of Murder
KICU
Aired on Sunday, Mar 14, 2010 (3/14/2010) at 12:00 PM
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/cold_case_files-(a_sister_lost%3B_rumors_of_murder)/612/KICU/Sunday_March_14_2010/222626/
Transcripts:
KURTIS: In Fenton, Michigan, what was once a marriage is now a battleground. Doug and Kimberly Wright are separated and well on their way to a divorce. They fight tooth and nail over everything: the house, the alimony, and custody of their young son. On the evening of May 1, 1993, a call comes in to Genesee County 911 from Kimberly Wright's home. It's Doug Wright. He tells police his wife has shot herself.
KURTIS: Deputy Doug Sepanak is the first officer to arrive at the Wright home.
DEPUTY DOUG SEPANAK: Doug Wright met me at the door, and when you're a police officer, there's certain things you'll key in on that will throw up little flags so that you know what to watch out for. When I shook his hand, his hands were all wet still. He told me he just washed his hands.
KURTIS: Sepanak thinks washing ones hands should be the last thing on Doug Wright's mind. He recognizes Wright as a former Michigan state trooper recently fired for discipline problems. The officer asks where Wright's wife might be found. He leads the way downstairs to a rec room in the basement.
DEPUTY DOUG SEPANAK: And lying on the couch was Kim. She had a hole in her shirt about the mid-sternum area.
KURTIS: Wright tells Sepanak he tried to resuscitate Kimberly by performing CPR on the couch-- a fact that doesn't sit well with the deputy.
DEPUTY DOUG SEPANAK: One of the first things they teach you in CPR is you do it on a hard surface, and the couch is no place to do CPR.
KURTIS: For Sepanak, the facts inside Kimberly Wright's home are not necessarily making sense. He calls in forensics to process the scene as a possible homicide and asks Doug Wright to come down to the station. Just a few hours after the death of his wife, Doug Wright sits down with detective Ives Potrafka. Wright says he went to Kimberly's house to talk about their pending divorce. He brought with him his briefcase containing divorce papers, a nine-millimeter Sig Sauer pistol, and two bottles of Black Velvet whiskey.
DETECTIVE POTRAFKA: You wouldn't think a person, if they wanted a serious discuss, would bring a lot of liquor with them. And I would not have thought he would have been bringing a weapon with him in his briefcase. That seems a little unusual.
KURTIS: Wright says he and Kimberly drank hard, then fought even harder. At one point, according to Wright, he went outside to cool off, leaving Kimberly alone with his gun and the whiskey. Wright claims he was outside for about 40 minutes, moved a lawn tractor, and cleaned up the yard a bit. Then Wright went back inside and found Kimberly, his gun in her hand, and a hole in her chest. According to Wright, he never heard a shot fired.
DEPUTY DOUG SEPANAK: Did not hear the shot-- that was his statement.
KURTIS: Upon finding the body, Wright claims he panicked, moved Kimberly, and tried CPR, wrapped the murder weapon in a towel so his son couldn't get at it, put away the whiskey bottles. In short, Wright, an experienced police officer, thoroughly contaminated the scene.
DEPUTY DOUG SEPANAK: A law-enforcement officer that has been in any kind of crime scene knows you don't move anything, period. You just move nothing. He should have known better. He just should have known better. It should have been instinct, being in law enforcement 20 years.
KURTIS: Though Doug Wright's story bothers Potrafka, he knows it doesn't provide enough evidence to support a charge of murder. The detective hopes Kimberly's autopsy, scheduled for the next morning, will help clarify matters. Dr. Qazi Azher does between five and ten autopsies per week. On the morning of May 2, he looks at the body of Kimberly Wright. The gunshot wound that killed Wright is in the upper abdomen, just below the rib cage. The critical question before Dr. Azher: Is this a suicide or a homicide?
DR. QAZI AZHER: About 80% of the people, if they use a handgun, they shoot to the head, and the rest of the people shoot to the chest, towards the left side because they know that the heart is on the left side. So in this case, why she selected an area which is difficult to reach and difficult to shoot-- so that created a doubt in me.
KURTIS: A strange shot for a suicide, but by no means impossible. Next, Azher moves to toxicology. Tests show Kimberly Wright's blood alcohol content to be .4%-- a huge amount of liquor-- which makes Azher wonder if Kim Wright was sober enough to even pull the trigger. On the other hand, alcohol is a key ingredient in most suicides. Azher concludes the evidence is conflicting and declines to say whether this case is a suicide or a homicide.
DR. QAZI AZHER: I will leave this as indeterminate, and maybe in the future we will have some more clues and some more information which could lead to the correct manner of death.
KURTIS: Azher's finding doesn't help Potrafka, who believes the totality of evidence points strongly towards murder staged as a suicide.
DETECTIVE POTRAFKA: When you started putting it all together, that's what I believed happened-- not only from the crime scene, but we received numerous calls from people that knew her that said that this lady was devoted to her son, there's no way-- call after call after call.
KURTIS: One such call is from Kimberly's cousin, Beth Hallstrom, who tells Potrafka about the constant stream of threats Doug used to level at his wife.
BETH HALLSTROM: He would tell her... her pet name for my mother was Aunt Bets, and he would say, "I haven't been a cop for all these years without learning a thing or two; I can kill you and make it look like your Aunt Bets did it."
KURTIS: Hallstrom's statements strengthen the case against Wright, but leave it far short of what is needed in a court of law.
DETECTIVE POTRAFKA: It was a circumstantial case. It wasn't like we found his gun, and he claimed it wasn't his gun. He said it was his gun. He said he took it there. He said he moved the body. He admitted to all this stuff. It wasn't like you found this piece of evidence and say, "Oh, I caught you in a lie."
KURTIS: The prosecutor agrees with Potrafka's assessment of the case and declines to file charges. The Wright case remains open and stone cold, until a young detective manages to do what no one else ever could-- catch Doug Wright in a lie.
KURTIS: In 1993, Kimberly Wright dies in her home from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Detectives who work the scene suspect that her estranged husband, Doug, pulled the trigger. Wright, a former cop, claims he was outside when the shooting happened and that Kimberly shot herself. The case goes cold and remains cold almost nine years. In 2000, Genesee County gets a new sheriff, a man by the name of Robert Pickell. Pickell hires a second in command, a former state cop named James Gage. When Pickell suggests they start reopening cold homicides, Gage starts talking about a cop he once worked with-- a cop by the name of Doug Wright.
UNDERSHERIFF JAMES GAGE: He said that everybody in the state police knew that he murdered his wife and that he was a man who got away with murder. Even back in '93, we felt there was enough there for a warrant, but the prosecutor's office didn't at that time.
KURTIS: Pickell and Gage agree the only way to shake Wright's story is to get him talking. Pickell selects one of his youngest and youngest-looking detectives to take on the assignment-- a 32-year-old rookie named David Dwyre.
SHERIFF ROBERT PICKELL: He doesn't alarm anyone. He looks like a choirboy. He's not threatening, but he has all of the right ingredients.
DETECTIVE DAVID DWYRE: I had only about a year in as a detective, and it was pretty humbling that the administration had the confidence in me to assign me such a important case.
KURTIS: Dwyre preps for the interrogation by poring through case files, memorizing Wright's initial statements to police, and anticipating how the suspect might react to a new round of questioning.
DETECTIVE DAVID DWYRE: To me, the key that was going to make the case was going to be Doug Wright and his statements. He tarnished the scene. He moved the gun. He wrapped it in a towel. He cleaned up afterwards. Any one of those things would be a flag that this is problematic.
KURTIS: After familiarizing himself with the file, Dwyre sits down with his boss, Sheriff Pickell, himself a master interrogator for 15 years.
SHERIFF ROBERT PICKELL: I knew Dwyre would get him talking because of the psychology of the suspect. Wright had to know what does this guy Dwyre know? Wright had to know what does this guy Dwyre know? Wright had to know what does this guy Dwyre know? He would engage him in a conversation to find out what he knew about the murder and what his suspicions were.
KURTIS: Pickell's undersheriff, however, isn't quite so optimistic.
UNDERSHERIFF JAMES GAGE: Doug Wright could lie to the devil himself and make it convincing. I've seen it, and I thought, "There's no way that he's going to talk to this young detective."
KURTIS: On March 19, Dwyre catches a flight to Florida, where Doug Wright now lives. Back in Genesee County, two seasoned detectives wait and watch. Dwyre shows up at Doug Wright's home with two local detectives. Wright is in the garage, working on his son's bike.
DETECTIVE DAVID DWYRE: He was totally unprepared, and here comes a guy walking up there with two detectives, and then I'm in a suit, just boom, "I need to speak with you."
KURTIS: The two men sit down at Wright's kitchen table. Dwyre is on the offensive from the start, laying out his problems with Wright's statement, claiming he can prove Wright was inside the house when the gun went off. Dwyre is bluffing, but hopes he can shake Wright up. For his part, the suspect is as silent as the grave.
DETECTIVE DAVID DWYRE: I know what an innocent person should have said. "Your investigation is junk. I was outside." But when he says... and just stares at me, all right, he was there. This is what I have to work on.
KURTIS: Wright says he will think about what the detective has said and get back to him. Then the suspect shows Dwyre to the front door. The next morning, David Dwyre is just getting back from a jog when the phone rings. It's Doug Wright. He wants to meet again. Working with local police, Dwyre gets outfitted with a recording device that looks like an ordinary cell phone. He meets Dwyre at a local hotel. The two go outside and sit down at a picnic table. Dwyre pretends to be Wright's friend. He says it's possible that Kimberly shot herself, but Wright's insistence on being outside when the gun went off is making him look like a liar.
KURTIS: After a few minutes, Doug Wright opens up, retelling his story of what happened that night. It's a story that has changed dramatically.
KURTIS: Wright now says he was inside the house when he heard the shot heard that killed his wife.
DETECTIVE DAVID DWYRE: He says, "I get into the stairwell, and I hear a gunshot." "Were you afraid that she was coming after to shoot you?" "No, that never... thought never entered into my head." I said, "Well, what did you do?" "Well, I went outside, and I played"-- and "played" was the exact word he said. "I went outside and played." How does a jury look at that story? "I hear a gunshot, and then I go outside, and then I come back and do all this stuff to the scene." A jury can read through that, and I realize that while I'm interviewing him-- that this is good enough.
SHERIFF ROBERT PICKELL: Up until the time Dwyre talked to him, he always had himself outside or away. We had to put Wright at that crime scene. Once we could put him there, then we could start going after him.
KURTIS: An arrest warrant issues, and Doug Wright is brought back to Michigan, where he's booked on a charge of murder. Nine months after his arrest, and ten years after the death of his wife Kimberly, Doug Wright's trial begins. Faced with a strong circumstantial case and inconsistencies in his own statements to police, the defendant takes matters into his own hands and climbs up into the witness box to tell the jury his story.
SHERIFF ROBERT PICKELL: When a defendant takes a stand, it's by far the most dramatic moment in a criminal trial, because it's the focus. I mean, that's the defendant. The jury's heard the case against him, and now he's going to get up, and he's going to tell his side of it and explain why he's not guilty. So it's all about him.
KURTIS: Wright backs off from his statement to detective Dwyre and offers a third story to the jury. At the time of his wife's death, he believed the sound he heard inside the house was not a gunshot after all, but sounded more like a TV breaking.
SHERIFF ROBERT PICKELL: What clinched it was when he changed his story, because the assumption is is that if someone is innocent-- all right?-- there only needs to be one story. It's the truth.
KURTIS: Doug Wright's testimony on the stand seals his fate. The former cop is found guilty of murdering his wife and is sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison-- a verdict made possible by David Newblatt and David Dwyre, a prosecutor and detective who laid their traps well and brought down a killer.
Cold Case Files:
Video of abuse that Kimberly suffered at the hands of Trooper Wright:
http://bbs.historytravel.com/tv/shows/coldcasefiles/archives.jsp?aid=10023057
"To admit that you're in a relationship...an abusive relationship like that. To be physically abused and berated. It takes a lot to admit that...She told me about his constant criticism: She was ugly; She was fat; She was stupid; She was nothing without him...
...He was physically abusive. He is about six foot, five...a big man. She was five-three...tiny...petite. He would pick her up...grab her by the throat and slma her...hit her head into the wall....Choked her...Slapping...Hitting...His favorite method of intimidation was that he would kill her and throw her body in Lake Fenton and the fish would eat her and no one would find her..."
