PARIS — Robert James told a State Police investigator in 2008 that he shot his wife's boyfriend more because he was afraid of losing his adopted son than losing his wife, according to testimony.
James, 61, has been on trial since Thursday in Logan County Circuit Court on a charge of first-degree murder in the Aug. 8, 2008, shooting of 40-year-old Tony Rice outside the Paris Wal-Mart.
Hours after the shooting, he gave a statement to Arkansas State Police Investigator Ron Hitt, a recording of which was played to the jury Monday.
In the statement, Hitt asked James if he thought he shot Rice because he loved his wife or if he was afraid of losing Michael, his adopted son. James replied he believed he "was more worried about Michael."
"I mean I love her, but also Michael was driving me crazy," James said. "I mean, I just felt so bad for him. He wanted to be with his mama."
James told Hitt he learned for the first time on the day of the shooting that his wife, Heather, had taken then-13-year-old Michael to Rice's home, where she had been living off and on for a month.
"And I guess that upset you quite a bit, too, then?" Hitt asked James.
"Oh, yeah," James replied.
Rice and Heather James, who now goes by her maiden name, Balasco, had been having an affair since May 2008. She and Robert James separated in June 2008, according to court documents.
Michael, now 14, spent most of his time living with James but also stayed with his mother at times.
Early in his statement, James said Michael had been upset and crying the day of the shooting. James, who was unemployed, said he sat home and watched movies and talked with Michael, trying to calm him. James told Hitt that Michael didn't know James was his adoptive father.
Logan County Sheriff Steve Smith testified Monday that James met with him a week before the shooting and asked him whether he could leave his wife and legally take Michael to South Carolina, where he has family.
On the day of the shooting, James said he went to Wal-Mart to get bread. As he drove his Dodge pickup into the parking lot, his wife and Rice were just getting off work and were walking together to their pickups. It was the first time James had seen them together, he said in his statement.
"Well I shot him, I can tell you that," James said in his statement. "I mean I really don't remember doing it but, yeah, I just gone crazy, you know. I just lost it."
After the shooting, as James walked away from Rice's bleeding body, he emptied the spent bullet casings from his .38-caliber revolver. Balasco testified Friday that when he walked by her, James said, "Now you can go home and take care of Michael."
Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7, 12 on 09/29/2009