An Alabama woman allegedly shot and killed her husband because he was annoying her, according to prosecutors. Sheri Mitchell-Clutts, 65, of Russellville, called 911 on Sunday to report that she had shot her husband of 15 years, Timothy Clutts, 69. She reportedly told dispatchers she felt threatened and was bothered by him, according to WAFF News.
Details of the Incident
Police officers responded to the scene, where they found Timothy dead in his recliner from a single gunshot wound to the chest. She was taken into custody and charged with domestic violence-related murder, according to jail records.
Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said, 'Her demeanor seemed obviously upset from what little interaction I had with her at the scene, but you never know what’s going through somebody’s mind.'
Oliver said that during an interview, Sheri told investigators her husband had undergone open-heart surgery just two weeks earlier and was still recovering. She reportedly revealed that her husband kept coming into her room and irritating her, so she grabbed a handgun and waited for the next time he returned. When he never did, Sheri allegedly went looking for him and fired a shot into his chest after finding him in a recliner. The handgun was later recovered by deputies.
Investigation Ongoing
According to Oliver, these types of cases are not simple, and an investigation will hopefully uncover the deeper context of what led Sheri to kill her husband in their shared home. 'There’s a number of cases where someone does something like this you’re actually having to track them down and find them and build evidence based on the scene, and in this situation, she was pretty open,' the sheriff told the outlet. 'Which leads us to a bunch of questions like what was going on with her or him,' he added.
The investigation remains ongoing, as detectives have already begun reviewing available resources to better understand the couple’s history. 'We’re going through at this time, but as of right now, we’ve gotten the call log and went back six years,' Oliver told WAFF. 'At this point, there’s, that we can find, no domestic related calls there,' he added.
Legal Proceedings
Sheri was booked into the Franklin County Jail without bond pending an Aniah’s Law hearing, according to the outlet. In Alabama, Aniah’s Law allows prosecutors to request a pretrial detention hearing to hold defendants charged with dangerous crimes without bond. It ensures that in violent Class A felonies such as murder, rape and kidnapping, a judge can deny bail if they determine the evidence is strong and public safety is at risk.
Last year, the state’s House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment expanding the crimes eligible for bond denial, including solicitation, attempt and conspiracy to commit murder and discharging a weapon into an occupied dwelling. When prosecutors invoke Aniah’s Law, a hearing must be held immediately, with the defendant having the right to counsel, to testify and to cross-examine witnesses.
The amendment was named after 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, a Southern Union Community College student who went missing in October 2019 after she was abducted from a convenience store in Auburn. Just a month later, her body was discovered in rural Macon County, leading to the arrest of Ibraheem Yazeed. Yazeed had been released from jail on a $280,000 bond after being charged with kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder following a January 2019 incident in Montgomery. He was charged with capital murder in Blanchard’s death, which occurred less than a year after his release from prison. He is still awaiting trial.
