Photo: Mika Seay
Mika Seay, charged with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, domestic battery and commission of a felony with a firearm, was found not guilty in Baxter County Circuit Court Wednesday.
The case was unusual in that the victim, 33-year-old Stephen Loosey, claims he was shot accidentally through his own negligence, while the state charged the 37-year-old Seay, the victim’s ex-wife, with intentionally pulling the trigger.
Circuit Judge John Putman presided over the non-jury trial. After both sides rested Wednesday, Judge Putman wasted little time in ruling on the case.
In his opening statement Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism said the court would basically hear two versions of the events leading to the shooting on May 23 last year — one from Seay and Loosey and one from two eyewitnesses who were at the scene.
He said the case would hinge on who had the most credibility — Seay, Loosey or the two witnesses appearing for the state.
Defense attorney Gray Dellinger said the shooting was due to the negligence of the victim. He said it made no sense that Seay would have shot her ex-husband “in front of two witnesses.”
SEAY TESTIFIES
Seay took the stand in her own defense Wednesday afternoon and went over the events on the day of the shooting. She basically repeated the story Loosey had given the court on Tuesday. She denied she intended to shoot her ex-husband and said what happened was an “accident, a tragic accident.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, over the Memorial Day weekend, Seay, Loosey and a friend, Holly Jaquith, were sitting in Loosey’s truck in the yard of the home he shares with Seay.
Jaquith’s long-time boyfriend, Kevin Weiroch, was standing at the back of the truck relieving himself, according to testimony.
VICTIM: SHOOTING ACCIDENTAL
According to investigative reports, Loosey was sitting in the driver’s seat, and Seay was in the back seat with Jaquith.
At one point, a smiling Loosey was said to have turned in order to apparently say something to Seay, when he was shot in the face with a pistol she was holding.
Loosey spent most of the morning on the stand Tuesday answering questions about the incident.
He repeated his claim that he was shot by accident and had asked that Seay not be charged. When charges were brought against her, he said he attempted unsuccessfully to get them dropped.
Loosey told the court “if she had done this to me on purpose, I would not have been asking to drop the charges. I would be here to testify against her.”
In his testimony, Loosey said he was the one who asked Seay to go to their 5,600-square-foot home located along State Highway 177 South in Jordan and get the pistol.
According to Loosey, he, Seay, Jaquith and Weiroch were about to leave for a drive on Loosey’s property to scout for wild turkeys.
He said he wanted the pistol to shoot animals such as possums and armadillos, because they dug holes on his land.
Loosey said he believed the gun was unloaded but had shells for it in his truck.
When Seay returned to the truck with the pistol, Loosey said he saw bullets in the cylinder and realized he had been mistaken about the weapon being unloaded. He said he wanted to take the loaded pistol from Seay and secure it so it would not go off and damage the interior of his $80,000 truck.
Loosey testified he reached back and grabbed the gun and pulled it toward him. He said the weapon discharged, and the bullet hit him in the face.
In her testimony, Seay said she and Loosey both thought the gun was unloaded. “He would not have sent me to get a loaded gun, and I would not have gone to get a loaded gun.”
DRUGS LEAD TO DIVORCE
Under questioning from Chism, Seay admitted her marriage to Loosey had been though some rough times, to the point, the couple filed for divorce in 2016. She said the problems stemmed from Loosey’s addiction to prescription pain killers. She said, “He was not the same person when he took drugs.” She said he could be violent and abusive when under the influence.
She testified she was afraid to allow him to “drive with the children in the car, and I would not allow him to take the kids with him and that would be the start of arguments.”
Seay said Loosey had gotten clean and things had been “fine from that point.” While still legally divorced, Seay and Loosey are “husband and wife” for all practical purposes, she testified.
Jaquith and Weiroch testified Tuesday, and it was quickly apparent they were much less certain Loosey had been shot accidentally.
Jaquith said she was in the truck when the gun went off. “I am convinced in my own mind that it was not an accident,” she testified.
Jaquith said the shooting happened very quickly. She said, “I was sitting there and then saw fire fly out of the barrel. It was a big explosion. I had gun powder in my mouth, and I bailed out of the truck.”
She said she remembered screaming, “you killed him, you killed him.”
Since the shooting, Jaquith said she has thought about the events almost constantly. “I wanted it to be an accident. I still want it to be an accident. I didn’t know if he grabbed the gun or not, but to my mind, it was not an accident. I believe she took that gun out of her pants, pointed it at his face and shot.”
Jaquith testified Loosey left the truck and ran toward his house. “He had a black hole in face and it was smoking,” an emotional Jaquith told the court.
Weiroch who was outside the truck when the gun went off, said after Loosey was shot, he took the wounded man to the “Y” store in Salesville to meet first responders.
Loosey was reported to have been bleeding heavily and fearing he might die.
Loosey said he had to “convince” Weiroch to take him to meet first responders “because he was afraid he would get a DWI.”
Weiroch was asked if he had to be convinced to drive Loosey to Salesville, a trip of about 6-7 miles from the site of the shooting.
He denied he had to be talked into making the trip. He testified Loosey “said he needed help and I gave it.”
LOOSEY: RELUCTANT TO DISCUSS EVENTS
Loosey is alleged to have been reluctant to tell first responders what had happened to him beyond the fact he had been shot in the face with a .38-caliber pistol.
One EMT described Loosey as being “very adamant” that he was not going to talk about the shooting. A paramedic said he had told her “if anybody asks what happened, just say he had done it himself.”
Loosey said he made such statements because “in case I died there would be no one to tell what really happened, Mika could go to prison and that would leave the children without any parents.”
The tape of the 911 call Loosey himself made while on the way to the “Y” store was played. Loosey, sounding frantic and in obvious pain, asked that first responders meet him at the Salesville store.
The 911 dispatcher testified Loosey was asked where the shooting happened and he replied, “I don’t know, can’t tell you.”
During his testimony, Loosey told the court his memory of exactly what he said to first responders and others treating him was not clear. “All I was interested in was getting to the hospital, not bleeding to death, staying alive.”
A member of the Salesville Volunteer Fire Department said when he arrived on the scene, Loosey was lying beside his vehicle.
He said he knew Loosey and began talking with him. He asked what had happened, and Loosey said he did not know, did not remember.
RELUCTANT EYEWITNESSES
Both Jaquith and Weiroch admitted on the stand they were reluctant witnesses. Both claimed to have long-standing, family-type relationships with Loosey.
“He is probably going to be mad at me for saying all this,” an emotional Jaquith said. During his time on the stand, Weiroch said he had known Loosey since he was a small boy.
When asked how he felt about Loosey now, Weiroch quickly said, “I love him.” He said he has “not heard from him much at all” since the shooting.
Weiroch told the court, “I would rather not be here at all, but I have to be.”
After he drove Loosey to meet first responders in Salesville, Weiroch returned to the home shared by Loosey and Seay.
He said he went in and found the lights on and Seay in bed with her children. He said she woke up and asked, “Where’s Steve?” Weiroch said he told her Loosey was at Baxter Regional Medical Center being treated.
He said she replied “good” and went back to sleep. Weiroch characterized Seay as “emotionless.”
In answer to a question, Weiroch said he did not know exactly what Seay meant when she said “good.”
Seay said when Weiroch came back to the house from the “Y” store, he had come into her bedroom and said, “We’ve got to go and hide out before the police get here.” Seay told the court, “I asked him twice what he meant. After he made that statements, I did not want any more contact with him.” She said she was not sure when Weiroch left her home.
WHY NOT RENDER AID?
Seay is a nurse practitioner, and the state contends, despite her advanced training, she offered no assistance to a seriously wounded Loosey.
In an earlier hearing, Prosecutor David Ethredge told the court Loosey had gone to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, and Seay had gone to bed.
The people present at the incident all testified they had been drinking heavily. During his testimony, Loosey said he had had 10-12 beers over the course of the day.
Seay testified Wednesday she was in shock after the shooting and “not capable to doing much of anything.” She said the fact a pistol she thought was unloaded went off was confusing, and it took her some time to piece together the events. She said everyone left the house “so quickly there was very little time to do anything, even if I had been capable.”
Loosey told the court the family was to leave on a Florida vacation the next day, and everyone was “happy, in a good mood.”
He summed up his view of the incident as “my fault, an accident, I did it to myself.”
REQUEST TO LIFT NO CONTACT ORDER
After the shooting, a no contact order was put in place to keep Loosey and Seay apart.
Loosey went to court last July to try and get the order lifted. A hearing was held on that request July 23, 2020.
Mountain Home lawyer Ben Burnett represented Loosey.
During last year’s hearing Burnett told the court Loosey did not see himself as a victim of the shooting, “but as the victim of a no contact order that disrupts their lives by preventing them from interacting.”
The state opposed the move, saying Seay was charged with attempting to kill Loosey.
While recognizing that Loosey was asking to rejoin the woman accused of shooting him, Prosecutor Ethredge told the court the state was, at times, “put in a position of protecting people against themselves.”
The motion to lift the no contact order was heard by now retired Circuit Judge Gordon Webb, but no formal ruling was ever issued, according to electronic court records.
At the beginning of Seay’s trial Tuesday, defense attorney Dellinger asked the motion be dismissed, and Judge Putman approved the request.
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