Insets, from left: Ashley James (Andrews Funeral Homes). FILE – South Africa's Oscar Pistorius wins gold in the men's 400-meter T44 final at the 2012 Paralympics in London on Sept. 8, 2012 (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File). Background: The home in Ypsilanti Township where James was shot to death (WJBK).
The man from Michigan accused of shooting his wife to death and telling cops he thought she was an intruder, much like how famed Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius killed his girlfriend, has entered a plea.
Bryan Anthony James pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Ashley James, according to court records.
Authorities say Bryan James, then 30, fatally shot Ashley James with a .40-caliber handgun the early morning of July 11, 2019, after she returned from the bathroom to their bedroom.
The defendant was set to go on trial next month on an open murder charge. He is set to be sentenced on Oct. 19.
Jurors reached a verdict in 2022, but a judge tossed it before it could be read in open court because the jury had mistakenly received evidence not presented at trial as they deliberated.
As Law&Crime previously reported, prosecutors laid out their case during the 2022 trial.
"She fell back and said, 'Babe, you shot me,' before dying on the floor a minute later," Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Lou Danner said in closing arguments, according to MLive.
Ashley James sustained a single gunshot wound to the chest, going through her heart, lungs, liver and spleen before exiting the body. Judging by the trajectory of the wound, she was ducking out of the way, Danner said.
The couple had been together for 13 years — married for five — and had two children.
But the prosecution maintained that defendant James felt trapped in his marriage. He decided to kill Ashley to avoid getting caught up in a divorce or custody battle over their two children, Danner said. Less than a month after the murder, he started a new Tinder profile, the prosecutor said. He also collected $70,000 in life insurance, the state said.
"The price of him starting a new life was Ashley's life," Danner reportedly said.
Detectives testified about Bryan James making suspicious searches before the shooting, including a June 3, 2019, query about the Paralympic sprinter Pistorius, who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The athlete infamously maintained that he only shot Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder, but prosecutors said he intended to kill her. Pistorius was nicknamed Blade Runner because he used curved, carbon fiber prosthetic blades while competing. His lower legs were amputated as an infant.
Danner said that defendant James was researching the case in order to plan how to act after killing Ashley, and to avoid Pistorius' mistakes.
Some voiced shock at the time of the killing. Ashley James' cousin Carnae Sanders described them as a loving couple, who never argued and were always happy, according to local Fox affiliate WJBK in a report from July 15, 2019.
"We hope that it was a mistake," she said. "We think that it was a mistake. We don't think that he meant any harm to her or anything."
That's the picture that Bryan James' attorney Adam Clements painted in court. He maintained Ashley's death was a tragic accident, and he construed the state's case as "cherry picking."
"My client did not stand to gain anything here," he said, according to MLive. "They had a fairytale marriage and were soulmates. I ask when is it OK to move on after losing a soulmate."
Alberto Luperon contributed to this report