A Layton woman testified Wednesday at her husband's trial that she was drinking heavily the day she was shot in the head and doesn't remember the events that led up to the shooting or the shooting itself.
Gwen Allen was shot in the head with a .44-caliber pistol last July 23. Her husband, Donald R. Allen, 31, is charged with aggravated assault in the incident.She told the jury she has a problem with alcohol and thought in the days following the shooting that she was suffering from a bad hangover. No one told her she'd been shot, she said.
The family kept her at its home at 388 E. 2625 North, Layton, for a week until her condition worsened, then took her to Humana Hospital Davis North on July 30. She was transferred to McKay-Dee Hospital, Ogden.
Dr. James S. Hayden, a neurosurgeon, testified he found Gwen Allen had been shot just in front of her right ear. The bullet fragmented, he testified, with one piece exiting out of her cheek and another fragment penetrating her skull.
The surgeon said he found her brain lacerated by bullet and skull fragments and still more bullet fragments lodged near the woman's eyes.
On the stand Wednesday, Gwen Allen testified she had known her husband for three or four years before they were married. They were still celebrating their wedding and had been married only one week on the day she was shot, she told the jury.
She also said she was depressed that day about her drinking and missing a court date in Ogden on a driving-while-intoxicated charge. Although she remembers her husband wrestling a pistol from her hand, she testified that she could recall little else.
Police officers and detectives investigating the shooting said Donald Allen was evasive when questioned, saying only that his wife fell while getting out of their pickup truck and hit her head on the ground.
But a nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital testified Allen told his wife's mother that he shot her accidentally while trying to frighten her during an argument.
The trial was expected to end Thursday afternoon.