By Steven Stilt
Jurors found a Salem woman not guilty of murder charges on Thursday in connection with the 2021 shooting death of her boyfriend.
After three hours of deliberation, a jury in Marion County Circuit Court acquitted 30-year-old Christina Bartley of first-degree murder charges stemming from an incident on April 15, 2021, in which Bartley fatally shot her boyfriend, Wesley Bivens, during an argument at the home they shared on Miles Lane in rural Salem. Bartley had previously admitted to law enforcement that she shot Bivens, but claimed to have acted in self-defense.
The jury was also given the option of convicting Bartley on charges of second-degree murder but declined to do so.
Bartley’s attorney, Matthew Wilzbach, says the verdict comes as a relief to Bartley and her family.
“We’re obviously happy with the verdict. We sympathize with the family. We know they’re grieving. This is not what she wanted to happen, and I think the evidence shows that. Really no one walks away a winner or loser in this. It’s a tragedy however you define it, but we’re happy with the result, of course.”
During closing arguments, Wilzbach told the court that the burden was on the state to disprove Bartley’s claim of self-defense. Bartley had told investigators that Bivens grabbed her to prevent her from leaving the house, causing her to strike her head on a door, then followed her into a bedroom and approached her with his arm raised before she grabbed a gun and fired at him. She also claimed Bivens had threatened to burn their house down with her inside and had knocked her phone out of her hand to keep her from calling 9-1-1 during the course of the argument. Wilzbach added that there was no record of violence in Bartley’s past and no financial incentive for her to kill Bivens.
State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth, in his closing argument, pointed at certain variations in Bartley’s account of the incident during different portions of an interview conducted by Lieutenant Anthony Decker of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office shortly after the shooting. Hudspeth also cited testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Shiping Bao about the trajectory of the five bullets that struck Bivens, stating that Bao’s findings did not line up with Bartley’s claim that Bivens had his arm raised when she fired the first shot.
Hudspeth was not immediately available for comment following Thursday’s verdict.
