[R]UTLAND — A judge has ordered that a Mount Tabor woman charged with fatally shooting her husband will remain behind bars as she awaits her murder trial.
Judge David Fenster denied bail late Friday afternoon for Peggy L. Shores, 52.
Shores, according to prosecutors, shot and killed her husband, David Shores, 54, on Dec. 11 as he was walking up a flight of stairs from the cellar of a home the couple shared on Brooklyn Road.
Authorities did not arrest Peggy Shores for more than two months after the shooting as they investigated the case.
Police investigators say the downward trajectory of the bullet, the location of the wound on the left upper chest and the lack of gunshot residue in that area make it impossible for David Shores to have fired the fatal shot.
“While (Peggy Shores) maintains her innocence,” the judge wrote in the decision, “the state of the evidence demonstrates that she has committed the penultimate act of violence.”
Steven Howard, Peggy Shores’ attorney, said late Friday afternoon he had not received the judge’s decision yet.
“I have to speak to my client and speak to her family,” he said. “Obviously, if there is an appealable issue, clearly we will send it up the ladder.”
Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy, who is prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment.
Neither the prosecutor nor police have offered a motive for the shooting.
And in the ruling Friday, the judge said there is no sign so far of a physical confrontation or evidence that the shooting took place in the “heat of passion.” Also, he wrote, there is no claim of self-defense.
Family members testified at a hearing earlier this week that they would be willing to take Peggy Shores in if she were released on bail. They added that they would immediately call police if she tried to flee.
Noreen Shores, 80, who is David Shores’ mother, also testified. She said even though prosecutors say her son was shot and killed by Peggy Shores, she would be willing to take her in.
Prosecutors argued against the murder suspect’s release, saying the places proposed for her to stay have people living in them who have criminal records, including felonies.
Howard had asked the judge to release his client on $25,000 bail to live with a family member.
He added at that hearing the evidence so far is what the state has provided, and said he looked forward to presenting more information as the case proceeds that backs his client’s version of events.
Peggy Shores pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder at her arraignment in February. If convicted of that charge, she faces a prison sentence of 20 years to life.
