Children Of Suspect, Victim Tell Chilling Stories After Deadly Shooting
By Stan Bush
GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4)- Ashley Fallis' children heard their parents fighting. They heard a gunshot. Then… screaming. They were the first witnesses inside the bedroom where their mother died.
Jurors who will decide if Tom Fallis killed his wife after a New Year's Eve party heard gripping interviews Friday in court from the Fallis' children, who spoke with detectives and were asked to draw pictures of what they saw inside that bedroom.
"How do you think it happened?" asks a detective in a recorded interview.
"I don't know because I didn't see," one of the children responded. "I didn't see Dad have his gun. I just saw blood on the wall. And I saw dad carrying her."
Tom Fallis cried in court as the interview played. Jurors were shown a haunting image. A hand drawn picture one of the children made, showing Ashley bleeding from her head, Tom Fallis standing next to her and two children crying.
"Did you see dad do anything?" a detective asks.
"I just saw him get mad. I don't know why he got mad."
Tom Fallis was allegedly enraged toward the end of a party they were hosting for family and friends. Ashley Fallis had told friends she had a miscarriage that day and told Tom Fallis she wanted to smoke pot. Her family recalls him storming through the house furiously at the end of the party.
His defense claims that Ashley Fallis committed suicide with her own gun. Defense attorneys say she had a history of mental illness, was impulsive, and self-destructive. A letter she wrote her husband seven months earlier about their strained marriage has been portrayed as tantamount to a suicide note by defense council.
Evan police investigated the scene as a suicide. The cause of death stayed that way for more than a year until a Weld County deputy said Tom Fallis admitted to him that he shot his wife.
Tom Fallis' father, Jim, testified on Friday. He was at the party and returned to the home after Tom called him back. He found Tom covered in Ashley's blood and frantic, asking out loud "Why did she do it?"
When asked if Tom had ever confessed to shooting Ashley, Jim Fallis responded "Never."
Stan Bush is a general assignment reporter at CBS4. His stories can be seen on CBS4 News at 10. Read his bio and follow him on Twitter @StanBushTV.
