Suspect: He said, ‘Pull the trigger’ Affidavit reveals twist in Jonesboro death

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MACHIAS – The Jonesboro woman who is charged with the Jan. 3 murder of her 24-year-old boyfriend told police she shot him because he asked her to, according to a document filed in Machias District Court.

“She said his hand was touching the gun when she pulled the trigger, and he told her five times to shoot him,” wrote Maine State Police Detective Brian Smith in an affidavit filed late Wednesday. “She said that he wanted her to shoot herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.”

According to the affidavit, Katrina Bridges, 20, told Smith that Christopher Ingraham, the father of her 4-month-old son, had talked of committing suicide and had written suicide notes before the night she shot him.

Bridges, 20, told Smith that Ingraham showed her how to use the gun and where to place it against his head after an evening of criticizing her weight and her looks and telling her he should have been with his former girlfriend, according to the affidavit.

Smith’s description of his interview with Bridges was filed in connection with an inventory of items that police seized during a Jan. 4 search of the couple’s Looks Point Road home.

Detectives obtained the search warrant after Ingraham died at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor 24 hours after he was shot and 13 hours after police found him unconscious in the couple’s bedroom.

Officers went to the home just after 1 p.m. Jan. 3 in response to Bridges’ report that the couple had been the victims of a home invasion.

She first told police that two men had entered the home at 3 that morning, demanding money and threatening to kill them, Smith wrote.

According to the affidavit, Bridges told police the men had taken her, her son, Logan, and Ingraham’s 12-gauge shotgun outside and placed Bridges and the child in her Nissan Pathfinder.

In this early version, Bridges told police one of the men had returned to the house with the shotgun and that she heard the sound of a shot as the other man drove her and the baby away. Bridges said the man drove them around until after midnight, when he pushed them out of the vehicle at the intersection of Route 1A and the Marshfield Flats Road.

Bridges told police she began walking to her mother’s home in Marshfield and that her uncle picked her up on the road and drove her to her mother’s home.

According to Smith’s affidavit, the mother, Ellen Bridges, told police her daughter arrived in her stocking feet carrying the baby. Katrina, who was scared and confused about what had happened, told her mother that Ingraham had been shot, according to Smith’s affidavit. Her mother took her to the nearby Machias fire and police station to report the incident.

Katrina Bridges’ story of what happened in the early morning hours changed several times, according to Smith’s affidavit.

In her final version, she said she picked up Ingraham at his job at the former Cutler Navy base at 4:30 p.m. and drove him to their Jonesboro home.

Bridges said Ingraham wanted her to have short hair, so he cut her hair with a knife while they sat in the Pathfinder in the driveway, according to the affidavit.

They then went inside, had dinner and played video games until late in the evening. Bridges, who said she was upset with Ingraham because he hadn’t allowed her to attend Thanksgiving dinner with her parents, said he criticized her throughout the evening, according to Smith’s affidavit.

When they went to bed, he pulled out a small silver pistol with a clip, showed her how to use it and gave it to her to hold. He then showed her where to place it on the back of his head, according to the affidavit.

“He was laying on his left side with his head propped up, and she put the gun to the back of his head and thought the safety was on,” Smith wrote. “She said that Christopher told her to pull the trigger, she did and the pistol fired once.”

Bridges told Smith that after she shot Ingraham, he moved his leg and she started to cry.

“She said she didn’t know what to do and did not call an ambulance or the police,” Smith wrote. “She said she took the pistol, her baby and her dog, Butch, and left in her Nissan Pathfinder.”

According to the affidavit, Bridges said she drove around for hours and discarded the pistol in Blacks Woods, which is part of Route 182 that runs from Cherryfield to Route 1 in Hancock.

When police found Ingraham, he was nude and lying on his back on a bed in the downstairs bedroom of the couple’s Looks Point Road home. Blood from a head wound was apparent on the bedding, according to Smith’s affidavit.

During the Jan. 4 search of the couple’s home, police removed a number of items including bedding, a 12-gauge bolt action shotgun, one spent Federal .22-caliber casing, two boxes of .22-caliber cartridges, one partial box of 12-gauge shotgun shells, a pair of scissors, a photo, a wallet and assorted notes.

A search of the Nissan Pathfinder yielded hair and 18 live .22-caliber Federal cartridges, according to court records.

Bridges made an initial appearance on a charge of murder in Machias District Court on Jan. 5.

A bail hearing scheduled this week was postponed in response to a motion from David Mitchell, her court-appointed attorney.

According to Mitchell’s motion Tuesday to postpone the bail hearing, the defense had not obtained “sufficient information from [prosecutors’ files] to adequately prepare for the hearing.”

Mitchell was not available Thursday, and his co-counsel in the case, Jeffrey Toothaker, did not return calls.