LaGrange man indicted in wife’s shooting

BANGOR – A LaGrange man was indicted Monday by the Penobscot County grand jury in the death of his wife on Nov. 29 while she apparently hid naked under their bed.

Jeremy S. Hart, 34, was indicted in the intentional or knowing murder in the shooting death of his wife, Kristen Smart Hart, 25.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, Jan. 25, in Penobscot County Superior Court.

Hart is being held without bail at Penobscot County Jail in Bangor, but may request that a bail hearing be held.

Kristen Hart died of an apparent gunshot wound to the head, according to court documents.

Maine State Police detectives were called to the Harts’ home about 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 29.

At least half a dozen people, in addition to the Harts and their 6-year-old daughter, were at the house that day, Detective Jay Pelletier wrote in an affidavit filed last month in Superior Court. The affidavit does not say whether the couple’s 9-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son also were home at the time of their mother’s death.

Investigators were told by at least one witness that people had been smoking cocaine during the day at the house. While they heard conflicting stories about what led to the shooting, a 25-year-old man allegedly told police that he had been in the bedroom “kissing” and “fondling” Kristen Hart when her husband entered the darkened bedroom.

In his initial interview with police, Hart allegedly denied firing the gun. In a subsequent interview, Hart said he found a man sitting on his bed, picked up his SKS, a semiautomatic rifle, that was in the bedroom, and shot three or four times – once at a wall and once toward the floor, according to court documents.

Detectives arrested Hart after they traced the trajectory of five bullets in the couple’s bedroom. The angles converged in the area toward the foot of the bed where Hart believed his wife to be, according to court documents.

When police arrived at the home, they found Kristen Hart’s body in a car parked outside the house, her upper body in the back seat of the driver’s side with her legs outside the car, according to the court documents.

Witnesses allegedly told investigators that the woman’s body was moved so they could perform CPR on her. Details about how and why the body was moved to the car are not included in court documents.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

990-8207