SKOWHEGAN – Richard Reynolds of Waterville was found guilty Friday of the intentional murder of his estranged wife, Rhonda Wakefield-Reynolds, 37, nearly two years ago.

Although Reynolds in his direct testimony and his attorney, Peter Barnett, claimed the shooting was a botched suicide attempt and that Reynolds never intended to harm her, Justice Andrew Horton, who heard the case without a jury, did not agree to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Horton said in Somerset County Superior Court that Reynolds had put a plan into action the morning of Jan. 12, 2007. He left a note that indicated what he was planning, took a gun into the home in Fairfield where his wife was staying, confronted her and shot her in the head while she cowered on a mattress.

“She knew she was about to be shot,” Horton said. “This was not accidental, not involuntary.” He said that although there was not extensive premeditation, there was a level, which he will take into consideration during sentencing.

The trial lasted four days, and 27 witnesses testified.

Reynolds sat quietly as the verdict was delivered inside the courtroom. When asked by Horton if he had anything to say, Reynolds answered, “Not right now.” As he was taken back to jail, however, he shouted to reporters that the shooting was accidental.

As he delivered his verdict, Horton said he himself had pulled the trigger of the unloaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his chambers to see how much pressure it took to fire the weapon. “I wanted to see for myself” whether it could have been fired accidentally, he said. State forensic experts testified earlier this week that it took 7.5 pounds of pressure to pull the trigger.

The victim’s father, Kempton Wakefield Sr. of Waterville, said after the trial that the family was relieved and pleased. “It has been a long 22 months. It has drawn our family closer together, but it has been agonizing,” he said.

Wakefield said his two grandsons, who were present when their father shot their mother, have been struggling. “Those precious little kids are going through unbearable pain. They want to know why their momma isn’t coming back.”

Also outside the courtroom, Elizabeth Brenner of Swanville, Reynolds’ former wife, said that during the four-day trial she had flashbacks of her life with her ex-husband.

Brenner said she had “lived through the same hell as Rhonda,” and that Reynolds had pulled guns on her and their two sons, had shot at the children and held his family captive. She said the marriage ended when Reynolds began an affair with Wakefield-Reynolds, who did not know he was married.

In an unusual move, Justice Horton conducted true closing arguments, holding open discussions back and forth with the prosecution and defense attorneys as they made their statements.

He pointed out that in several instances, Reynolds’ testimony differed from his police interview and that Reynolds became more focused on an actual plan after a court hearing on Jan. 11, 2007, when he lost custody of his young sons.

“The January 11 hearing was a pivotal event,” Horton said. “Mr. Reynolds exhibited a significant level of anger at his wife.”

After Reynolds shot his wife, he picked up his two sons, drove them to his adult son’s home, and then turned himself in to the Waterville Police Department.

Horton said there was no evidence that Reynolds tried to hide the murder, but “that doesn’t take away from what the state has proved.”

“He developed a plan and he carried it out,” Horton said.

During his closing arguments, Barnett continued to insist that Reynolds did not intend to kill his wife and strongly criticized Maine State Police Detective Jeffery Love’s initial interview of Reynolds, stating that Love coerced a confession.

Barnett said Love wouldn’t listen to Reynolds’ version of the shooting and interviewed him intensely for more than six hours.

“Love wasn’t going to be satisfied until Richard Reynolds agreed with his version of events,” Barnett told Justice Horton. “Is that what the judicial system wants in cases like these, for police to collect a false confession?”

In his testimony Thursday, however, Reynolds himself called Love “a nice guy” and said that the detective was neither aggressive nor loud but was subtle and persistent.

No date has been set for Reynolds’ sentencing. He could be sent to prison for 25 years to life.

bdnpittsfield@verizon.net

487-3187