A 69-year-old Kennewick grandfather told jurors this week he accidentally killed his wife while reloading his gun.
Brian Wilcox took the stand in his own defense to refute claims by prosecutors that he "snapped" and shot her during an argument, then set their house on fire and fled to Oklahoma.
"I shot and killed my wife and she was my best friend," he said. "When I did that, my whole world came crashing down around me."
But a Benton County jury didn't believe it was an accident, and after an hour of deliberation Wednesday Wilcox was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree arson. Sentencing is set for Nov. 29.
On Tuesday, Wilcox was on the stand for about five hours on the fifth day of testimony about the April 2022 death of Kathy Wilcox, 66, in their kitchen.
Occasionally pausing to wipe away tears, he said he was badly shaken after seeing his wife of 47 years slumped in front of the sink in their Elm Street home.
That shock led to a series of responses Wilcox said he could chalk up only to the deep grief of losing the woman he called his best friend and his "Baby."
Defense attorneys Shelley Ajax and Branden Landon told the jury during closing arguments Wednesday that Wilcox isn't guilty of murder and, at worst, is guilty only of being negligent while reloading his gun.
Prosecutor Eric Eisinger and Deputy Prosecutor Josh Lilly said Wilcox's version of events don't fit the facts.
They noted that there was only about six minutes between the time Wilcox believes he shot his wife and when he was seen on camera fleeing the house, going to the bank to withdraw $5,000 and then driving 1,700 miles to Del City, Okla., where he was arrested in a Walmart parking lot.
Eisinger also showed a security video from when Wilcox went to the bank. He pointed out that there was no blood on Wilcox's clothes or arms, even though he never washed or changed his clothing.
"In order to believe that this was truly an accident, that he truly didn't mean to kill his wife, you have to believe him and you have to ignore all of the other evidence," Lilly said. "The preparations he made to leave. The things he did immediately after shooting his wife. Burning down his own house. Pulling money out of the bank."
Brian Wilcox met his wife after moving from Dixie, Wash., to Walla Walla in the early 1970s when he was in his early 20s. She already had one child and they had two more together.
Wilcox testified that while they would occasionally disagree, they had just two serious arguments — and neither involved violence.
He learned to hunt as a kid, liked to shoot paint balls as a hobby and in 2019 he started getting into handguns and target shooting. He had a membership to a Tri-Cities indoor shooting range and participated in competitions there.
One of his first purchases was the Glock handgun that killed his wife. He said he bought it for self-defense and stored it in his dresser.
Normally, he went shooting with his grandson on weekends and with his son, Jerry, at other times.
Brian Wilcox described a living a quiet life with his wife in recent years. The couple spent nearly all of their time together after he retired from his position at Lourdes Medical Center earlier that year.
He said he would get up, eat a late breakfast and spend most of his day with his wife playing a game called Farm City. His grandson usually the weekend with them.
On the morning of Monday, April 25, he planned on going to the shooting range with his son. His ammo and guns were loaded into the car.
Brian Wilcox testified that he had breakfast and was cleaning his Glock while seated in front of a living room folding table when his wife said two cats were fighting outside.
"She said, 'Honey come watch. The cats are actually fighting,'" he said.
As they were watching the cats, he said he put the loaded magazine back into his gun. The way he described it, he was holding the gun out, inadvertently pointed at his wife, when it fired.
The only shot he fired went into his wife's head, killing her instantly.
"It scared me at first, I couldn't pick up what was going on. Then I realized my gun had accidentally discharged," Brian Wilcox said. "I saw my baby slump forward and then go back. And I realized that I had shot her. So I checked her pulse and there was no pulse, there was blood coming from her nose."
Brian Wilcox testified that after he didn't find a pulse, he was badly shaken and thought of killing himself. But when he put the gun to his head, he couldn't pull the trigger, he told the jury.
He said he couldn't call 911 either. Instead, grabbed a gas can from the porch, doused the wall and lit it on fire.
"I wanted to die. I wanted to kill myself, and I thought if the bullet didn't kill me, the fire would," he said. "I didn't want to live anymore."
But his plan changed again. He grabbed a blanket and got into their Mitsubishi Outlander and left.
He thought he would get police officers to shoot him at some point.
Wilcox testified that he didn't have a plan when he left the burning house behind, stopped at a Bank of America branch and withdrew $5,000.
He drove south, stopping in Hermiston to get directions to Oklahoma. He spent the next few days driving and sleeping in Walmart parking lots.
While he was drinking water, he said he didn't eat any food. He hoped after 22 days he would die.
He took brief notes in a composition notebook mourning his wife's death and was disappointed that he hadn't died.
In Del City, he spent a few days in a Walmart lot before deciding he needed to talk with his son, Jerry.
"I just wanted to talk to him and see what's going on," he said.
He bought a phone, got his son's number and left a message. His son called back, leading to an 18-minute conversation between the two.
Jerry Wilcox, who also testified this week, told his father to come home. Brian Wilcox promised that he would return.
After learning his son didn't hate him, Brian Wilcox testified that he ended his hunger strike and was reading in his car when Del City police showed up and he surrendered.
It's unclear how long he faces in prison.
