KALISPELL (AP) – A woman who said she accidentally shot her husband during a domestic altercation in 2005 was sentenced Thursday to probation.
Rebecca Braunig-Haag, 52, originally was charged with murder in the death of Von S. Haag, 60, but she later pleaded no contest to negligent homicide.
Following the terms of the plea agreement, District Judge Kitty Curtis gave Braunig-Haag a 10-year suspended sentence with 10 years of probation Thursday.
“She does have a claim for self-defense,” Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan said. “She, quite frankly, is unlikely to incur a further criminal history. I do believe the conviction for negligent homicide holds her accountable.”
Braunig-Haag was arrested in November 2005 after deputies found Von Haag dead of a gunshot wound at the couple’s home on the western edge of Glacier National Park.
Braunig-Haag went to a neighbor’s house to report the shooting. She told investigators that her husband, in a rage, had poured gasoline around the house and threatened to set it on fire if she didn’t accompany him to his father’s funeral in Texas.
She said she picked up a gun and pointed it at him when it discharged.
Braunig-Haag and her husband had both retired from supervisory jobs with the San Antonio, Texas, parks and recreation department a year or two before the shooting. They began spending more time in their home near Glacier, but still maintained a residence in San Antonio.
In a statement to the judge Thursday, Braunig-Haag said she was sorry and that she loved her husband.
“I was so scared, I picked up the gun to keep him from killing us,” she said. “More than anything, I didn’t want to shoot him.”