MANASSAS, Va. (WUSA) — The murder trial of army staff sergeant Ronald Hamilton is in its second week of testimony after four weeks of jury selection.
Hamilton is accused of killing his wife Crystal Hamilton and Prince William County Police officer Ashley Guindon. It was Guindon's first day on the job when she and two other officers answered a domestic violence call.
The two other officers were gravely wounded in the shooting. They took the stand last week and told how Hamilton opened the door, then closed it. One of the officers forced the door open where they found themselves staring at a rifle.
Ronald Hamilton is admitting that he shot them, according to his attorney. The issue is whether it was premeditated murder. Prosecutors have played a 911 call from Hamilton’s wife Crystal. The two were arguing and she told dispatchers that he had thrown her down. On the 911 call, Crystal yells "Stop!" and the phone goes dead.
Their 11-year-old son was in the home and heard it all. The boy wrote a statement which was read in court by his grandmother, according to reports by InsideNova and prosecutors. The boy saw his dad come out of the bedroom with a gun and told him everything was fine. Then his son hears shots from the bedroom and he saw his father get a pistol and a long gun. His father grabbed his son and told him to go out the front door.
The boy, who is now 13, wrote, “I was afraid the police would shoot...I tried to runaway….I saw three officers laying on the lawn and a female officer told me to run, so I did.”
Those Prince William County officers were Ashley Guidon, who would die from her wounds, and officers Jesse Hempen and David McKeown.
Today in court, paramedic Kyle Steele testified about being dispatched to the horrific scene.
“It felt like war,” he said, because there were so many people holding guns “I thought I was going to be shot,” Steele said, adding, “It was like a bomb went off."
Steele raced to Officer McKeown and saw immediately that “he need an operating room” because there were “a lot of bullet holes, in his elbow specifically."
He helped load Mckeown on a medical air transport then went back to his ambulance where there was blood everywhere. As he cleaned, he found a bullet that had apparently come out of the officer.
Ronald Hamilton is wearing his army uniform in court. He is charged with two counts of capital murder and faces life in prison.
To get a conviction on murder, prosecutors have to prove premeditation. Hamilton’s attorney is arguing that his client just snapped and reacted in the heat of passion after an argument with his wife and months of marital troubles.
The trial is expected to continue until November 15.
