CALDWELL -- A 49-year-old Caldwell man is charged with second-degree murder after police say an argument with his estranged wife escalated into a deadly shooting.
Chris Stone called police, claiming he had just shot his wife in self defense after she stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife.
When Canyon County Sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene, they found his wife, Florence Stone, laying face down in a pool of blood in the back of the couple's van. She suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.
Stone was arrested without incident, and taken to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise to be treated for his injuries.
At the hospital, Chris told police he and his wife were going through an ugly divorce, and she had come over to collect the rest of her belongings. He first told police she was loading her things into the back of her van, when she pulled out a steak knife and stabbed him. That is when Stone said he pulled his pistol from his pocket and fired two rounds at her in self defense.
Later, Stone told police a different story. He said as his wife was loading her things into her van, she said something that "set him off."
Stone said she told him, "You're so stupid, don't you know I just married you for your green card."
After that comment, Stone said he pulled out his gun, pointed it at her head and threatened her. Then she pulled out of the knife from the van and stabbed him, and he fired two rounds into her neck.
Neighbors in this quiet community are in shock.
"He was pretty quiet. They've come over and went swimming. My kids have been over there and played with them, so he seemed like a nice family guy. So, I don't really know what was going on over there," said neighbor Dale Montague.
According to the Caldwell School District, Stone worked for the district as a speech and language pathologist. He worked with individual students in all of the district's schools.
Stone made his first court appearance in an Ada County courtroom Monday. He remains in jail on $1 million bond.
He was originally booked into the Ada County Jail because he had to be treated at St. Alphonsus for a stab wound, but we're told he will be transferred to the Canyon County Jail, and will again be in court Tuesday to be formally arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder.
