LOS ANGELES (AP) – Closing arguments are scheduled on Friday in the murder trial of Michel Jace, who played a police officer on television, with dueling portrayals of the actor presented to a jury.
Is Jace a calculating killer, who shot his wife in the back and then in the legs after taunting her about her love of running? Or was the actor, distraught over the impending end of his marriage of nine years, so distraught that he shot and killed his wife April in the heat of passion?
A jury of six men and six women will have to decide after hearing closing arguments whether to convict “The Shield” actor of first-degree murder, or choose a lesser charge such as voluntary manslaughter.
Jace acknowledges he shot and killed his wife on May 19, 2014, in their Los Angeles home. He waited for police after calling 911 and gave a lengthy interview to detectives in which he told them he wanted to inflict pain on April Jace and planned to shoot her in the leg with her father’s revolver.
Instead, Jace shot her three times and fired two shots into her legs in a hallway within sight of their young sons, who were ages 5 and 8 at the time.