PANAMA CITY — A bullet through the heart ended the life of a man who’d been in a romantic relationship with Michael Joe McCoy’s wife, the Bay County medical examiner testified Tuesday.
The murder trial of Michael McCoy, 44, proceeded with jurors hearing from investigators, the medical examiner and 911 calls made moments after McCoy shot his wife and killed her lover in early February. David Walker, 46, was face down in a ditch when EMTs arrived; and Susan Diane McCoy, 37, clung to life outside the couple’s Fountain home.
“I’ve just been shot …,” Susan McCoy told dispatchers in a 911 call played for the jury. “Hurry, please.”
Her voice was frantic at first but faded quickly to being inaudible before the call ended. Almost simultaneously, Michael McCoy called 911 from inside the home.
“I shot two people. Just come right quick,” he said. “They were cheating on me — my wife and a friend.”
Panting, Michael McCoy went outside and assured his wife medics were on the way.
“I didn’t mean to shoot Diane, but I did mean to shoot David,” he said. “I’m sorry Diane. Do you hear me?”
Deputies arrived at the home of Michael and Susan McCoy on Rhonda Road after receiving the two calls Feb. 5 at about 2:30 a.m.
Michael McCoy told investigators following the shooting that he initially armed himself with the intention of taking his own life, but his wife talked him out of it. He said he had just learned the two were having an affair and demanded Walker — who had been staying with the couple for a few days since his release from the Bay County Jail following a domestic battery arrest — leave their home.
The two men began to argue before Walker began to aggressively approach when McCoy shot him, McCoy said. And Susan McCoy was caught in the cross-fire.
Prosecutor Larry Basford has argued the opposite. Basford said McCoy grabbed the gun in a jealous rage. Walker was voluntarily leaving the property as McCoy sat outside with the loaded 9-mm pistol. Without signs of a true threat, McCoy fired on Walker four times and then turned the gun on Susan McCoy.
Examination of Walker’s wounds gave jurors an insight at least into the sequence of some of the shots fired. Walker suffered two non-lethal gunshot wounds to the chest that would not have immobilized him, according to Medical Examiner Michael Hunter. One round entered the back of his calf. And one entered his back left side, punctured a lung and pierced his heart — which would have been the fatal shot.
“A shooting event is a very dynamic thing,” Hunter said. “But a shooting victim is going to try to get away.”
More than 2-liters of blood filled Walker’s chest cavity from the fatal shot, Hunter added.
However, only Michael and Susan McCoy survived the incident to testify how events of the night unfolded.
Michael McCoy is expected to testify on his own behalf during the final day of the trial today. It is unknown whether Susan McCoy will testify.