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Nancy Grace

Man Claims He Shot Wife to Death in Sexual Fantasy Game Gone Wrong

Aired December 29, 2010 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JEAN CASAREZ, GUEST HOST: We begin tonight with breaking news out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a 51-year-old woman dead in her bed from a single gunshot wound to the head. The perpetrator, her 23-year-old husband. The young hubby tells police his wife`s death was -- well, it was all an accident, a sex fantasy game gone wrong. He claims he didn`t know the gun was loaded when he pressed it to his wife`s head during their fantasy sex game. The husband, a self-proclaimed gun expert owning several different types of guns, calls 911 after he shoots his wife in the head. Was this really a sex game gone wrong, or is this just an elaborate, twisted story to get away with murder?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nine PM Tuesday night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says it was all fun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The husband frantically dials 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says it was all playful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He tells authorities he has accidentally shot his wife in the head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says it was a terrible accident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wife, Rebecca Sedille, was 50 years old. Her husband, Arthur Sedille.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Allegedly told police he often put a gun to his wife`s head as part of their fantasy sex play. This time, the gun went off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`d been married about three years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sedille says he didn`t know the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to both of their FaceBook pages, both of them had an interest in guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators are confident that Arthur Sedille was the person who shot Mrs. Sedille.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session" on the trueTV network, in for Nancy Grace. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. A 23-year-old husband arrested, his 51-year-old wife shot in the head, dead. The man tells police it was all an accident. He says that he and his wife, they often engage in sex fantasy games with a gun. On this fateful night, he claims they were having sex and he accidentally shot his wife to death. He claims he thought the handgun wasn`t loaded.

Let us go straight out to Nicole Partin, investigative reporter. Nicole, walk us through -- you weren`t there, but Nicole, walk us through what he says happened.

NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (via telephone): Good evening, Jean. It was on the evening of December the 21st, about 9:00 PM, that the 911 call came in. Twenty-three-year-old Arthur Sedille calls 911, says he has accidentally shot his 50-year-old wife, Rebecca Sedille, during a fantasy sex game. He explains that he grabbed a weapon from the bedside shelf, racked the slide, cocking the gun, held the gun to his wife`s head during a sex act fantasy game, the gun went off, tragically killing his wife.

CASAREZ: All right. Now, how old is Arthur Sedille?

PARTIN: Twenty-three years of age.

CASAREZ: Twenty-three. And how old was Rebecca Sedille?

PARTIN: Fifty years of age, we`re being told.

CASAREZ: Fifty years old, more than double his age. How long had they been married?

PARTIN: Friends are telling us that they were married about three years. And as a matter of fact, just a few moments ago, I received word from a dear friend of theirs, and said that the couple -- and A.J., as they call Arthur -- the couple had a very loving relationship, married for about three years. They had lived in this particular location about six months.

I`m told they were very much in love. They spent most of their lunch breaks together during the day, had dinner together every evening. They had just celebrated Rebecca`s 50th birthday with a great dinner out. He told her he would take her anywhere she wanted to go. She chose the location. They went out for a beautiful evening. We`re told they were very normal, loving, and a tragic accident occurred.

CASAREZ: And this happened right before Christmas, December 21st?

PARTIN: That`s correct.

CASAREZ: All right. Did this loving friend know about these games that they played, these sex fantasy games with guns?

PARTIN: I`m not aware they actually knew details of the couple`s, you know, bedside manners, bedroom things that went on there, the sex. But it`s very common knowledge that Arthur was very much a self-proclaimed lover of guns and weapons. His FaceBook page portrays that. His friends knew that. He seemed to be kind of an average 23-year-old guy who loved motorcycles and guns. Nothing out of the ordinary that his friends were aware of.

CASAREZ: Well, to Steve Kardian, former police detective, self- defense expert and lead instructor at Defend University, joining us tonight from New York. Anybody that has been raised with guns knows the cardinal rule -- every gun is loaded. I don`t care if it has a safety on, if it doesn`t have a safety on, if it doesn`t have a safety at all, if it`s loaded, if it`s unloaded -- it`s loaded. That`s the respect you give to a gun.

STEVE KARDIAN, FMR. POLICE DETECTIVE: Absolutely, Jean. And I actually have a weapon here. It`s an unloaded weapon. It is a real gun, likely like the one that was perhaps used. Now, this gun is unloaded. It is safe. There is no magazine, no bullets in there. I`m going to chamber this gun...

CASAREZ: Yes, Steve, let me stop you for a second.

KARDIAN: Sure.

CASAREZ: Let me read what the probable cause affidavit says. You can walk us through it. OK, this is what this young man who`s been arrested now -- arresting charges, first-degree murder. He said he racked the slide back, causing the gun to cock, and then placed the gun to his wife`s head, causing it to go off. OK, show us that, that he racked the slide back. Start from that beginning.

KARDIAN: Good. Here is the weapon. There would be one of two with ways that he would likely to do it. He would grab the slide here and rack it back. That would chamber a round. Now, this has is a distinctly different sound unloaded than it does loaded. So the other way that he may do that is to cock the gun here, pull the slide back, and chamber the round. Now, if there were a bullet in there, there would be a mechanic (ph) that the slide would drag the bullet into that chamber, into the barrel. And it would feel completely different than it does unloaded.

CASAREZ: So you`re saying that when you rack the slide back and cock that gun, you know right then and there if that gun is loaded or if it isn`t loaded by the feel.

KARDIAN: Any expert, any person that handles guns on a regular basis knows the feeling. It`s a significant difference in weight when the gun is loaded than when it`s not loaded. When you chamber the round in an empty gun, there`s a metallic sound. There`s no mechanism of engaging that bullet into the barrel. It`s significantly deferent. Any expert would know the difference, irregardless of what he was doing, handling that gun.

CASAREZ: All right, let`s go to the lawyers -- Eleanor Odom, felony prosecutor, death penalty-qualified, out of Atlanta, Georgia, Peter Odom, defense attorney, out of Atlanta, and Meg Strickler, defense attorney, also out of Atlanta, Georgia.

Eleanor Odom, he`s going to be your ballistics expert on this case. He`s going to take the stand for you. But here`s another thing you`ve got going for you because in that bedroom, if that, in fact, is what they did, how is he going to corroborate his story? You don`t go around and tell your friends and family, This is what we do in the bedroom, and the other person that knows about it is dead.

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Isn`t that convenient, Jean, that she is dead? He can make up whatever story he wants. And this ballistics expert would be my number one witness, explaining all that physical evidence because what we know is that physical evidence doesn`t lie. It doesn`t change. And that is going to tell such a story.

And Jean, let`s face it. Just on the outset, this story sounds kind of bogus. I`d like to know if she had ever discussed with her friends some of these sexual fantasies. And if he`s such a gun expert, he`d know the gun was loaded. You check to see if a gun is loaded or not. This is just preposterous.

CASAREZ: It is. It is. To Peter Odom -- and there are two sides to every story, all right, innocent until proven guilty. He`s had arresting charges at this point. Peter Odom, how are you going to corroborate his story? He`s going to have to take the stand because he`s admitting he did it.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jean, in a courtroom in Atlanta not two years ago, one of the top firearms experts in the state of Georgia, a person with GBI who shall remain nameless, a person that had tested tens of thousands of guns in his career, admitted that he had twice accidentally fired off guns in his laboratory. Even experts get it wrong now and then.

Now, some couples have a very strange sex life. And there`s this strange connection between violence and sex. And you know, right now, with this couple right now being portrayed as a loving couple without any history of domestic violence, this is a plausible story that just might sell to a jury.

CASAREZ: You said one thing I agree with -- motive is going to be important here. It is going to be important, the motive. To Meg Strickler. Having your gun fire in a laboratory under pristine conditions -- that`s very different from putting it to the temple of somebody`s head, and obviously, pulling a trigger.

MEG STRICKLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. What I want to say about the gun -- he was distracted, so he may not have noticed that it was loaded. I mean, you`ve got to understand what was going on here. And I agree with Peter, if there`s any evidence of prior knowledge of their actions, maybe more FaceBook texts, you know, e-mails, whatnot, amongst them back and forth will corroborate the story, and he really will get off on this. We have some defense here. There`s plausible defense in this case.

CASAREZ: Eleanor Odom, just to take a gun and put it to somebody`s temple -- that`s reckless conduct.

ELEANOR ODOM: Yes. At the very least, you`ve got manslaughter here.

CASAREZ: Yes!

ELEANOR ODOM: It looks premeditated because he`s got a loaded gun to his wife`s head, for goodness sakes!

CASAREZ: Unbelievable. Nancy in Illinois. We are taking your calls live tonight. Hi, Nancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. Oh, my God! I can`t believe I got through.

CASAREZ: You did! What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, were there more bullets in that gun? And also, are there drugs and alcohol? And does he have a record?

CASAREZ: All right, we know of no record. We know of no drugs, no alcohol. To Steve Kardian. That`s going to be critical evidence, right, as to whether there was one bullet in the chamber or if it was loaded?

KARDIAN: Jean, I`ve been around guns since I was a child, and from my father and all the law enforcement people that I`ve been involved with for more than 30 years, I never unload my gun. I lock it up when it`s not being carried with me, but I never unload it, let alone leave it on the bedstand unlocked.

So it`s going to be critical whether there were other bullets in that weapon. It`s going to come into play. This is going to be a very complicated case. It is a homicide, no matter how you look at it.

CASAREZ: All right, to Jeff Gardere, psychologist and contributor to Healthguru.com. He said that they were in the middle of a fantasy. What`s the fantasy, Jeff Gardere?

JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, the possible fantasy, if this was an accident, is this guy having complete control over his wife or she`s submitting to him, both of them before they orgasm, and the euphoria making that orgasm much more intense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the husband who made the 911 call, but that`s really all I can tell you about the case without giving away details that I really shouldn`t. After interviewing him, investigators are confident that Arthur Sedille is the person who shot Mrs. Sedille.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nine PM Tuesday night, a husband frantically dials 911. He tells authorities he has accidentally shot his wife in the head. First responders rushed the wife to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The wife, Rebecca Sedille, was 50 years old. Her husband, Arthur Sedille, was 24. We know they`d been married about three years. According to both of their FaceBook pages, both of them had an interest in guns.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arthur Sedille was initially taken to police headquarters for an interview. After talking with investigators, he was booked into the county jail on one count of murder in the first degree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the husband who made the 911 call. That`s really all I can tell you about the case without giving away details that I really shouldn`t.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session," in for Nancy Grace tonight. A 23-year-old husband, a 50-year-old wife. He says that they played this game all the time, and the gun was on the shelf. It was a twisted sex game. And he put it to her temple and it went off. And it was loaded, and he didn`t know it was loaded.

To Steve Kardian, former police detective joining us tonight from New York. All right, here`s what I want to know. The handgun you have, which is much like, we believe, the handgun that was used -- I want you to show us, how do you load that gun?

KARDIAN: All right. I would take the gun and I would open the slide and I would lock it -- I would lock it in place. I would insert the magazine, which has no bullets in it, in here and hammer it in. I would then disengage this. Now, that would load and chamber a bullet. If the magazine is empty, interesting enough, when I bring the slide back, it locks into place. So most every semi-automatic pistol that I`m aware of operates in this fashion.

CASAREZ: All right, here`s my question. Is there any way that latent prints that you can find on that gun not only from pulling the trigger -- because he doesn`t say that in the probable cause affidavit, that he pulled trigger -- but can you find any prints from when the gun was loaded? And I know you can`t tell the age of them, but could that help to show that he loaded the gun?

KARDIAN: Yes, but at what time did he? So it could have been that he loaded it, unloaded it, perhaps. But I think the case is going to be solved ballistically and forensically. He`s got a story. Forensically, the ballistics experts are going to try and match up that story, and if that doesn`t jive, you`ve got a big problem.

CASAREZ: But if you can find that he purchased some bullets, which in many cases, you find that, and you find the receipt and then you corroborate that with some latent prints that you have found, you are building a circumstantial case.

KARDIAN: Yes. Absolutely. And I doubt that there`s going to be anyone that`s going to not believe that he did load that weapon. And very likely, that`s what they`re going to do. They will examine those bullets so that there`s no contradiction on his behalf that she loaded the weapon. So yes, they will look for latent prints on the bullets that are in that weapon and the bullet that was ejected from that gun.

CASAREZ: All right. We`re taking your calls live tonight. Sheeba in Illinois. Good evening, Sheeba.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Good evening, Jean. I just want to say your expert witness is great. He said everything I was going to say. I`ve been around guns all my life, and we never touched them, but we treated them as loaded, even if -- that was the rule my dad had. They`re all loaded. Never point a gun at somebody, or a weapon, he said, unless you intend to use it. So I don`t think -- this doesn`t jive with me, Jean.

CASAREZ: And Sheeba, that is what I was taught, also.

I want to go back to Nicole Partin, investigative reporter...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you!

CASAREZ: ... joining us tonight. Give us the timeframe again, when this happened, when he made the 911 call, because he did call 911.

PARTIN: He did, Jean. This, again, was on the evening of December the 21st. It`s unclear to us at what time the couple entered the bedroom, but we do know shortly after 9:00 PM, he made that 911 call. He was very up front with police, saying that he had just accidentally shot his wife. He also was very up front with police that he often put a gun to his wife`s head during sex in their home. He had nothing to hide, apparently. And all this occurred on that evening around 9:00 PM. At what time they entered the room, we`re not sure, but we do know that her death occurred shortly before 9:00 PM.

CASAREZ: All right, to Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner and forensic pathologist, joining us from Los Angeles. Can you determine the time of death? Because he makes that 911 call about 9:00 o`clock at night, and he says he made it right after it happened. Can you show when she died to corroborate what he`s saying?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DPTY. MEDICAL EXAMINER: Yes, it`s possible. By the older, conventional means, you could determine within, say, an hour- and-a-half, during the first 24 hours. But there are biochemical methods available now in which you can determine within 30 minutes the time of death.

CASAREZ: OK. To Monica in Georgia. Hi, Monica.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Thanks for taking my call, Jean.

CASAREZ: You`re welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just have a quick question and a comment. I agree with Eleanor Odom. I think the fantasy is that anybody is going to believe that this was a fantasy sex game. But I also would like to know, can they tell by the angle if he was actually having sex with her? Because when I saw him being arrested, he didn`t look broken up and he didn`t appear to have blood or brain matter on him.

CASAREZ: Great question. We`ll get to it after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A husband frantically dials 911. He tells authorities he has accidentally shot his wife in the head. First responders rushed the wife to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The wife, Rebecca Sedille, was 50 years old. Her husband, Arthur Sedille. We know they`d been married about three years. According to both of their FaceBook pages, both of them had an interest in guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session," in for Nancy Grace today. Arthur Sedille, 23 years old, he is saying, I`m not criminally responsible for this because it was an accident. According to the probable cause report, he says, We often engaged in sexual fantasies with a gun.

I want to go out to -- because our caller that we just had, Monica in Georgia -- really important question -- Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner, forensic pathologist. The angle of the shot can be critically important to the prosecution`s case, or the defense case. Can you show the angle of the shot? And I guess you`d have to correlate it with the bedroom activities.

OLIVER: Yes, you can show the angle of the shot and the distance from the weapon to the person`s skin. If it was a close shot done in a sexual encounter, then there should be burn marks around the entry point. There might be bruising around that entry point. And you could also, as you asked, determine the angle of the shot. If it was from a distance, there won`t be burn marks, but you can still determine the angle at which the victim was shot.

CASAREZ: To Eleanor Odom, felony prosecutor. This is something that they`re really going to have to get into. Investigators are really going - - and prosecutors -- are going to have to ask him pointed questions about what they were actually doing in that bedroom, where he was, where she was. And then they can show either corroboration or inconsistencies.

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Exactly right, Jean, because you`re going to have to know the positions that they were in, in order to correlate that with the angle of the gun. So all that`s going to be important.

And the medical examiner made a very good point about the powder and the residue. But of course, he`s going to have to -- it`s going to be there because he shot her at point-blank range, whether you believe his story or not. It seems like he almost came up with the story after the fact. Remember, Jean, his FaceBook page and everybody said he was a lover of guns. So you`ve got a fascination in guns and the fact that, again, he should have known it was loaded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arthur Sedille was initially taken to police headquarters for an interview. After talking with investigators, he was booked into the county jail on one count of murder in the first degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: An Oklahoma man admits he shot and killed his wife. He says it was a terrible accident.

Twenty-three-year-old Arthur Sedille allegedly told police he often put a gun to his wife`s head as part of their fantasy sex play. This time the gun went off. Fifty-year-old Rebecca Sedille died in their bedroom.

Sedille says he didn`t know the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger during sex one night. Police say he called 911 immediately after the shooting. He is in jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session" in for Nancy Grace tonight.

We`ve got the probable cause affidavit. This is real, everybody. He says -- the man that`s been arrested says we often engaged in a sexual fantasy, and it involved a gun. And I put it to her head, but I didn`t think it was loaded. She`s dead.

Her name, Rebecca Sedille, 50 years old. A woman just in the prime of her life, gone, dead before Christmas.

Nicole Partin, start from the beginning. Work us through the facts, at least according to the husband.

NICOLE PARTING, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Right. According to the husband on the evening of December the 21st, the two of them went into the bedroom. They engaged in a sexually fantasy game, which he claims they often did inside their home.

It was during those acts her husband claims that he grabbed a weapon from a bedside shelf, racked the slide back, cocking the gun, held the gun to his wife`s head, and the gun went off. He immediately dialed 911, admitting that he had just accidentally shot his wife.

CASAREZ: Now do we know what Arthur Sedille does for a living?

PARTIN: We do know that he works -- he has a job that he`s been employed there for several years now. He does manufacturing every day 9:00 to 5:00 job. We do know that according to a family member, he would leave his place of employment, travel to her place of employment. And they`d have lunch together on most days.

It`s my understanding he prepared their dinner meals every night. I`m told by a family member who just spent about a week and a half with the couple that there were no drugs, there were no alcohol in the home.

This couple were known to often pray over their meals before eating dinner at night. We`re told that they were very affectionate, very loving. Looking forward to the happy Christmas together.

CASAREZ: And we understand that she had a very good job at Sprint.

PARTIN: That`s correct.

CASAREZ: To Steve Kardian, former police detective joining us tonight from New York. All right, you have a gun, unloaded, completely, but it is similar to the gun, we believe, was used. Talk to us about what this young man says that he did, that he racked the slide back, causing the gun to cock, put it on the head of his wife, and then it went off.

Show us how that is done.

STEVE KARDIAN, FMR. POLICE DETECTIVE, SELF-DEFENSE EXPERT, LEAD INSTRUCTOR AT DEFEND UNIVERSITY: Yes, once again, when the gun would be -- even if there was the magazine was entered into the gun, he`s got to slide that back. Now the mechanics are that this slide, once it`s released, is going to catch a bullet. And that`s going to have a significant different feel. It`s going to be notable. Especially to someone who`s claiming to be an expert in the handling of weapons.

CASAREZ: So he had to use both hands doing this?

KARDIAN: Yes. Yes. He had to use both hands to engage the slide, to bring it back, and to load that weapon. And the sound that you`re hearing is completely different than the sound that`s going to be made if there are bullets and a magazine in this weapon.

CASAREZ: And what`s the difference in the sound, if it is a loaded gun versus unloaded when you do all that?

KARDIAN: You`re going to hear the chamber, you`re going to hear -- the slide is going to capture the bullet right here. As a matter of fact, you see it when the gun is open. So this slide, when it goes forward, it`s going to now capture that bullet and engage it into the barrel. It`s a completely different feel than it is when the gun is loaded as opposed to when the gun is empty.

CASAREZ: All right. To Jeff Gardere, psychologist and contributor to Healthguru.com. Wife, 50 years old. Husband, 23 years old. I know it happens, I know. But what does a 23-year-old man have in common with a 50- year-old woman?

JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST, CONTRIBUTOR TO HEALTHGURU.COM: Usually just sex. So I am surprised that this is a situation of where supposedly they were in love.

Now, Jean, I have to tell you this, and I know there may be some criticism of it, but when you`re dealing with a 23-year-old young man and a 50-year-old woman, it is very easy for that relationship to be pathological. And now we`re hearing that he prepared all their meals, he virtually took care of her in a way that we see many marriages, husbands don`t. Driving to her job.

So what this tells me is that there was a lot of possessiveness here, obsessiveness, perhaps too much intensity in this relationship. And then you throw in the sex play. And so I kind of smell a rat here.

CASAREZ: That is fascinating, what you say right there. Absolutely fascinating. What you`re saying is that there is more to this story.

To Emily in North Carolina. Hi, Emily.

EMILY, CALLER FROM NORTH CAROLINA: Hey, how are you?

CASAREZ: I`m fine. Thank you for calling.

EMILY: And I wanted to tell Nancy that I had great holidays and happy new years and to you also.

CASAREZ: Well, Emily, she heard you. She`s sitting on the sofa tonight. And you know what, Emily? She wanted to do this story. She calls me up and she is so, well -- you can imagine what she thinks about the defense, right?

EMILY: Oh, yes, I know that.

CASAREZ: We don`t have to -- we know that. But a lady lost her life. Rebecca Sedille lost her life and she wants justice for this lady that lost her life. Fifty years old is way, way, too young.

So, Emily, what`s your question tonight?

EMILY: OK. My question is, is there an insurance policy out? And how much? And when did he get it? And has there ever been any domestic violence calls?

CASAREZ: Yes. Good, good question.

And Nicole Partin, do we know anything about an insurance policy? Obviously, working for the huge corporation of Sprint can bring many benefits, but do we know of any insurance policy?

PARTIN: We do not know of an insurance policy. Like you said, Jean, working for this company, I`m certain that there probably was one. That has not been brought to light at this point. So there`s none that we are aware of.

Also, there is no known evidence, no signs, no calls of any kind of domestic violence or domestic disputes among the couple.

CASAREZ: All right. But Emily, you`re smart, because you`re looking for motive, and that is something the prosecutors will need in this case.

To Peter Odom, defense attorney out of Atlanta. You know something that I really think bodes in your favor right now. This man is being held on arresting charges. Prosecutors have not filed formal charges yet. He can`t be held forever. It violates his constitutional rights.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, at some point, it does. But for right now, I think the prosecutors are having to take a closer look at this case than they did initially. Everything is corroborating his account. As implausible as it might sound on the face of it, and Jean, I`ll grant you that it sounds very implausible on the face of it, but all the circumstantial evidence is really corroborating his account.

This was a loving couple. There`s no history of domestic violence. They prayed together, they spent time together. You know the claim of accident is just becoming more and more plausible with more favorable evidence that comes out.

CASAREZ: Meg Strickler, defense attorney out of Atlanta, forgot about the ballistic evidence. The ballistic evidence. We`ve seen it. Cocking that gun. You can hear it. You know it. He was a gun expert. That takes him to a higher standard of knowledge, that he knew the gun was loaded.

MEG STRICKLER, INTERNATIONAL ATTORNEY: Now, if I remember correctly, he`s not a gun expert. He knows --

CASAREZ: He thought he was.

STRICKLER: No. He called himself a gun expert.

CASAREZ: Yes.

STRICKLER: But that`s different. He`s only 23 years of age. He doesn`t have much life experience yet. But also, could you make this story up? I mean, come on. I think this is plausible. There is corroborating evidence. They`ve been married for three years. Every story we`re hearing so far is that they were a loving couple.

You don`t hear about any fights, shouting, anything, so far, from anybody. I think this might have actually happened.

CASAREZ: Well, if you think this is the only defense of its kind, it`s not. We want to show you some of the cases where there has been a defense like this. Debora Yvette Parker. She was accused of shooting to death her common law husband. Well, she told police that the gun accidentally fired while they were playing a game of dirty cowboy during sexual foreplay. She was charged with manslaughter.

Now, Malcolm Bruce Davidson, he was fatally shot, another man during sex play, with a .22 caliber handgun. He claims he didn`t know the gun was loaded. He was charged with manslaughter. He`s serving a 10-year term.

And Angel Lynn Barrett, she claims that she and her fiancee, John Steven Spires, they were playing with a gun when she shot and killed him. She says she didn`t know that the weapon was loaded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: According to neighbors at this trailer park near Northwest Tenth and Morgan Road where the couple had been living about six months, no one ever noticed anything suspicious.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 9:00 p.m. Tuesday night --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He says it was all fun.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A husband frantically dials 911.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He says it was all playful.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He tells authorities he has accidentally shot his wife in the head.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He says it was a terrible accident.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The wife, Rebecca Sedille, was 50 years old. Her husband, Arthur Sedille --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Allegedly told police he often put a gun to his wife`s head as part of their fantasy sex play. This time, the gun went off.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They`d been married about three years.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sedille says he didn`t know the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: According to both of their Facebook pages, both of them had an interest in guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators are confident that Arthur Sedille was the person who shot Mrs. Sedille.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session," in for Nancy Grace.

He said they were a loving couple, loved each other very much, and something went terribly wrong when he put the gun to her head. He didn`t think it was going to go off. Is that a loving gesture? To put a gun to your spouse`s head when you`re all in the bedroom?

To Steve Kardian, former detective joining us tonight from New York. All right, I want to look at that gun again. Because this is much like the gun that we believe was used and this young man, Arthur Sedille, says it was an accident.

I want to talk about the trigger pull. You got to pull the trigger, don`t you?

KARDIAN: You do. And unless it`s a worked up gun, the trigger pull is going to be about seven, eight pounds. If it`s worked on, it can be as low as three. So yes, it needs a significant amount of pressure to shoot that gun, depending upon whether the gun has been worked or was a target pistol.

CASAREZ: All right. Now here`s my question. If you believe the gun isn`t loaded, that`s your state of mind, the gun is not loaded, why would you rack the slide back, causing the gun to cock? Why would you do that?

KARDIAN: To engage a bullet into the chamber of the gun.

CASAREZ: But it`s unloaded. You`re playing. This is a playtime.

KARDIAN: Yes, if that was sexual play for them and he believed that the gun was unloaded, perhaps he used it for effect, but hard to buy. Hard to buy, Jean.

CASAREZ: All righty.

Brandy in Texas. Hi, Brandy.

BRANDY, CALLER FROM TEXAS: Hi. My question is, how long between the shot and -- when he called 911 was there?

CASAREZ: Well, Brandy, he is saying that he called 911 a little after 9:00 on December 21st, right after it happened. Now, to his credit, all right, he says he shot her, he says it was an accident. He said that they were just having a good time. But he says it was right after.

But Brandy, you`re right. That`s going to be increasingly important forensic evidence, to see if he is telling the truth.

To Lisa in Oklahoma, hi, Lisa. What part of Oklahoma are you from?

LISA, CALLER FROM OKLAHOMA: Hi, Jean, with the smiling eyes.

CASAREZ: Yes.

LISA: I grew up in Oklahoma City, not very far from where these people live.

CASAREZ: Wow.

LISA: And Tenth Street apparently is where they live, Tenth and Morgan Road, is a notoriously dangerous area. A lot of strip bars, a lot of crime. You know, just a bad, bad street to be on.

I`m just wondering why this woman, if she knew that this gun was going to be used in a sexual fantasy, why she didn`t check the gun. And also, were there any other weapons found in the home, and any other bondage equipment?

There is a well-known bondage club not very far from their home on Bruno and Council. Probably less than three miles from their home.

CASAREZ: Well, that`s a lot of interesting information.

Nicole Partin, investigative reporter, do we know anything about her love for guns. Did she have a working knowledge of guns at all?

PARTIN: We`re not certain of that. We do know that they were both lovers of guns. Whether she owned a gun. Whether either one of them were an expert or accustomed to weapons, of that we`re not certain. We do know that both of them, even on their Facebook pages, had interest of guns, AK- 47s, assault rifles, and so forth.

CASAREZ: Right. And we want to show everybody that`s exactly what was on the Facebook page of Arthur Sedille, AK-47, Jesus Christ, Jagermeister, Smith and Wesson, M1A rifle, Mossberg 500, goes on and on.

So he had a lot of guns, used them a lot and that takes him -- increases the standard of care, the duty, his knowledge. He called himself an expert of guns.

To Howard Oliver, former medical examiner of Los Angeles, forensic pathologist, when you perform this autopsy, what are you going to look for her on her entire body as you do your work?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: I`m going to look for evidence of old injuries like bruising or -- you know, and coloration of bruising, like an older bruise is yellow or green.

I`m looking for evidence of recent injury, like with the gunshot wound, or if it was a close injury, if the gun was held to her head, there`ll be a circumferential bruise around the bullet wound. I`m looking for the track of the bullet wound that is the path that it travels.

CASAREZ: How about defensive wounds, if she tried to fight back?

OLIVER: If there are defensive wounds against the gun, then you would have bullet wounds traveling through the hands. I wouldn`t think I would see defensive wounds in this case. This -- you know, this would have happened in a split second, before she would have known what was going on.

CASAREZ: Is there any way -- and I don`t think there is, but I want to ask you this question. Is there any way you can determine if someone was sleeping when they`re shot to death?

OLIVER: No, there`s no way to determine that.

CASAREZ: So there aren`t any bodily fluids or any levels at all that would show that the body was at rest?

OLIVER: No, there isn`t.

CASAREZ: All right. Thought I would ask.

Valle in Mississippi, hi, Valle.

VALLE, CALLER FROM MISSISSIPPI: Hi, Jean. How are you?

CASAREZ: I`m fine. Thank you for calling.

VALLE: Thank you. You guys have sort of touched on what my question is. I wonder if -- when they`re examining her, if they would do an examination to see if there`s semen or bodily fluids in or on her and on the bedding.

CASAREZ: Good question.

Howard Oliver, would you do a type of sexual assault examination, not that that happened, but to see exactly forensically what you would find?

OLIVER: Yes, you would do that type of determination just to be thorough.

CASAREZ: All right. To Eleanor Odom, felony prosecutor, death penalty qualified we are awaiting formal charges. But in Oklahoma, they have the death penalty. And for first-degree murder, what you`re looking at someone that not only premeditated the death of someone but deliberately, intentionally and unlawfully killed someone.

What would you do to build that case in this situation?

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: You look for those aggravating circumstances. Did he -- getting money? For instance, somebody asked about a life insurance policy. So something like that to make it a death penalty case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He says it was all fun and playful until the handgun went off.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: An Oklahoma man`s explanation of why his wife is dead. Fifty-year-old Rebecca Sedille died in their bedroom.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the husband who made the 911 call but that`s really all I can tell you about the case. We`re not giving away details that I really should. After interviewing him, investigators are confident that Arthur Sedille was the person who shot Mrs. Sedille.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez in for Nancy Grace.

To Jeff Gardere, psychologist, if you were on the stand for the defense, all right? I`m going to be with you here. I want you to explain exactly how this rationally could have happened.

GARDERE: The way that I would explain this as a psychologist trying to help this individual is that he was lost in his sex play. Even though he is ultimately responsible for making sure that gun is unloaded and should have known better and knows the cardinal rules of being a gun owner, because he was in this sex play, he wasn`t thinking rationally, having sex, near orgasm perhaps, and therefore not using his mind properly.

Judgment is completely gone. And because he`s done this before, he did it with full complicity of his partner. Perhaps she even asked him, put the gun to my head before we finish our sex act, to enhance it.

CASAREZ: All right. So legally what you`re saying, he couldn`t form the criminal intent to do the act.

To Julie in New Hampshire, very quickly, hi, Julie.

JULIE, CALLER FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE: Hi, good evening. I wanted to say to Peter Odom. Atlanta is lucky to have him and we miss him, miss him terribly here in New Hampshire.

Well, my question is, if they were a loving couple for the six months they`ve been in Oklahoma City, what about the past 2 1/2 years where they live elsewhere?

CASAREZ: All right. Eleanor Odom, felony prosecutor, you`re going to look into that, aren`t you?

E. ODOM: You know I so want to see if there are any similar transactions.

CASAREZ: That is right. All right. We want to thank everybody.

Tonight let us stop to remember Army Sergeant Willard Partridge, 25 years old, from Faraday, Louisiana. Todd was an avid outdoorsman. He loved to hunt and fish. He was also a superb baseball and softball player. Todd always had a smile on his face and was truly loved by everyone who knew him.

He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Level, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon.

He leaves behind his wife Ronda, two daughters Kelsey and Kimberly, mother Camille., and sister Darlene.

Willard Partridge, an American hero.

Thank you so much to all of our guests and a special hello to Florida friend of the show, Johnny.

Hi, Johnny.

We are going to see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, goodnight, everybody.

END