Tennessee man who murdered wife in front of their 2-year-old says he was subjected to domestic abuse
CHURCH HILL, TENNESSEE: A man, accused of killing his military veteran wife in front of their 2-year-old son, said that he had shot his wife after being unable to take her domestic abuse anymore.
The first episode of A&E's documentary 'Accused: Guilty Or Innocent' premiering on April 21, 10 pm EST, takes a look at the case of Bryan 'Steven' Lawson, who was originally charged with first-degree murder after he fatally shot his wife Beth 'Chandra' Lawson, 40, on January 27, 2017. Their son, Drayden was present at their apartment when the incident took place.
At the time Bryan faced life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Apart from the fact that Bryan confessed to shooting and killing his wife in a 911 call immediately after the incident, the moment was captured in a CCTV camera that the couple installed inside their home after their area had a number of break-ins.
The footage showed that the couple entered into an argument 45 minutes before the shooting took place. The row got steadily violent as Beth began hitting Bryan with her hand. After a while, she took out a baseball bat and threatened him with it. After Bryan managed to wrestle the bat out of her hands, she left the room to get their son from the other room. During the time she was gone, he retrieved a handgun identified as a Taurus .45-caliber revolver.
He put it in his pocket. When the victim started arguing with him again and proceeded to hit him on the head, Bryan fired the gun from inside his pocket, which hit his wife in the stomach. She fell to the floor and never got up again.
According to Times-News, Bryan told the Church Hill police deputies at the time that he shot his wife because he could not take his wife's beatings anymore. In the documentary, he elaborated on the same. He said that despite being together for 10 years, Beth continued to abuse him.
"There's no class for men or guys to say, 'Hey if your wife is beating you, you need to do this' or, 'These are the steps you need to take if you're having these types of problems in your relationship.' I am six foot five, 250 pounds... 'Why didn't you jump up and do anything?' Well If I would have hit her, she would have killed me for sure," Bryan said in the documentary. He added that when he tried to leave her for good once in the past, Beth put a pistol in her mouth and if it was not jammed, she would have killed herself.
When Bryan met Beth, she was an international guard and had done two tours in Iraq. After having sustained a neck injury she could not be deployed and was forced to retire. She started taking pain medication and became addicted to narcotics. Her health records showed she was a substance abuser and had a bipolar condition. In extended footage from the day of the shooting that the defense manages to procure later in the documentary, Beth can be seen shooting up drugs four times before confronting her husband.
While reexamining the footage, which had no audio in it, Bryan recalled Beth telling him during the argument that she wanted to bash his brains out and wanted his mother to clean it up. And that after killing him, she would commit suicide with her son. She also allegedly added, that Brayden was put on the earth to punish her for every bad thing she had done.
Last year, two weeks before the trial was about to start, the prosecution agreed to reduce the charges against Bryan to voluntary manslaughter. In February 2019, he pleaded guilty to the charge in exchange for a 15-year sentence. He also pleaded guilty to felony reckless endangerment as the shooting took place in front of their child.
Bryan will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence, which amounts to approximately three years, minus time for good behavior. After being handed down his sentence by the judge, he thanked his family for their support.
“I want to express every level of remorse in my fiber,” Bryan said. “I’m sorry this happened.”