WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) -- A man accused of the shooting death of his estranged wife was back on the witness stand today in Columbus County. He and his attorney tell a much different story about what happened that day.
No cameras were allowed in the courtroom as Elijah Jones took to the stand to tell jurors that he couldn't possibly kill his wife because he loved her. However, audio recordings introduced into evidence paint a different picture.
"'You no good (expletive). Wherever I catch you at, I'm going to kill you.' He's just very violent, and I don't want him no more. I want a divorce, and I don't want him around me," Joan Everette's said in a 2009 domestic violence hearing describing years of physical and emotional abuse from Elijah Jones.
During cross examination during that hearing Jones recounted a 1997 fight between the couple.
"I throwed a gun on her and was going to kill her," Jones said. "That's the only time I threw a gun on her. She had shot me in the leg, and I was going to shoot her back. She said, 'Elijah, don't shoot me,' and I didn't."
On August 19, 2011, investigators say Jones shot and killed Everette in cold blood in the parking lot of a Whiteville hospital. Surveillance cameras caught the whole thing.
Jones later described the scene to Whiteville Police.
"She pulled up, and he got out and walked over to her car. I pulled up, and I just flipped," Jones said. "When I seen this was happening again this morning, I just flipped. I pulled my gun from under the seat and started firing. I wasn't intending to hit nobody. I don't know if I hit anybody direct."
When a police officer asked if he was trying to scare them, Jones said, "That was probably the main reason."
If convicted Jones faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.