"One of us has to go, it's either you or me," Keith Raymond Omundsen told his wife as he held a shotgun pointed at her chest.
The couple, who have been married eight years, had been having troubles in their relationship for the past three years due to smoking and
alcohol, police prosecutor Sergeant David Grey said.
They were at home on September 30 when Omundsen, 69, said he had something to show the victim, and went upstairs, Mr Grey told the Whanganui District Court yesterday.
The former school teacher came back down the stairs with a shotgun, with two cartridges inserted in the barrels, Mr Grey said. As he walked down the steps, he snapped the shotgun shut and pointed it at the victim's chest as he stood "only a metre away".
The victim "tried to remain calm". After he said one of them had to go, the victim turned her back and went down the stairs.
