Saturday, January 29, 2005

Wife charged with killing spouse in '98

Audry Olmsted El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

AOLMSTED A Quemado woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with the shooting death of her estranged husband nearly seven years ago.

Phyllis Carroll, 56, was arrested by New Mexico State Police officers and placed in the Catron County Detention Center on Jan. 26 at 8:30 a.m. She is being held on a $500,000 bond.

Court documents state that Carroll has been charged with one count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence in the death of her husband, James Carroll.

According to the affidavit for an arrest warrant for Carroll, issued the day she was arrested, James Carroll was found by his estranged wife on Oct. 21, 1998, at 9 p.m., at his Catron County ranch about 7 miles northeast of Quemado.

Initially, the medical examiner was unable to find evidence of trauma and Carroll's death was believed to be the result of a heart attack, the affidavit said.

An autopsy on Carroll performed Oct. 22, 1998, revealed he had died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Phyllis Carroll told State Police on Oct. 23, 1998, that she had been in Grants from the morning of Oct. 19 until the afternoon of Oct. 21, the affidavit said. Upon returning home, she told police, she had found her water turned off and said she attempted to call her husband, who lived in a mobile home on the property.

According to the affidavit, she said she discovered at 9 p.m. that her husband had not fed the horses and went out to search for him and found him in the barn.

Carroll told police she did not check to see if her husband was alive, nor did she call 911, but instead phoned a friend who came out to the residence and called police, the affidavit said.

Police found discrepancies in Carroll's alibi, the affidavit said, including an apparent phone call she made to her husband from Grants. She left a message for her husband on his answering machine that she was in Grants, when, according to phone records, no long-distance calls were made to James Carroll from Grants, indicating that the call was placed locally, said the affidavit.

The affidavit said a written statement was provided to police by a friend of Carroll saying Carroll called her Oct. 18, upset because she had found her husband with one of his girlfriends.

When police questioned Carroll's friends in Grants, whom she was staying with between Oct. 19 and Oct. 21, they found a sweater that she had left behind that was taken into evidence.

On Sept. 1, 2004, the sweater was sent to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Forensics Services Laboratory in South Carolina, to be tested for trace evidence.

According to the affidavit, police received word Oct. 20 that evidence of gunshot residue was found on the sweater, similar to gunshot residue found on James Carroll's shirt.

During a search of Phyllis Carroll's residence, police were only able to find one .38 caliber handgun, when the couple owned two.

The bullet taken from Carroll's body was a .38 caliber round.

aolmsted@dchieftain.com

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