A 72-year-old Lander man is accused of holding a gun to the head of a terrified woman and shouting at her to “pull the trigger, bitch,” then later telling police he wasn’t really going to shoot her because “it would make a mess of his house.”
Joseph Boulette had his first appearance in Fremont County Circuit Court on Friday, charged with felony aggravated assault and battery and misdemeanor reckless endangering for allegedly berating a woman in his home to the point of pulling a weapon and encouraging her to use it to kill herself.
By the time Lander Police Officer Jason Hanson arrived at Boulette’s home in the 500 block of Parks Street on Thursday evening, responding to a report of domestic abuse, the woman was sobbing on the couch, he reports in an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
Boulette wasn’t yelling at her anymore, and was instead tending to an injury the woman told police she already had and that wasn’t related to that evening’s alleged domestic violence incident, the affidavit says.
While the woman seemed hesitant to talk about being threatened and Boulette reportedly pulling a gun on her, the older man didn’t hold back, Hanson wrote.
“Boulette informed me that (the woman) arrived at his residence, and he began yelling at her, and told her to leave,” the affidavit says, adding the situation escalated from there.
“He was yelling at (her) to leave, to kill herself, and to die,” the affidavit continues. “Boulette then informed me he provided (the woman) with a firearm to ‘kill herself, but she wouldn’t do it.’”
When asked to clarify what he meant about “providing” the woman with a gun, Boulette said he didn’t actually give her the weapon, but held it himself.
“He responded with, ‘I held it to her head (and said), ‘You gunna pull the trigger, bitch? Pull the trigger,’” Hanson wrote in the affidavit. “I clarified that he was the one that held the firearm to (her) head, to which he stated, ‘Yeah.’”
What She Said
The gun used to make the alleged threats was found on a couch in the home, the affidavit says, while the woman seemed hesitant to say anything to incriminate Boulette.
“I asked if she was threatened with the firearm or it was ever held to her head, (and she) was very passive with answering the questions,” Hanson wrote. “She began looking around the room and not at me, and quietly answered the questions with a simple, ‘No.’”
When asked how the handgun got on the couch, the woman began crying and told Hanson that Boulette had it, but that it was never pointed at her, the affidavit says. She also said he always had the gun with him.
Hanson then told the woman that Boulette admitted holding the gun to her head.
“I asked why Boulette would tell me he had held the gun to her head, to which she responded with, ‘I don’t know. I didn’t even know he told you that,’” according to the affidavit.
She then said she didn’t know if the gun was pointed at her, but Boulette was yelling at her, telling her to kill herself, and “moving his hands around with the firearm,” the affidavit says.
‘It Would Make A Mess’
Asked again about the incident with the gun, Boulette said that “he asked her to kill herself with the gun, but (she) would not do it,” according to the affidavit. “I asked if he pointed the gun at her, to which he stated, ‘Yeah, I probably did, may have.’”
He also gave more detail about how he allegedly held the gun to the woman’s head.
“He made a motion as if he was holding a gun, moving his hand, and stated, ‘Here, kill yourself,’” Hanson wrote. “I asked him to clarify how he pointed the gun towards (the woman’s) head.
“Boulette stated, ‘She wasn’t facing me, she was looking the other way,’ to which I stated, ‘And you pointed at her head?’ To which he stated, ‘I may have.’”
That’s when he added that he wasn’t really going to shoot the woman “as it would make a mess of his house,” Hanson wrote.
If convicted of aggravated assault and battery, Boulette could get a maximum of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. The reckless endangering charge is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Boulette is next scheduled to be in court Sept. 21 for a preliminary hearing, when a judge will determine if there’s enough evidence to support the felony charge to move on to Fremont County District Court.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
