A Metairie man pleaded guilty as charged to negligent injury on Wednesday (March 30), in connection a shooting in his home in which his wife was wounded.
David Kramer Jr., 46, formerly a sergeant with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety’s Crescent City Connection police unit, was ordered to serve six months of inactive probation, after the judge deferred a six-month jail sentence. He admitted he injured his wife on Oct. 24.
After reviewing the evidence in the case, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office elected to file a bill of information in the 24th Judicial District Court charging Kramer with the misdemeanor offense of negligent injury on March 22.
Before accepting the guilty plea on Wednesday, Judge Glenn Ansardi heard testimony from Kramer’s wife. She testified that she and her husband since 2008 argued over a photograph found on his cellular phone. That lead to her request that he sleep elsewhere that night, she testified.
As he was retrieving his personal firearm from his closet, she attempted to stop him from taking the gun with him, she testified. The firearm discharged once, she said. The bullet went through her arm and struck her in the side of her head, she testified.
“I don’t know if I did something to cause that, when I went to reach for it,” she told Judge Ansardi.
Questioned by attorneys and the judge, the woman described it as “an accident.” She said she is “absolutely not” afraid of her husband and wanted to reconcile.
At her request, Judge Ansardi dissolved a protective order that kept the couple apart. The judge also released Kramer from home incarceration, which was a condition of his $100,000 bond.
Assistant District Attorney Brittany Beckner prosecuted the case.
