Graphic footage has been shown to a Texas court of a bloodied man lying on the ground after being shot as he named his girlfriend as his attacker in the moments before he died.
The shocking video was shown to jurors at the start of 71-year-old Elizabeth Taylor’s murder trial in Beaumont this week.
Taylor has been charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting her 58-year-old boyfriend Larry Atwood while they were driving on the Eastex Freeway in October last year.
Footage shot by witnesses showed 58-year-old Larry Atwood cradling his gunshot wound after being shot by his girlfriend Elizabeth Taylor in Beaumont, Texas in October last year
The shocking video of an injured Larry Atwood was shown to jurors at the start of 71-year-old Elizabeth Taylor’s murder trial (above) in Beaumont, Texas this week
Multiple witnesses who stopped to help when they spotted Atwood stumbling along the highway testified in court that Atwood told them his girlfriend had shot him, the Beaumont Enterprise reports.
One of the witnesses said Atwood’s shirt was covered in blood and he kept saying: ‘Help me, help me. She shot me’.
Taylor has been charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting her 58-year-old boyfriend Larry Atwood (above) while they were driving on the Eastex Freeway in October last year
A video filmed by one of the witnesses showed Atwood lying on the ground as he cradled his head.
When asked who shot him, Atwood was filmed saying: ‘Elizabeth Taylor… She lives on Cooks Lake Road’.
Atwood was pronounced dead after being rushed to hospital.
Taylor has claimed that she was a victim of domestic abuse and that she only shot Atwood in self-defense.
She testified on Wednesday that Atwood had hit her, grabbed her hair and tried to suffocate her while he was driving her truck down the highway.
Taylor said she broke free and grabbed her .38-caliber revolver from her purse to protect herself.
She claims Atwood dared her to kill him before she fired the gun through the windshield.
Taylor said she wasn’t aiming the gun at him when it fired and shot him in the stomach.
Taylor claims that she was a victim of domestic abuse and that she only shot Atwood in self-defense. Her mugshot showed her with facial injuries, including a black eye and skinned nose
She told the court that she had warned Atwood, telling him: ‘You put your hands on me again, I’m going to shoot you. I’m not going to let you do that again and get away with it.’
Her attorneys told the court the gun accidentally fired when Atwood grabbed her arm during the confrontation.
Prosecutors say Taylor fled the scene and drove to her son’s house because she knew she was in trouble.
Her son David Walters testified that when his mother arrived she had a black eye, swollen cheeks and a skinned nose.
She told him: ‘I think I might be in trouble. I might’ve shot Larry.’
Walters told the court that he put his mother’s gun in his truck and waited for police to arrive.
Taylor has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and faces up to life in prison.