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when Air Force Major Andre McDonald went on trial for the murder of his wife andreen McDonald his defense attorney
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called him to the stand to explain what happened it was the first time he had ever spoken publicly about his wife's
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death Andre said that on the night of February 28th 2019 he had raised the possibility of divorce in splitting
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their million-dollar business in half his wife andreen McDonald had started an assisted living business in San Antonio
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Texas in 2012 according to Andre's close friend Andrew Russell Andre bankrolled her dreams in order to start the
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business Andre he liquidated his 41k and he sold the BMW that he owned Andre testified that hours before andreen died
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he had found out his wife had started a new business in 2018 without his knowledge what did that signify to you
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basically that meant to me pretty much that she was robbing me Andre admitted that an argument ensued and turned
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physically she became extremely irate at the thought of splitting the business charges into the room to confront me so
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when she comes into the room you know I turn around and she comes like right up in my face so at that moment he spits in
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my face so at that point I grabbed her cuz she's like right in front of me so I grabbed her head I think we had like a a
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clash of heads and I think it opened up like a cut somewhere on her face Andre said andren ran into the bathroom and
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turned on the lights when andrene saw her bloody face in the mirror Andre claimed she attacked him his testimony
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may be disturbing to some viewers yeah so when she comes she's like throwing like some punches so I'm trying to like
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duck down and like keep my head my face from getting hit with the blows I remember like grabbing her and like
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tripping her and then she like Falls and that's when I kick her like twice the second
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kick I think I heard like some type of wheezing and then also like in the background I could hear like some
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footsteps the footsteps of their young daughter Elena McDonald said he left andren on the floor hurt but alive to
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put Elena back to bed and when he returned about 30 minutes later his wife was dead I became like pretty frantic at
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that point because you know she's dead on the floor you know you never thought I need to call Em in cross-examination
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prosecutor spear asked if Andre had thought about calling 91 one I never thought about calling
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anybody to revive a dead person my purpose at that point was simply to get her out of the house so that my
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7-year-old daughter wouldn't see her mother laying on the floor dead the defense then brought up why Andre acted
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the way he did that night have you always believed you acted in self-defense yes I've always believed
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that from the very beginning than the defense played videos showing in dream giving her husband a piggyback ride and
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working out would you describe andreen as a very strong powerful woman yes I would
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according to Andre his wife could lift up to 300 lb yes ma'am when she attacked you were you in
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fear yes I was in fear of you know being armed during that that whole situation they want you to forget and
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disregard all his actions it was now up to the jury the jurors had to decide if Andre McDonald was guilty of murder
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manslaughter or Not Guilty by self-defense after almost 11 hours of deliberating andrene's family was
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worried everything was said in the courtroom all the evidence were were there he confessed on the stand what he
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did they saw his demeanor I don't know what was um the problem jurors Brandon meden I voted for murder and I saw that
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we were s six and six in Rudy Ruiz at no point did any juror think that he was innocent or that it was self-defense and
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yet the jury was deadlocked no one was going to change anyone's mind the judge urged the jurors to go back and
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reconsider the evidence and reach a unanimous decision after another hour of deliberations a
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verdict