Vestavia Hills AL Jan 29, 2022

The wife of a Vestavia Hills police officer killed during a domestic argument was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the shooting death of her husband more than two years ago.

Stephanie Keller, 46, was convicted Oct. 22, 2021 of manslaughter in the death Officer Andrew Wade “Andy” Kimbrel.

The shooting happened May 2, 2019, at the entrance to the walk-in closet at the couple’s Gardendale apartment, with two teen children in their nearby bedrooms.

Kimbrel, 42, died early the following morning at UAB Hospital from a gunshot wound to the head.

Keller was charged with intentional murder.

Jurors had the options of considering reduced charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, as well as the original charge of intentional murder.

Under Alabama law, a person commits the crime of manslaughter if he or she causes the death of another person under circumstances that would constitute murder, except that that he or she causes the death due to a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before a reasonable time for the passion to cool and for reason to reassert itself.

To get a conviction, the law reads, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the victim is dead, that the defendant caused the victim’s death, that the defendant did so intentionally and that the defendant caused the death due to a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before a reason time for the passion to cool and for the reason to reassert itself.

Manslaughter is a Class B felony. Keller faced 10 to 20 years in prison because a firearm was used in the death.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alaric May handed down the sentence Thursday after hearing from family members of both sides.

Though Keller and her friends and family continually referred to the deadly shooting as an accident, the judge said he would not call it that.

May said he recognized that prior to the crime, Keller was an upstanding member of the community with no prior criminal history, so was the victim.

“It does not escape the court that this crime was committed against an upstanding member of the community, a member of law enforcement, although he was not on duty at the time, and it was committed in an apartment where the defendant’s son and stepdaughter, the victim’s daughter, were only a few feet away, undoubtedly scarring both of them,’’ May said.

“With the current rash of killings in this country, and this state, county and city, we can’t allow ourselves to become so desensitized that we lose sight of the fact that someone’s child, someone’s father, is gone,’’ May said. “They’ve been senselessly taken from them.”

The judge said while it’s never his intention to “strip anyone of their family member, a jury has decided that Stephanie Keller did that.”

He also noted her lack of remorse.

“Ms. Keller refuses to accept responsibility and continues to not respect the jury’s verdict,’’ May said.

Stephanie Keller, 46, was convicted Oct. 22 of manslaughter in the death Officer Andrew Wade “Andy” Kimbrel. The shooting happened May 2, 2019, at the entrance to the walk-in closet at the couple’s Gardendale apartment, with two teen children in their nearby bedrooms. (Jefferson County Jail)

Jefferson County deputy district attorneys Lauren Breland and Will McComb prosecuted the case.

Keller is represented by attorneys Wilson Myers and Jason Wollitz. Judge May presided.

Keller addressed the judge and court before sentencing.

She called the night Kimbrel was killed, “the worst, most traumatic moment of my life.”

“I tried to help my husband the entire time we were together, but you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped,’’ she said.

“This was an accident. I feel like the badge has smuggled the truth.”

“I didn’t just lose my freedom that night, I lost my spouse, and I had no intentions of that ever happening,’’ she said, “So I’m begging for mercy.”

Kimbrel’s mother Renda Kimbrel, and teen daughter, Emma, both made statements to the court, asking for the maximum sentence to be given to keller.

“I have a huge hole in my heart now,’’ Renda Kimbrel said. “I will never stop missing him. I cry daily.”

She said her son didn’t have to die. “She (Keller) did it just because she could.”

Emma, in a letter read by McComb, said she’s reminded every day of the absence of her father, say he missed her Sweet 16, will miss her high school graduation and will not be there to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.

She said she has been diagnosed with PTSD, and that it is triggered by loud noises, such as fireworks on the Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve. She had to move schools, leaving her friends behind.

“I have been scarred permanently,’’ she said.

A half dozen of Keller’s family and friends also made statements, saying they don’t believe she is a danger to society, and they would gladly take her into her home if she were to receive probation. They said she has been a devoted mother and is about to become a first-time grandmother.

Damon Keller, her 16-year-old son who was in the home at the time of the deadly shooting, cried while addressing the court. “I can’t live without my mother,’’ he said.

Vestavia Hills police released this statement following the sentencing: “The hard work and dedication of both agencies has allowed the Kimbrel family along with the entire Vestavia Hills Police Department to have closure in this tragedy…Emma, your courage and determination during this difficult time is a testimony to your father and you will always be a member of the VHPD family.”

Prosecutors contended that Keller intentionally shot her husband during ongoing discord in the marriage.

“The arguments never stopped,” Breland said in her opening statements of the trial.

“They were not violent. This victim was never violent toward (Keller). He never raised a hand toward her, but the relationship was a constant verbal and emotional battle, and it was one that the victim would not make it out of with his life.”

Defense attorneys claimed the shooting was accidental during a struggle and that no crime was committed.

“Is there a tragedy? You betcha,’’ Myers said in his opening remarks. “Is it tragic Andy is dead? Yep, it sure is. Stephanie lost her husband…it is tragic. It is terrible.”

He said the shooting involved no criminal intent. “Guns go off without any action by anyone intentional,’’ he said. ‘’We hear about it all the time.”

During the October trial, Kimbrel’s 16-year-old daughter, Emma, took the stand. Now a high school sophomore, Emma was just 13 when her father was killed.

She testified that she was in her locked bedroom that night, trying to sleep, when she heard her father and stepmother arguing. “I heard her say, ‘Give me the gun. I’ll shoot you,’’’ Emma. Kimbrel, replied, ‘Do it then.’’

She said she hear a rustling, and then a “pop.”

Frightened, she called her grandfather, but she was whispering so he couldn’t understand her. She then texted him this: “Pepee, help.”

Emma testified that after the shooting, she remained locked in her room, not knowing what else to do. She said heard Keller screaming for Kimbrel to “wake up,” and heard her call 911. She and her stepbrother, who reportedly slept through the ordeal, left the home only after police arrived and went to stay with Emma’s maternal grandparents, with whom she now lives permanently.

Keller also took the stand in her own defense, saying the gun just went off and she doesn’t remember whether she ever touched the weapon.

“Andy still had hold of it. I still had my hands up in defense,’’ Keller testified. “I can’t tell you I didn’t touch it. I really don’t know. It happened so fast.”

Keller, during her 40-minute testimony, chronicled the events of that night through her eyes. She said she arrived home from work at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama about 3 p.m., finding Kimbrel angry at her. She described him as visibly agitated. Kimbrel, she said, accused her of trying to control him, and possibly cheating on him with her personal trainer. She said she repeatedly told him none of those things were true.

She said in prior fights, she was always able to calm him. “This night, ‘’ she said, “it doesn’t happen.”

At 9 p.m., she said the entire family went to bed even though the fighting continued. “Andy would stew for a little bit and then he would explode,’’ she said.

Kimbrel got back out of bed at some point, Keller said, and then she did as well. “He was calling me my mother, which is the biggest jab,’’ she said.

They were standing at the entrance to the walk-in closet. “Andy had a hold of me, and he was saying things, any ugly thing he could think of,’’ she said.

A Jefferson County jury convicted Stephanie Keller of manslaughter in the 2019 shooting death of her husband, Vestavia Hills police Officer Andy Kimbrel.

Despite previous testimony from Kimbrel’s daughter that she could hear them both arguing through the bedroom wall, Keller said, “I was not yelling.”

“Andy had a grip on me. At one point, he let go and he moved quickly past me into the closet,’’ she said. “When I turned around to see what he was doing, he was pulling the gun out of the holster, and he shoved the gun at me.”

“My husband loved to repeat on a script in every fight, ‘If you think I’m such a bad guy, just shoot me,’’’ she said. “The gun went off.”

Asked by her attorney if she reached for the gun or if she ever touched the trigger, Keller said, “I did not.”

She said they were standing very close, at less than a distance of bent arms. After the gun went off, Keller said, “It stunned me. I took a second to think what just happened, and what can I do. My husband fell,’’ she said.

Keller then checked for a pulse and breathing, finding both. That’s when she called 911.

She said doesn’t remember telling the 911 operator that she shot her husband. “All I knew was Andy was hurt,’’ she said, “and I need help.”

She said she was “completely shocked and panicked.”

Under cross examination by McComb, the prosecutor again questioned Keller about her demeanor that night during the arguing. She insisted she never raised her voice.

“Were you serene the whole time?’’ McComb asked. Keller replied, “I wasn’t at a spa.”

Keller was then asked about the moments leading up to the shooting. She said she never had control of the weapon. “Did you tell someone it was in your hands, and you put it by the body?” McComb asked.

“I answered their questions the best I could,’’ Keller said of her interview with police. “I don’t remember what all I said.”

Testimony showed that there was blood found on the toilet and the vanity in the bathroom. Asked how it got there, Keller said, “I probably stumbled in there.” The gun’s holster was also found bloodied in the bathroom.

Keller refuted her stepdaughter’s earlier testimony that the girl heard Keller tell Kimbrel to give her the gun. “It never happened,’’ Keller said.

Earlier in the trial, a medical examiner testified that the bullet from Kimbrel’s service weapon entered his head at his hairline and exited through the base of his skull in an apparent downward trajectory.

McComb asked Keller to explain how, if they both were standing and Kimbrell was two inches taller than Keller, it was possible for the bullet to strike Kimbrel in the head at that angle.

“It was an accident,’’ Keller said. “How do you explain an accident?”

Gardendale Det. Kyle Pannell testified that Keller was taken to police headquarters where she was interviewed by detectives. She was in the interview room for about nine hours, but interviewed for total of about three hours during that time period

Pannell said that Keller gave several conflicting versions of what happened that night, including telling detectives, “I yelled back” and said she told police she told Kimbrel, “You’re not going to hide in the bathroom” and she also told police, “I may have pulled the trigger.”

Keller’s 911 call was played in court. Keller cried while listening to the recording.

“I need help,’’ she said frantically to the dispatcher. “Can you come and help?”

She went on to say that she and her husband were arguing and that he put the gun in her hand. “It just went off,’’ she told the dispatcher. “I had no idea that was loaded.”

Asked where he was shot, Keller said, “In the top of the head. The very top.”

“Oh my God,’’ she said over and over.

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