Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder charge in wife’s killing

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 8:52 a.m.

A Henderson man who originally claimed he accidentally shot his wife in the head while he was cleaning his gun in March 2004 is scheduled for sentencing next month after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Jesse Eugene Dennis, 54, as part of plea deal, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28 before District Judge Stewart Bell. He was originally facing first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon for the killing 48-year-old Leslie Dennis on March 14, 2004.

He faces either 10 years to life in prison or 10 to 25 years.

Jesse Dennis called 911 about 12:30 p.m. the day of the killing and said he had shot his wife and that the shooting was accidental. But then he said he and his wife had an altercation, police said.

Police found Leslie Dennis on the living room floor of her home in the 3100 block of Blossom Glen drive near Green Valley Parkway and Warm Springs Road with a gunshot in the back of her head. She later died at University Medical Center.

Dennis said he was sitting on the sofa in the living room and his wife was sitting in a chair 6 to 8 feet away. He was wiping his gun with a rag "when suddenly the gun went off and he saw his wife fall to the floor and she was bleeding from the head," according to the arrest report.

The couple's daughter, Lisa Flemming, however, told police he had a history of domestic violence, and she gave officers a statement about what happened the day of the killing.

Fleming said her parents were fighting because her father wanted to use a credit card but her mother had it and she wasn't home, the report says. Leslie Dennis had spent the night at her daughter's apartment and went home around noon.

Fleming said she called her mother to say she was on her way over to swim in their pool, according to police. Fleming said her mother told her that her father had a loaded gun.

Fleming told her mother she was going to call police, but Leslie Dennis told her not to, police said. When Fleming pulled up to the house moments later, the police were there and she found out her father had shot her mother, the report says.

She told police that "her dad has been beating her mom for years," and every time he beat her he had been drunk, the report says.

About eight months earlier, Jesse Dennis threw an ash tray at Leslie Dennis and she needed stitches for the head wound it caused, Fleming told police. She said her mother talked her out of calling the police.

About two years ago, her father pointed a gun at her mother, called her names and threatened to kill her, the report says. He also pointed a gun at his daughter and told her to get out of the house, Fleming told police.

Jesse Dennis was charged with domestic battery in January 1997, according to the report.