Man says he killed wife to end her cancer pain

[August 29, 2013]  LONDON, Ky. (AP) -- A southeastern Kentucky man charged with killing his wife says he fatally shot her because she asked him to end her suffering from breast cancer.

Ernest Chris Chumbley told WKYT-TV he fired the shots that killed 44-year-old Virginia M. Chumbley of London -- and he said he would have expected her to do the same for him. He told WLEX-TV he loved his wife.

The Laurel County sheriff's office says Ernest Chumbley called about 2:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday saying he had shot his wife. Deputies found her dead in the bedroom.

The 48-year-old Chumbley was arrested on a murder charge and was being held on $200,000 bond. A jail official told The Associated Press that Chumbley was declining requests for further interviews on his lawyer's advice.

[Associated Press]

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