The woman accused of telling her boyfriend to shoot a crying baby sobbed in court today as she denied the family used the gun to keep her kids quiet.
Emma Horseman told a jury she didn’t even see her partner Jordan Walters cleaning the gun in the kitchen before the shooting but “just guessed” that he was.
Mother-of-two Horseman told Bristol Crown Court she “didn’t even know” the gun had been fired until she saw Harry bleeding.
She told her barrister Paul Cook “that’s all I can remember” and denied telling Walters to fire.
But she broke down in tears when prosecutor Andrew Macfarlane read extracts from a police interview where she repeatedly described the scene.
Acting as a witness, she told police she saw him “at eye distance” point the gun at the floor and heard a “pop”, the court heard.
Asked about the interview today Horseman maintained she didn’t see him with the gun and said she “guessed” during the police interview.
But she broke down in tears when Mr Macfarlane accused her family of using a gun to quieten their kids.
He said: “Is it something that you have found in your family that a sound of an empty gun discharging does make the kids keep quiet?”
She sobbed: “No. I have got two children of my own. I would never put them in danger.”
Mr Macfarlane added: “I don’t suppose you did it to harm them.”
But she retorted: “No. I have never touched a gun in my life.
“I wouldn’t put any kids in danger. I’m not that sort of person. I’m not that kind of girl.
“I always wanted kids when I was younger. Always.”
Asked why Jordan fired the gun, she said: “I don’t know.
“He wouldn’t have done it on purpose. It was a total accident what happened. It shouldn’t have happened.
“He wasn’t aiming at any child. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t aim to fire that gun at any child.”
Mr Macfarlane told Horseman he fired the gun “because you told him to” but she said “no he didn’t hear what I said”.
Asked to tell the jury what she did say, she added: “I must have said something but it wasn’t specific. I can’t remember.”
But Mr Macfarlane told the defendant: “I’m suggesting that you are reluctant to admit that innocently you uttered those words.
“You wanted the children kept quiet by having the gun aimed to them.”
She answered: “No I didn’t.”
Earlier in her evidence, when being questioned by Mr Cook, she said she suffered from speech, language and memory problems.
She said she felt “bad” and “sick” after the incident and looked at Amy “as a
sister”.
Asked why she told the prison officer the pellet had “ricocheted” off the floor she said she “just imagined”.
She added she “just had a guess” when she said he was supposed to hit the dog, the court heard.
Mr Cook asked again: “Did you at any point tell him to fire the gun.”
She replied: “No.”
**UPDATE**
Emma Horseman, 24, was found not guilty of aiding and abetting GBH in relation to the shooting of 18-month-old Harry Studley.
It took a jury at Bristol Crown Court just 40 minutes to clear her of the charge.
