QuickTake:

Jurors were to reconvene Wednesday after listening to closing arguments Tuesday. The case revolves around the state of Fuller’s marriage leading up to the 2024 shooting of Christopher Lee Clark Jr., who was in a relationship with Fuller's wife.

Jurors in Everett Fuller’s murder trial heard vastly different descriptions of his marriage leading up to the fatal 2024 shooting of a man two decades younger and in a relationship with Fuller’s wife, Christine. 

Fuller, 57, testified earlier he fired in self-defense at Christopher Lee Clark Jr. while in fear of being pulled down from a raised platform onto a concrete floor by Clark, his wife’s paramour.

The jury began deliberations at about 2:35 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, but did not reach a verdict by evening and were set to resume deliberations Wednesday in Lane County Circuit Court. 

The shooting took place Dec. 26, 2024, on a remote property known as Prindel Creek Farm in northwest Lane County, in the Coast Range about 25 miles east of Yachats.

Murder defendant Everett Fuller (left) listens as the jury receives instructions. Credit: Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard (pool photograph)

Closing arguments in the trial highlighted not only the self-defense claim, but also Fuller’s reasons on the night of the shooting for walking into a building known by the property’s residents as the “Packing Shed.”

Christine Fuller, Clark and two others were in what had earlier been described as a “hang out” area with a pool table and darts. 

Fuller testified earlier in the week that he walked in to remind his wife she had not shown up for a planned evening together with the couple’s two sons.

Lane County Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil read to jurors excerpts from Fuller’s letters to his wife that Geil said showed anger toward her and Clark.

“Defendant was controlling of his wife, and he was in denial that this relationship was over,” Geil told jurors, adding that Fuller “put the blame on Mr. Clark” and “wanted his marriage whole.”

“He went to the Packing Shed with a pistol in his pocket … sat in Mr. Clark’s chair and began to taunt him,” Geil told jurors.

Fuller had earlier testified he felt himself sliding out of the rolling chair he was sitting in as Clark pulled on his leg from below, leading to his fear and the shooting.

Geil argued that Fuller “refused to get out of [Clark’s] chair and taunted him again in response to Mr. Clark’s request he get out of his chair,” Geil said. 

During closing arguments, Lane County Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil uses a chair to demonstrate the position of defendant Everett Fuller was reportedly in during the shooting. Credit: Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard (pool photograph)

Geil argued that Fuller worked “to create a situation in which he could shoot him, and then he did, he shot him in the face, he shot him in the top of the head and shot him in the back.”

Fuller had earlier testified that he considered himself a pacifist, and Geil read excerpts from Fuller’s letters to his wife that referred to pacifism.

“Perhaps there is a time for war to protect our way of life, and pacifism is just the shield of a coward who doesn’t want to risk all for humanity,” Geil read, stating it was from a November 2024 letter.

Geil added another line later: “Perhaps I should have kicked the s— out of Leroy …,” which Geil said was a name Fuller used for Clark.

The letter also referred to comments from Christine Fuller: “You said you were scared … your heartbeat sped up whenever I was around.”

John Kolego, an attorney for Fuller, told jurors that in a December letter, Fuller wrote “he forgives Mrs. Fuller,” and encouraged jurors to read the letter as they reviewed evidence.

He told jurors that Prindel Creek Farm is “not technically a commune,” but “a communal area, where people do things together.”

The farm property had multiple residents, some previously described by attorneys as living in a trailer or yurt.

Kolego gave different reasons for Fuller’s actions on the night of the shooting.

Fuller was concerned his wife was drinking after going through legal troubles, and was putting “her ability to parent their sons at risk.”

It’s “not like he’s busting into a bedroom,” Kolego told jurors. “He walks into a common area to remind her of what she’s been doing.”

On the night of the shooting, Fuller is “concerned for her, and he’s concerned for his children, and he gets in a situation, and in this situation he said something that triggered an intoxicated Mr. Clark,” Kolego said. 

Earlier in the day, jurors heard from an expert questioned by defense attorney Willow Hillman about the amount of force that would result from a fall off a platform described by attorneys as 5-feet, 8-inches in height.

Fuller’s “fears were reasonable,” leading to the self-defense shooting, Kolego said in closing arguments. “Had he not done so, he’d be dead, and Mr. Clark would be in the defendant’s seat.”