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The first trial of Everett Scott Fuller ended in a deadlocked jury. Friday marked the first day jurors heard testimony and were shown evidence in his retrial. Fuller is accused of killing Christopher Lee Clark Jr., who had been involved in a relationship with Fuller’s wife.
Everett Scott Fuller fired the gun shots that ended the life of Christopher Lee Clark Jr., also known as “Bubba.”
But jurors in Fuller’s murder trial heard vastly different descriptions of what led to the December 2024 shooting, as lawyers delivered their opening statements Friday, Oct. 30.
It’s the second time the 57-year-old Fuller has been tried for Clark’s murder. The first ended in June with a deadlocked jury.
Clark, 32, wasn’t the only person to die that day on the property, known as Prindel Creek Farms, in a remote part of Lane County, in the Coast Range north of Deadwood.
Tyler Holloway, 26, died after being fatally shot by police, who arrived several hours after the first shooting. A wrongful death lawsuit remains pending, alleging negligence by an Oregon State Police sergeant and others in connection with Holloway’s death.
As in Fuller’s first trial, a defense attorney told jurors on Friday that Fuller fired at Clark in self-defense, fearing for his life as he sat in a rolling desk chair on an elevated platform nearly 6 feet above the ground.
Clark, from below, had grabbed Fuller’s leg, defense attorney Willow Hillman told jurors. Fuller first tried to kick him off and then fired his gun “before he even had time to think,” Hillman said.
Hillman told jurors Fuller is a “complete pacifist” who “does not have any type of violent bone in his body.”
“I think you will hear Mr. Fuller explain his beliefs as well,” Hillman told jurors. Fuller took the stand in his own defense in May, during his first trial.
Prosecutor’s statement
Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil laid out for jurors the history between Clark and Christine Fuller, who at the time of the shooting was married to Fuller.
“Christopher Clark had an affair with Everett Fuller’s then-wife,” Geil told jurors.
“Everett Fuller shot Christopher Clark in the head. That’s the CliffsNotes version of what happened,” Geil said, referring to study guides known for presenting complex or lengthy materials in brief.
Geil described where the shooting took place, Prindel Creek Farms, at one time a tree farm, which he said is an “intentional community in the Five Rivers region.” Some live in houses, others in trailers or a yurt, Geil said.
The site lies in northwest Lane County, about 25 miles east of Yachats. Past and present residents of the area have frequently attended court proceedings involving Fuller.
In between the first and second trials, at least a half-dozen current or former residents wrote letters opposing Fuller’s pre-trial release, citing their fear. Some also wrote of the likely delayed response of law enforcement should they be called, given the remoteness of the area. A judge denied his release.
About a dozen people watched Friday’s opening statements from the courtroom gallery.
Geil said Everett and Christine Fuller had lived at the site since the early 2000s, while Clark, whose father had lived on the property, returned to the area in 2022.
By mid-2022, the Fullers’ marriage “was not doing well,” Geil told the jury. Christine Fuller and Clark began their relationship in mid-2022, Geil said.
He told jurors of emails from Fuller to his then-wife after learning of her relationship with Clark and leaving for Missouri with the couple’s youngest son, a teenager.
“Everett expresses feelings … if he sees Bubba again, it’s going to be looking down the barrel of a gun,” Geil told jurors.
The stay in Missouri proved temporary, and at the time of the shooting Christine Fuller lived separately from her husband — and from Clark — in a trailer on the “huge property,” Geil said.
On Dec. 26, 2024, Fuller walked into a structure known as the packing shed where people on the property would gather to hang out, specifically in a room known as the cooler, Geil said. The room had a pool table and a dart board, and also the elevated platform, Geil said.
That night, Christine Fuller, Clark and two others — Holloway and Amy Jewett — were in the cooler hanging out, Geil said. Everett Fuller then arrived.
“They hadn’t been on good terms,” Geil said, and Christine Fuller became “uncomfortable,” getting her coat to leave.
“There begins a verbal exchange between Everett Fuller and Clark and Holloway,” Geil said. “Everett Fuller then pulls a handgun out of his pocket and shoots Chris Clark.”
Clark was shot twice in the head and once in the back, Geil told jurors.
Defense attorney’s statement
Hillman disputed some of Geil’s opening statement but also told jurors: “What this case is about is 10 minutes in the packing shed and what occurred there.”
The defense attorney gave a different description of emails exchanged between Everett and Christine Fuller when he was in Missouri.
“She’s waffling. She’s begging him over and over to come back to Oregon. He’s telling her, ‘I need time to heal,’” Hillman said.
“Mr. Fuller comes back. They start to amend their relationship,” Hillman said.
Everett Fuller in 2023 confronted Christine Fuller about her relationship with Clark, Hillman said, telling her to be with him at her home in Waldport, where she spent much of her week.
“This isn’t a situation where Mr. Fuller was angry. He was sad,” Hillman said.
He wanted Christine Fuller to be a good parent and was concerned about her drinking, Hillman said.
The day before the shooting, she had spent time with Fuller and their two children, one an adult, Hillman said, and the couple had “a pretty good conversation” about whether Everett Fuller believed their relationship could be salvaged.
While Christine Fuller agreed to return the next day and spend more time together as a family, Hillman said, she didn’t show except to briefly drop by when he was at his office on the property and their youngest son was asleep.
That night, Everett Fuller went to the packing shed “to let her know missing family functions and drinking, that he assumes is going on, is not OK,” Hillman told jurors.
In the room where others are hanging out, Fuller said to them he did not want to talk. Clark approached him.
Fuller said, “Your word is no good to me because you’ve lied to me so many times,” and a verbal argument started, with Holloway and Clark raising their voices at Fuller, Hillman said.
“Fuller stays calm through it, for the most part,” Hillman said.
“The last thing Mr. Clark says is get down from there, I’m going to get you down from there,” Hillman said. He says, you’re going to get down from there, and Mr. Fuller says no.”
Afternoon testimony
Geil called to the stand several witnesses in the afternoon, including a deputy state medical examiner who said two of the shots that struck Clark were fatal shots and that his blood-alcohol level, 0.139, was almost twice the legal limit.
Jurors also heard a 911 call, with Holloway reporting the shooting.
Christine Fuller at one point spoke with an emergency dispatcher, who asked her what may have led to the shooting.
“I have a good feeling he was jealous,” Fuller said in the audio recording.
The trial will resume Tuesday, Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché told jurors. The judge has previously said he expects the trial to wrap up by Friday, Nov. 6.
