Murder defendant, his ex-wife both testify about fatal shooting of her lover

The ex-wife of Everett Scott Fuller testified Wednesday, Nov. 4, about the night her then-husband fatally shot her paramour.

Afterward, Fuller, 57, took the stand, telling jurors he fired in self-defense, out of fear of being pulled from an elevated platform by Christopher “Bubba” Clark Jr., whom he described as “purple with rage.”

Fuller is being tried a second time for murder in connection with the death of Clark, 32, after the first trial ended with a deadlocked jury.

Unlike the first trial, jurors may have the option of considering whether Fuller is guilty of manslaughter.

Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Geil asked Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché for jurors to consider the “lesser included” charge of manslaughter, though instructions to jurors have yet to be finalized. The discussion Wednesday took place with jurors outside the courtroom.

Ex-wife’s testimony

Christine Fuller, who divorced Everett Fuller earlier this year, told jurors how the December 2024 shooting of Clark took place about five minutes after Everett Fuller walked in on a game of darts inside a structure known as the Packing Shed on Prindel Creek Farm.

The rural property, once a tree farm, has residents who rent and others who trade work for lodging, with some living in a house and others in a trailer or yurt, according to testimony heard by jurors during the trial that began Oct. 28. It is about 25 miles east of Yachats in the Oregon Coast Range.

Clark lived on the property and worked as a handyman, according to previous testimony. Everett Fuller lived in a house at the site, and Christine Fuller lived on the property part-time, according to previous testimony. She was separated from her then-husband at the time of the shooting and in December 2024 did not live in what defense attorneys referred to as their “marital home.”

On the night of the shooting, Clark, Christine Fuller, her friend Amy Jewett and Tyler Holloway had been in the Packing Shed when Fuller arrived and ultimately climbed up to an elevated platform nearly six feet high where there was an office chair with wheels, according to courtroom testimony.

“He just walked in, walked up those stairs [to the elevated platform] sat in the black chair, and said, ‘I’m going to watch y’all play darts,’” Christine Fuller told jurors.

She described hearing “loud talking.”

“It wasn’t, like, yelling but it was loud voices, loud talking,” she said, recalling that she heard Holloway’s raised voice.

She said she felt uncomfortable.

“I feel like if I leave, maybe Everett would leave,” Christine Fuller said. She grabbed her jacket and told Jewett they should leave, she said.

But as she walked out, gunshots rang out, she said.

“I saw Bubba on the floor, obviously shot. And Everett starting to come down from that loft,” Christine Fuller said.

Christine Fuller said that after he came down, Everett Fuller again fired a gun “in the back of the room somewhere, I would say three or four times.”

Fuller said she then heard Holloway yell out, “He’s out of bullets, he’s out of bullets.” 

“We both sort of move in on him and, together, we tackled him onto the ground,” Christine Fuller said.

Fuller said she tried to get the gun out of her then-husband’s hand, but could not. She testified that “at some point, Tyler got pistol-whipped,” and then Everett Fuller “got out from underneath Tyler and just ran out into the dark.”

Medical pathology witnesses earlier testified Clark was shot three times. Defense attorney Willow Hillman later Wednesday questioned Michael Hudson, a Lane County Sheriff’s Office detective, about evidence found in the room where Clark was shot.

Hudson testified investigators found no evidence of more than three shots fired in the room.

Fuller claims self-defense

The prosecution rested its case after calling Christine Fuller to the stand, with Hillman and defense attorney John Kolego next calling witnesses, including Everett Fuller.

Everett Fuller testified that he carried a pistol with him around the farm property after discovering a round of live ammunition in his vehicle. 

Fuller said he did not know where the ammunition came from, but he knew “it was not one of mine.”

The night of the shooting, he said Christine Fuller did not show up to his home as expected.

She had spent Christmas with him and their two sons, as well as Everett Fuller’s mother, and the group had decided to get together again the next day to have desserts because they had not eaten any on Christmas after having a large meal together.

While Christine Fuller did show up, it was late, and the couple’s younger son was asleep while Everett Fuller was working, and he also did not see her. He testified that he worked running a “software as a service” company.

Everett Fuller said he decided to check the Packing Shed recreation area to see if Christine Fuller was there, driving over to the structure. His idea was to “let my presence there be a reminder” to Christine Fuller of the missed family time, Everett Fuller told jurors.

Asked about carrying a gun to the Packing Shed, Everett Fuller said the gun “was in a hoodie already on the back of my office chair.”

Before leaving for the Packing Shed, “I just put the hoodie on that had the same firearm that I’ve been carrying around the farm” since finding the unfamiliar ammunition in his vehicle.

He said he arrived and went up the steps to the loft area to sit in a chair, telling those in the Packing Shed recreation room he did not want to play darts.

Clark told him he’d been meaning to talk to him, Everett Fuller testified.

“I said, well, I didn’t want to talk, that your word is no good to me,” Everett Fuller said.

Everett Fuller said he began to talk to Tyler Holloway, telling him that one of the farm site owners had been impressed with him “but I said she’s starting to see through you, Mr. Clark.”

Holloway then got “loud,” telling him that Clark was a good friend, Everett Fuller said.

“What would you do if you … shook hands with a man who said he wouldn’t return your wife’s affection … and the first time you went out of town, they weren’t honoring the agreement?” Fuller replied to Holloway, according to his testimony.

Holloway, 26, was killed by police who arrived several hours after Clark’s shooting, and a lawsuit remains pending against an Oregon State Police sergeant and others alleging negligence in connection with Holloway’s death.

After Everett Fuller’s remark to Holloway, Clark yelled, “That’s a lie,” Everett Fuller said, adding that Clark then “spouted off a rant.”

“I saw him switch gears,” Everett Fuller testified. “And he said, ‘You’re sitting in my chair.’”

“That’s when I replied, ‘It’s not your chair, son,’” Everett Fuller said.

“He said, if I called him ‘son’ one more time, he was going to take the chair from me,” Fuller testified. “I said, ‘Well I’m sitting here tonight, son.’”

Clark then “pounces,” reaching up to grab his leg, Fuller testified, telling jurors he felt “terrified.”

“He is trying to forcibly remove me from the chair,” Fuller said.

Fuller said he tried to kick Holloway off of him but made little, if any contact, while he felt himself sliding down in the chair.

He then fired his weapon at Clark, though he said he didn’t realize he had done so until after the first shot.

“There was no choice that I made of responding, but I would say my body recognized a situation and acted in self-preservation, in some kind of reflex,” Fuller testified. “But I never chose to respond.”