An Avondale woman was arrested yesterday after she claims her husband -- with whom she's had several documented domestic violence issues in the past -- told her "shoot me bitch," which she did, killing the man.
Aimee Stensgaard, 27, admittedly killed her husband during a fight after the two came home from a bar early Saturday morning.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, Stensgaard, an alcoholic, and her husband, David Stensgaard, were in the process of getting a divorce after two years of marriage. The couple had several previous domestic violence incidents -- many of which Aimee Stensgaard says went unreported -- but the couple still lived together as they were trying to sell their home.
About 9 p.m. Friday, the two returned home from a bar called the
Shouthouse in the Westgate City Center where they'd been drinking
together. When they got home, the two changed out of their party
clothes, David Stensgaard put his 9-millimeter handgun on the night
stand in his bedroom, and the two began to argue about past jealousy
issues in the marriage.
The fight moved throughout the house -- from the bedroom, to the
kitchen, and through hallways. Aimee Stensgaard later told police she
wanted to leave but feared David wouldn't let her and would stand in
the doorway as she tried to flee, like he'd done in the past.
She told detectives she couldn't call police because that, too, would make David angry.
Finally, after arguing throughout the house, Aimee locked herself in the
bedroom that had the gun on the nightstand. She says David may have
damaged the door as he tried to punch or kick his way in.
Over the course of the argument, Aimee told police David had been
calling her a whore and using other profanities towards her. By the time
she found herself in the bedroom, she'd apparently had enough of the
verbal abuse.
Aimee told police she opened the door, gun in hand, and told David --
who at the point was standing about 20 feet away at the opposite end of
the hallway -- that she was tired of being made to "feel like shit" by
him and that he needed to stop taunting her.
David, Aimee later told police, responded by telling his wife to "go ahead and shoot me, bitch," which she did, killing him.
She immediately called 9-1-1.
When police arrived, Aimee was covered in blood. She'd been holding her
wounded husband trying to apply pressure to the wound in his chest as
she waited for police to arrive. Police noticed dried blood around her
lips, which she told them was the result of kissing David as she was
trying to help him.
Aimee told police she didn't want to kill David, she just wanted to
scare him by shooting in his direction. She says she didn't intend to
hit him when she fired the gun.
As police note in their report, though, Aimee's story didn't pass the
smell test the first time she told it. Initially, she told police she
shot David in the midst of a physical assault. When police found no
evidence of physical violence, she changed her story to say she shot him
as he was standing down the hall.
Aimee Stensgaard was booked into a Maricopa County jail on one count of second-degree murder.
