The house where Eleanor Segler killed her husband – Need to visit

On October 9, 1974, police were called to the Oklahoma City home of Gerald Edwin Segler and his wife, Eleanor Laski Segler. Gerald had been shot, and what happened inside that house quickly turned into a murder case.

According to court records, Gerald’s sister, Annecia Pearl Covington, was living with the couple at the time. She testified that she heard a gunshot and then heard Gerald say, “Oh, no Eleanor.” She said Eleanor came up the steps with a gun in her hand and said she was sorry and did not mean to do it.

Officers later found a .22 caliber single-action revolver on a step inside the home. They also found a bullet hole in the door between the downstairs hall and bedroom. Eleanor told officers that she and Gerald had been arguing. She said Gerald slammed the door in her face, and that she fired through the door to scare him. After that, she said he opened the door, they kept arguing, and the gun went off.

Gerald died from a gunshot wound that caused heavy bleeding in his chest. Eleanor was charged in Oklahoma County with murder. She was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. A photo in the Oklahoma Historical Society archive identifies her as a convicted murderer and dates the image to March 16, 1975.

But the case did not end there. In 1976, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction and sent the case back for a new trial. The court said the jury should have been instructed on first-degree manslaughter as a possible lesser offense.

That is what makes this case different from a simple headline. A man was dead. His wife admitted she fired the gun. But the legal question became whether it was murder, manslaughter, or something that happened in the middle of an argument that went too far. I found solid records for the shooting, conviction, and appeal. I have not found a reliable source yet showing the final outcome after the new trial order.