A 65-year-old Alabama woman has been charged with murder after shooting her husband once in the chest as he sat alone in his recliner watching television — a killing she freely confessed to on the night it happened.
Sheri Mitchell-Clutts of Russellville, Franklin County, is accused of murdering her husband, 69-year-old Timothy Clutts, on Sunday evening at their home on Duncan Creek Road, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. Russellville sits roughly 20 miles south of Muscle Shoals.
Mitchell-Clutts herself called 911 just before 7:30 p.m. Arriving deputies found Timothy already dead in a recliner in the living room, a single gunshot wound to his chest. The handgun used in the shooting was found resting on top of a cooler nearby.
When questioned, Mitchell-Clutts did not deny what she had done. But the story she offered investigators had an unexpected — and chilling — twist.
“She was pretty open. Which leads us to a bunch of questions — what might have been going on with her.”
According to the sheriff’s office, Mitchell-Clutts had undergone open-heart surgery approximately two weeks before the shooting. She told authorities her husband had spent the day coming into her room to check on her while she recovered — behavior she described as threatening and bothersome.
She said she retrieved her gun in case he came back again. He didn’t. Instead, Timothy walked to the living room and settled in to watch TV.
That’s when, authorities say, Mitchell-Clutts went to find him.
She walked into the living room and fired one shot.
Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said his office rarely encounters a suspect this forthcoming. “There’s a number of cases where someone does something like this and you’re actually having to track them down and build evidence based on the scene,” Oliver said. “In this situation, she was pretty open. Which leads us to a bunch of questions — what might have been going on with her.”
So far, those questions have not pointed to a history of domestic trouble between the couple. Investigators reviewed six years of call logs from the address and found no record of prior domestic-related incidents, Oliver said.
The sheriff noted that Mitchell-Clutts appeared visibly shaken at the scene — but that her emotional state alone offered no clear answers. “Her demeanor seemed obviously upset from what little interaction I had with her,” he said, “but you never know what’s going through somebody’s mind.”
Mitchell-Clutts is charged with murder of a family member using a firearm in the commission of domestic violence. She is currently being held in the Franklin County Jail with no bond. The investigation is ongoing.
