Up or down. Open or closed.

The first-degree murder trial of John Paul Beckmeyer and his claim of self-defense may hinge on the double-barrel shotgun that was in the hands of the James McDonald when he was shot and killed by Beckmeyer at a Nordland barbecue in August.

The importance of the weapon has become increasingly clear as attorneys on both sides prepare for Beckmeyer’s impending trial.

During Beckmeyer’s last appearance in Jefferson County Superior Court, his attorney, Richard Davies, said he was planning to file a motion to compel authorities to turn over the double-barrel shotgun so it could be examined by an expert witness hired by the defense.

Davies also wants access to Beckmeyer’s Ruger
.22 semi-automatic pistol, the weapon that Beckmeyer allegedly used to kill McDonald after an alcohol-fueled argument at a summertime barbecue escalated into a guns-drawn climax. Another potential piece of evidence to be examined: two shotgun shells found at the scene.

Also vital to the defense: the testimony of Beckmeyer’s girlfriend, one of the few witnesses to the shooting.

TRIAL COMING SOON

Beckmeyer has asked for a speedy trial, currently set for Feb. 16, but Davies told Judge Keith Harper at the Dec. 18 hearing that the prosecutor’s office was OK with the evidence being subject to an expert hired by the defense. Harper had earlier agreed to allow Davies to obtain expert witnesses for the defense; court documents on that request were subsequently sealed by the court.

“I think we have an agreement for these items to be shipped to the defense expert,” Davies told Harper.

“I’m looking to examine the Ruger .22 pistol, the double-barrel shotgun and two unfired shotgun shells that were involved in the altercation,” Davies said.

Davies noted an earlier conversation with the prosecutor, and said a delay had arisen over the release of the items.

“They are not going to be able to do what they need to do prior to releasing those items to defense for a defense examination,” Davies said, until Jan. 6.

“Which is later than I hoped,” Davies said.

Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy said the state wasn’t fundamentally opposed to providing the items for examination, and said it was just a matter of logistics.

A hearing on evidence sought by the defense was set for Dec. 30.

DEADLY DISPUTE

Beckmeyer, 59, was arrested soon after he allegedly shot and killed McDonald, 24, during a barbecue Aug. 26.

Beckmeyer and his girlfriend had gathered with a few other residents who lived on the property on Griffith Point Road around a barbecue that was set between two mobile homes.

After Beckmeyer allegedly struck his girlfriend in the face after she didn’t turn down a radio, an argument ensued between Beckmeyer and McDonald and another woman.

The pair admonished Beckmeyer for hitting a woman. As the argument continued, Beckmeyer allegedly got up and went into his nearby fifth-wheel trailer, telling the group he was going to get his .45 caliber pistol.

McDonald, however, walked to the main house on the property and came back a few minutes later holding a double-barrel shotgun.

As he stood near Beckmeyer’s girlfriend and the other person at the barbecue, Beckmeyer then started shooting out an open bedroom window from inside the fifth-wheel with a .22 caliber pistol, hitting McDonald twice in the chest, according to court documents.

A detective’s report on the shooting noted that police found multiple bullet holes in a motorhome that was parked across from Beckmeyer’s fifth-wheel, and a detective said Beckmeyer had shot the Ruger pistol until it was empty.

The pistol’s magazine had a capacity of 10 rounds, according to a detective’s report, and seven bullet holes were found in the adjacent motorhome. 

Police alleged that the shotgun that McDonald was holding was not ready to fire; it was in the open position, which, for break-action type shotguns, must be opened to expose the breech for loading or unloading.

KEY EVIDENCE, WITNESS

The status of the shotgun, open so it couldn’t be fired or closed so it could, was a key point raised in court during a hearing last month in which Davies told the court he wanted to call Beckmeyer’s girlfriend as a witness.

Davies questioned the account of the shooting given in the probable cause statement used for Beckmeyer’s felony charges.

Authorities allege Beckmeyer started shooting out an open bedroom window from inside the fifth-wheel, and the statement of probable cause claimed that while McDonald had been holding the double-barreled shotgun, it was in the open position and couldn’t be fired.

Beckmeyer’s girlfriend, however, told police the shotgun was pointed at Beckmeyer before he fired at McDonald, Davies noted.

The girlfriend’s version of events, the attorney said, did not match the original narrative given by police.

The court agreed with Davies’ request for the state to pay for Beckmeyer’s girlfriend, who currently lives in New Jersey, to travel to Washington for the trial.

The girlfriend was not included on the state’s list of witnesses that prosectors expect to testify. Instead, the prosecution will apparently mostly rely on the testimony of police who responded to the scene.

The witness list submitted to court by the prosecution includes 10 officers from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and three from the Port Townsend Police Department.

Also on the witness list: a forensic scientist from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

WITNESS TO A SHOOTING

Beckmeyer’s girlfriend was interviewed by two detectives a little more than two hours after the shooting.

The woman, 33, said she met Beckmeyer when she was in her late 20s, and he was in his mid-50s, in Coos Bay, Oregon.

They had been together about five years, and they left Oregon and started traveling the country after Beckmeyer got an RV. Next stop was her home state of New Jersey, then Texas followed, where they lived through Hurricane Harvey. 

Almost five years ago, the couple came to Jefferson County, where Beckmeyer had family.

In a transcript of her interview with detectives, Beckmeyer’s girlfriend recounted an afternoon of drinking at the barbecue on property owned by one of her boyfriend’s relatives.

Everybody there was drinking, she said.

She said she wasn’t sure why Beckmeyer slapped her; an assault that touched off an argument with others at the barbecue.

“I don’t remember,” she told detectives in an interview conducted at the sheriff’s office in Port Hadlock about 2½ hours after the shooting. “He gets mad. He has a previous prior domestic violence against me,” she said of Beckmeyer.

She said McDonald became angry after Beckmeyer struck her, and McDonald then went into a house on the property.

“Everything happened so fast,” she told detectives. “He went outside and he had a gun. He had like a, you know, rifle gun.”

“And he did like that,” his girlfriend said, raising her arms as if holding a long gun to describe McDonald’s motions.

“I don’t know if it was loaded or not loaded,” she said, adding that another person at the barbecue, the granddaughter of the property owner, said the gun wasn’t.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I just turned around and all the sudden his shirt was bloody and all I tried to do was save him.”

She told detectives again and again she couldn’t remember much.

“Everything was like kind of blurry. Like I said ... I was drinking,” she recalled. “I just know that he aimed it and he turned around and I don’t know what else happened after that.”

A detective asked her directly if the victim had aimed the gun at Beckmeyer, and she said yes.

McDonald, she said, had been standing outside the door of the fifth-wheel when the shooting started.

“So, he got really close to the fifth-wheel?” Detective Brett Anglin asked.

“Mm-hmm. He was at the door,” she answered.

But when pressed how far away — 7 feet? 8 feet? — Beckmeyer’s girlfriend couldn’t exactly say.

When asked how much she had to drink, she said “maybe a couple of shots. I don’t know.”

“How do you feel right now?” the detective asked.

“I’m heartbroken. I don’t, I can’t even describe what I feel right now. It’s, it’s crazy. Somebody died in my arms. I was trying to keep him alive.”

Detectives also wanted to know if there was bad blood between Beckmeyer and the shooting victim.

Beckmeyer’s girlfriend said McDonald and Beckmeyer liked each other, but added there had been “altercations” when they had both been drinking before, and recalled that six months earlier, McDonald had pointed a BB gun at Beckmeyer during a dispute.”

She couldn’t recall details, because everyone had been intoxicated then.

McDonald did get “hotheaded,” she said. “But never like this. Like this should never have happened. He should have never pointed.”

Before the argument, before Beckmeyer hit his girlfriend, everybody was just hanging out. Things were cool, she said.

McDonald had been sticking up for her, she added.

“My entire everything, my entire life has changed. I watched somebody die right in front of me. I lost my man and I have to think about that for the rest of my life.”

“So, how am I feeling? I’m pretty friggen messed up right now,” she said.

She said she had seen the shotgun before; it had been fired on the Fourth of July. She couldn’t recall if the gun had been open, broken in half, as authorities have claimed, so it couldn’t be fired.

“I don’t know if it was loaded or not,” she told detectives. The shotgun had been pointed at the fifth-wheel.

“John felt threatened and that’s just what happened. That’s all I can think. I don’t know what he was thinking at that point,” she said.

At the close of the 30-minute interview, a detective asked her to go with him to the jail so her alcohol level could be tested. She agreed.

A RAISED SHOTGUN

In a research report submitted to the court to support getting a court order for Beckmeyer’s girlfriend to testify, his public defenders noted a portion of the girlfriend’s videotaped interview with detectives. 

In the video, Beckmeyer’s girlfriend raised her arms to show how McDonald was holding the shotgun.

At first, she mimics holding a long gun downward, but then raises the gun to a higher position. 

She then moves her arms to a stiffer position, and tilts her head to the left as if she is looking at a specific target.

That position, according to an investigator for the defense, shows a shooter in a firing position and aiming directly at a target.