Husband charged in wife's suicide

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A man in Kentucky has been charged with murder in the death of his wife after giving the drunken woman a loaded gun she used to kill herself, officials said.

Katherine Mae Simpson killed herself last September during a heated argument with her husband James Simpson, the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal reported Monday.

Ryan Vantrease, who represents James Simpson, said the tragedy of Katherine Simpson's death is made worse by officials charging his client.

"There's no crime that's been committed here," Vantrease said. "When she pulled that trigger, that was a decision that she made."

Officials say at some point in the couple's argument, Katherine Simpson said she wanted to kill herself.

Her husband told police he retrieved a gun from his truck in the garage and gave it to his wife. Prosecutors say Simpson then dared her to shoot herself.

Simpson told police he had given her a gun "on several different occasions, but this time the gun

was loaded."

Prosecutors said state law provides for a murder charge in cases in which someone acts recklessly and with extreme indifference to human life.