The conviction and life sentence for a Sulphur woman who fatally shot her boyfriend will stand.

Kerri Seeney Monic was convicted of the January 2021 death of 43-year-old William Saul Clark after initially denying any knowledge of the circumstances of his death and later claiming to have killed him in self-defense.

Clark’s aunt, Thelma Andrepont, testified that on the day of Clark’s death, Monic had driven her in Andrepont’s car to a medical appointment and dropped her off. Nearly an hour later, she picked Andrepont up at the hospital’s front door.

When they returned to Andrepont’s home — in which Clark and Monic also lived — Andrepont said the garage door was open and a bullet hole could be seen in the window of a side door into the home. She said the same door was blocked from the inside by Clark’s body.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office Senior Cpl. Travis Carroll testified he was the first to enter the residence and said Clark suffered from a gunshot wound to the head. He said Clark’s body was propped up against the door and the wall and a firearm shell casing was discovered.

Sgt. Brandon Peresich with the Forensics Investigation Unit testified that a loaded semi-automatic Smith & Wesson .380 firearm was found under the driver’s seat of Andrepont’s vehicle. The firearm was later confirmed to be the murder weapon.

Cell phone tower pings from the day of the murder show Monic’s phone in the area of the hospital, then back at the residence, again at the hospital, then it returns to the residence. Video camera footage from the hospital also show Monic driving out of the parking lot after dropping Andrepont off then returning an hour later to pick her up.

In a recorded interview with the CPSO Violent Crimes Unit that was played for jurors, Monic initially told detectives she stayed in the hospital parking lot the duration of Andrepont’s appointment. After being shown photos of a license plate reader from a gas station near the couple’s home, Monic then states she left to get cigarettes, then returned. In a third statement, she said she left the hospital, bought cigarettes, brought them home, then returned to the hospital. Later, she said Clark was “down already” when she returned home on that trip and indicated she thought he may have committed suicide.

Eventually, Monic told detectives she brought Clark the cigarettes and asked him about text messages she found in which he sought a sexual relationship with another woman. Monic said Clark told her that did not happen before lunging at her. She said she tried to leave the house but Clark ran through the garage door in front of her, turned around and came back in, then refused to let her leave.

She said she pulled a gun out of a blue cabinet by the door as Clark lunged at her throat and told her it was the last day she would be seen alive.

In the video, Monic tells detectives “the gun went off” and she ran. She said she went out the front door, taking the gun with her and putting it under the driver’s seat of Andrepont’s vehicle. She said she didn’t call 911 because “she did not know what to do after killing a man.”

Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office Chief Investigator Charlie Hunter told jurors Clark was shot from a distance of about two feet. He said if a person were lunging at the shooter when when shot — as Monic later contended — the body would most likely fall face first. “In this case, the victim’s body was found face up.”

Monic was convicted on Sept. 10, 2022. A motion for a new trial was denied, 13 days after her conviction. She was sentenced to life in prison at hard labor on Nov. 4, 2022.

In her appeal to the 3rd Circuit, Monic claims the evidence was insufficient to prove her guilt and a request to provide jury instruction of Monic’s right to stand her ground and protect herself that was denied deprived her of her right to a fair trial. She also claimed the life sentence was excessive.

The court denied Monic’s first claim, stating “only after being confronted with irrefutable evidence of her lies about waiting for Ms. Andrepont in the hospital parking lot did Monic change her story, first alluding to a suicide, then admitting that she killed the victim in self-defense.” The court also stated Andrepont testified that despite verbal arguments, she never saw Clark strike, slap or shove Monic.

“It is clear from the verdict that this jury simply did not believe Monic’s belated claim on justification by self-defense as it was not consititent with her known actions before and after the murder nor consistent with the scene of the crime.”

The lack of jury instruction claim was also denied. The court found nowhere in the record of a special-requested jury charge proposed by her, only a general statement in email to the court that was not of record.

Her excessive sentence claim was also denied.