Paige Ann Ireland is set to have a preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges of felony aggravated battery and use of a deadly weapon after she admitted to police she shot husband Samuel “Buford” Ireland, 34, during a domestic dispute on Feb. 10.
Those charges could change. Samuel Ireland died over the weekend while being treated at a Utah hospital, Canyon County Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
Canyon County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor and Sheriff Kieran Donahue met to discuss the case but had not made any decisions on whether to change the charges filed against Paige Ireland as of noon Tuesday.
Taylor said Tuesday his investigators are waiting for the results of medical reports before making any decisions.
Samuel Ireland went through surgery at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise before being moved to a hospital in Utah, investigators said.
The 41-year-old Paige Ireland told detectives that she was using the weapon as a tactic so she could leave the house, according to court records obtained by the Idaho Statesman.
Paige Ireland told investigators that she and her husband were arguing the afternoon of Feb. 10 and that she decided to leave the house. She said she was packing some of her belongings, but her husband kept yelling at her, so she grabbed her hunting rifle.
“She admitted that it was a mistake and a bad idea, but wanted his yelling to stop so she could leave,” Canyon County Detective Don Davenport wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “She thought only to scare him into leaving her alone.”
Paige Ireland told investigators that she believed there were no live rounds in the rifle. Buford yelled at her to shoot him, so she pointed the gun at him and squeezed the trigger, hoping to scare him with the “trigger click sound,” according to the court record.
Instead, the rifle fired and a .308-caliber round hit the man in the lower right ribs.
According to the affidavit, Paige Ireland tried to help her husband, called 911 and cooperated with investigators.
The couple reportedly have three children, none of whom were home at the time. Paige Ireland is being held in the Canyon County Jail.
