A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday in Lowndes County Circuit Court for the 2021 shooting death of his wife in Caledonia.
A jury deliberated for more than 3 hours before convicting Wayne Fraser of culpable negligent manslaughter of Natalie Ryan Fraser. Judge Jim Kitchens gave Fraser the maximum sentence, which also comes with a $10,000 fine.
Culpable negligent manslaughter means that the accused was acting with reckless disregard for human life or safety at the time the death occurred.
“I respect the jury’s verdict,” said District Attorney Scott Colom, who was seeking a first-degree murder conviction. “I’m happy they found him guilty of one of the options they had. I’m proud of my witnesses for their courage, and of law enforcement for the investigation they did. We got a form of justice for Natalie Fraser.”
Fraser, who is from Scotland but was living and working in Caledonia at the time, fatally shot his wife on Dec. 30, 2021, at his apartment. The weeklong trial centered on whether that shooting was accidental.
Prosecution: Fraser’s abuse went too far.
The prosecution painted a picture of Fraser as a violent alcoholic who had physically abused his wife, who was paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair, for years.
At the time of her death, Natalie was living in Texas, where she was an English professor. Wayne lived in Caledonia, where he worked at the time, and she had driven cross-country to visit him.
Sometime around 2 a.m. on Dec. 30, Wayne shot her. Five hours passed before he called anyone, and when he did he alerted his boss and then Natalie’s brother, Kory Ryan – not the police.
Wayne led both men to believe that Natalie had killed herself, prosecutors argued, but later changed his story to say she had handed him her 9 mm handgun and it discharged accidentally. That story would later go through other permutations, including that Natalie had struck either his hand or the gun, causing it to go off.
Waiting so long to tell anyone what happened was “… not the actions of someone who was responding to an accidental death, but the actions of a man scrambling to sober up and come up with a story,” said Assistant District Attorney Ben Lang during closing arguments.
Lang questioned Wayne’s claim the shooting happened when Natalie tried to grab the gun, noting that she was an 85-pound woman in a wheelchair and that the gunpowder residue and stippling – wounds caused by gunpowder – indicated she had been shot from at least two feet away.
The prosecution also produced graphic photographs of Natalie’s battered face, and emails in which she accused Wayne of physically abusing her. Lang and Colom said Wayne had a serious drinking problem and often became violent when he was drunk.
Wayne and Natalie had both been drinking heavily the night of the shooting, according to prosecutors.
Defense: This was a horrible accident
“It would be a travesty of justice to find (Wayne) guilty,” defense attorney Chance Fair told the jury during his closing arguments. “You would be compounding tragedy with tragedy.”
Fair argued the shooting was accidental, noting firearms experts for both sides were unable to rule out an accidental discharge. He also attacked the photos and emails showing Wayen’s history of abuse, arguing they were years old and that the couple had worked out their differences.
Fair told the jury there was no evidence of any abuse that night, and photos taken on Natalie’s phone a half hour before her death show the two posing together and “acting silly.”
“There was no sign of any fighting that night,” Fair said. “No bruises, cuts or scrapes. What’s more relevant, how they were acting 30 minutes before they died or what happened years ago?”
Wayne did not try to run, and he cooperated with the investigation, Fair said.
“He didn’t run, and he didn’t hide Natalie’s body,” Fair said. “… He had his passport and credit cards and two vehicles outside. Nobody knew she was dead, and he could have been at the Nashville International Airport in 4 1/2 hours.”
Wayne’s delay in telling anyone what had happened was due to his being in shock, and the fact that he was himself contemplating suicide, Fair argued.
“All he can remember (after the shooting) is cuddling Natalie,” Fair said. “He was going to shoot himself and was trying to pluck up the courage.”
The shooting was the result of an accident, Fair said. Natalie struck Wayne’s hand, or hit the gun, and caused it to go off.
Fair did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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