Grand Jury indicts Killeen man who fatally shot wife while showing gun to relative

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - A Bell County grand jury on Nov. 1 indicted Terry Lee Valentine, 73, on a charge of criminally negligent homicide in the fatal shooting of his wife while he was showing a gun to her nephew.

At around 9:30 p.m. on May 27, Killeen Police Department officers were dispatched to investigate a shooting in the 5200 block of La Terraza Lane.

According to an arrest affidavit, Valentine told officers “he was showing a small derringer-style revolver to the victim’s nephew. The document further states Valentine told officers “the derringer held four rounds .22 magnum ammunition.”

Valentine said he normally kept only three live rounds for safety and took the gun apart as required to unload it.

“The suspect then cocked the derringer to demonstrate to the nephew on how to fire the weapon by dry-firing the handgun. The derringer still had one round left inside when the suspect pulled the trigger, the gun fired,” the affidavit states.

The bullet struck the man’s wife on the left side of her head, police said. Chu Cha “Chay” McGranahan-Valentine, 79, was pronounced dead at Baylor Scott & White in Temple.

Valentine admitted that “he forgot there was a live round in the chamber of the derringer, and that he failed to maintain discipline at the time the handgun was discharged,” police wrote in the affidavit.

Valentine was originally being held at the Bell County Jail with a $50,000 bond but has since been released, according to the Killeen Daily Herald.

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