GREELEY — The third week of the Tom Fallis murder trial brought key testimony Monday from a defense witness stating Ashley Fallis had many risk factors and warning signs for suicide the night she died.
Dr. Michael Allen, a professor of psychiatry and emergency medicine at the University of Colorado, told jurors that he thinks, on the night Ashley Fallis died, she was at a high risk for suicide based on a number of factors in her life.
Tom Fallis is accused of killing his wife, who died of a gunshot wound to the head after a New Year’s Eve party Jan. 1, 2012, at the couple’s home in Evans.
The case originally was ruled a suicide until a neighbor and a Weld County Sheriff’s Office deputy came out three years later stating they heard Fallis confess to shooting his wife. Police reopened the case.
The prosecution has yet to complete its case, but defense attorneys called Allen out of order Monday because of his limited availability.
Allen testified that his review of e-mails, text messages, medical records and more indicated Ashley Fallis had a lot of reasons to be in distress. “What concerned me about Ashley was she had trouble coping with stress,” Allen testified.
He cited her past suicide notes, anxiety, stress, insomnia and depression, miscarriages, substance use and possible abuse, impulsiveness, aggression and more as risk factors.
Earlier Monday, a crime scene analyst for the prosecution told jurors that the evidence indicates Tom Fallis was either in contact with, or near, his wife when she suffered the fatal gunshot to the head.
“I have a lot of problems with this being that suicide or that unassisted suicide that I was told it was,” testified Jonathyn Priest, a forensic analyst, consultant and trainer.
