By BRANDON MESSICK
Daily Press Staff Writer
“I just shot my friend,” a hysterical Jess Carpenter said to 911 dispatchers in the early hours of May 21, 2011. “I didn’t mean for the gun to go off… I was just screwing around with Joe… it was an honest mistake… he’s dead… I didn’t mean to shoot him.”
Carpenter’s second-degree murder trial began Wednesday morning after nearly two days spent selecting a jury. The trial began with a playback of Carpenter’s frantic 911 call. In the recording, dispatchers advised Carpenter to sit on his porch with his lights on and await the arrival of Eddy County Sheriff’s Office deputies at his residence on Firehouse Road north of Artesia. … For the rest of the story, subscribe in print and on the web.