By Neal Putnam
The Alpine Sun

     EL CAJON — “My daddy shooted my mommy with a black gun,” said the 4-year-old son of sheriff’s deputy, Lowell “Sam” Bruce, as heard in El Cajon Superior Court on Monday.
     Except for his father, the boy is the only witness to the Dec. 14 fatal shooting of his mother, Kristen Maxwell-Bruce, 38, which occurred at 10:45 p.m. at the couple’s home in the 700 block of Camino Scarpitta, in Alpine. She died at 11:48 p.m. after being shot in the face and before she could get to a hospital.
     Bruce, 40, was ordered Monday to stand trial for murder and felony child endangerment charges. Judge Allan Preckel set his next court appearance for May 30 when a trial date will be set. Bruce remains in the Vista Detention Facility on $2.5 million bail and he has pleaded not guilty to the two charges.
     The boy wasn’t physically present in the preliminary hearing, but a sheriff’s detective who heard the boy’s interview at Children’s Hospital testified about it. The names of the 4-year-old and his 7-year-old brother are being withheld by The Alpine Sun for privacy reasons, and they are now living with their maternal grandparents.
     Bruce, clad in a green jail uniform, sat quietly in court with his two attorneys. He wore waist and leg chains and was handcuffed. He worked at the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility at the time and was a deputy for approximately eight years.
     Jan Caldwell, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, said Monday, that “Lowell Bruce is still employed by our department.” She added: “I can’t comment any further. That would be a personnel matter and I’m not at liberty to divulge personnel matters.”
     According to testimony, the murder weapon was Bruce’s service weapon, a .40 caliber Glock.
     Detective Donnie Sossaman testified the boy told officials the couple had a fight. “He said they were being rude to each other. He said a fight is being rude to each other,” said Sossaman.
     “He said his dad said ‘I hate you.’ He didn’t describe any physical contact,” said Sossaman.
     “She said ‘Go ahead and shoot.’” the boy was quoted as saying his mother said to his father.
     The notion that Kristen Maxwell-Bruce may have said something like that after her husband was holding a gun also comes from her husband, who was quoted as saying “she told me to shoot her, so I shot her.” Her mother, Kay Maxwell, testified Bruce told her the remark minutes afterwards.
     The couple lived with the victim’s parents, James and Kay Maxwell and Kay Maxwell’s father, in Alpine for the last few years. James Maxwell testified, “it was a pretty good arrangement” as “the boys needed a place to play.”
     The victim’s parents said they both woke up sharply after hearing their daughter’s agony, but not the single gunshot. “I heard this horrible sound like cats fighting, this horrible, horrible sound,” said Kay Maxwell.
The couple said they went downstairs and the defendant told them “I just shot Kristen.” They saw Kristen Maxwell-Bruce holding her jaw.
     “Kristen said ‘Sam shot me.’ She had blood running down. She said ‘I lost my jaw.’”
     James Maxwell said, “she was covered” with blood. “I knew from the amount of blood we didn’t have a lot of time,” he said and added that he told Bruce he feared she could die.
     “He snickered, (and said) ‘Not from that,’ and then he left,” said the victim’s father.
     Several 911 calls were made, but the very first one came from the victim herself.
     A neighbor, Rani Gibbs, who is also a registered nurse, testified she examined the victim and noticed the shot went into her jaw and exited out her neck. She said the victim knew the bullet exited her neck. Gibbs said she put pressure on the jaw wound with her sweater, and added, “I could feel bone fragments.”
     Gibbs said she asked the woman if she wanted prayer, and she replied, “yes, she wanted me to pray for her.”
“She was trying to remain calm,” said Gibbs, and added the woman told her father she had an argument with her husband. James Maxwell said he had a good idea of what the argument was about. He said his daughter had probably kicked her husband out of the house, something she had done once before.
     “All his clothes were on the floor. He wasn’t doing laundry,” said the man’s father-in-law.
     “Sam doesn’t talk much. If they had arguments, they were away from us,” said Kay Maxwell.
     Another neighbor, William Davis, a San Diego Police officer, testified he came over. He said Bruce recited a profanity-laced statement about his situation as deputies led him away to a patrol car.
     Deputy District Attorney William Gentry said it remains, “a possibility” that the couple’s 4-year-old son could have to testify in his father’s murder trial. “He was the only witness at the time,” said Gentry.
     Bruce’s attorney, Stewart Dadmun, unsuccessfully urged the judge to dismiss the child endangerment charge, saying it had not been proven. Gentry said shooting someone in front of a 4-year-old boy is child endangerment, and the judge agreed.
     If convicted of first-degree murder, Bruce could be sentenced to 25 years for the slaying, 25 years consecutively for using a gun in a homicide, and six years for child endangerment, said Gentry. 

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