Skylar Nemetz, a former Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who fatally shot his wife, will plead his case on national television Saturday.
“I can live with I am the reason Danielle died,” he told the program “48 Hours.” “But I can’t live with being called a murderer.”
A Pierce County jury convicted Nemetz, 21, of first-degree manslaughter in March and he was sentenced to 13 1/2 years in prison.
Jurors rejected arguments from prosecutors that Nemetz was guilty of first-degree murder.
Danielle Nemetz died Oct. 16, 2014, in the couple’s Lakewood apartment.
The defense argued Nemetz was trying to clear an AR-15 rifle he’d bought his 19-year-old wife for her birthday months earlier when it accidentally discharged, striking her in the back of the head as she sat at a computer.