Jury nears verdict in Dabbs trial

The jury in the Shannon Dabbs’ murder and arson trial has been deliberating a verdict since Jan. 14 after more than eight days of witness testimony and photo, video and audio evidence exhibited by state and defense lawyers. 

The incident in question took place in September 2020, when law enforcement responded to Dabbs’ 911 call saying his house was burning down with his wife inside, who he had shot. Susan Dabbs ultimately died inside the burning cabin with two gunshot wounds. 

The defense, which presented its argument after the state, made a sudden decision Tuesday not to call its final witness to the stand, defendant Shannon Dabbs. 

Judge Lamont Berecz instructed the jury not to draw any inference of guilt or discuss Dabbs’ decision not to testify. Instead, they were told to conclude whether the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Dabbs had maliciously shot and killed his wife and deliberately set the house on fire.  

Throughout the case, no empirical evidence was discovered on the night of the incident between 5:39 p.m. and 8:32 p.m., when Dabbs called 911. 

State argument 

Boundary County Prosecuting Attorney Andrakay Pluid and Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney Louis Marshall set out to present an argument that showed Shannon Dabbs did not act in self-defense when he shot his wife dead, and he burned the house down as a cover story, lying to police about the timeline and cause of events. 

In the state’s closing statement, Pluid played the dispatch call one more time for the jury. She highlighted the fact that Dabbs is a marine and a combat veteran, with police interview evidence that demonstrates his organized, methodical, and highly-trained character. Pluid said that it was incongruous with Dabbs’ training for him to ask about his wife in the dispatch call, “Do I need to pull her out?” while the housefire was growing to a critical point. 

“Does Mr. Dabbs really need to ask if he needs to pull someone out of a fire?” Pluid asked the jury. “There are people more concerned about putting down a dog than Mr. Dabbs is about shooting a person.” 

Pluid also brought forth previously exhibited photo evidence of Dabbs following the fire, where he has little to no physical trace – blisters, sunburn, discolored clothes, burned-off hair, soot – of exposure to an intense fire. 

Jason Bluebaum, the Idaho State Fire Marshal deputy investigator who analyzed the scene, testified on Jan. 8 that the conditions Dabbs described when he reentered the burning house would not be safe for even firefighters in protective gear. 

“At two feet of smoke I don’t expect anyone to be alive,” he testified. 

On Jan. 10, expert witness Derrick Hill, who has investigated over 700 fires with the ATF, testified that his review of the autopsy report indicated Susan Dabbs died before the fire. He said the carbon monoxide in her blood was at a common level, meaning she was not breathing while carbon-based materials in the home were on fire. 

“Based on the totality of the autopsy and Mr. Dabbs' story, and how a fire builds up – in particular in this cabin and what he describes – it is my opinion that she was deceased before the fire,” Hill testified.

Defense argument 

The defense presented an argument that Susan Dabbs tried to kill her husband because they were on the brink of divorce, and she faced looming financial hardship. 

Defense attorney Joseph Sullivan emphasized in his closing statement that Pluid failed to present any empirical evidence during critical hours of the evening when the alleged murder and arson took place.  

“She didn’t prove anything with science like she said she would,” Sullivan said. “She told you we don’t know what happened because they don’t know what happened. They didn’t prove it.” 

The defense said state and federal investigators approached the case with confirmation bias, and they focused primarily on the origin of the fire rather than the timing of Susan’s death – before or after the fire started. Moreover, investigators never concluded whether Susan’s gun was fired, but a defense witness testified that commissioned testing showed it did. 

Sullivan said that Shannon Dabbs did not have any indication of murderous rage on the day of the event. In fact, he had run an errand for his wife. It was business as usual for Shannon Dabbs, Sullivan said. 

But Susan Dabbs had motive, Sullivan said. 

On Jan. 13, Susan’s daughter Jordan testified that her mom was depressed and cut off financially from her parents. Jordan’s first thought was her mom started the fire, Sullivan told the jury. 

“Shannon was the last person to abandon her,” Sullivan said. “That type of desperation, it makes much more sense that she would do something drastic.”