No indictment; wife said she shot husband in self-defense

COVINGTON, La. (AP) - A St. Tammany Parish grand jury has cleared a woman who says she killed her husband in self-defense.

District Attorney Warren Montgomery says he accepts the panel’s decision that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Kacie Breen in the death of obstetrician/gynecologist Wayne Breen on March 1, 2015.

Montgomery said in a statement that prosecutors had presented all the evidence they had but that none of it ultimately contradicted Kacie Breen’s account: that she feared for her life as her husband held her pinned to her SUV while she was trying to leave to go to her mother’s.

According to court documents, Kacie Breen has said she was able to reach a handgun she kept in the door pouch of the vehicle. She said she fired once, causing Wayne Breen to jump back, and then fired again as he lunged forward.

The grand jury came to the same conclusion as Sheriff Jack Strain, who never arrested Kacie Breen during a four-month investigation.

The grand jury’s decision means the fight over whether Kacie Breen should be held liable for her husband’s death remains in civil court, where several of Wayne Breen’s children from a previous marriage have sued her for wrongful death. That suit and another, challenging Wayne Breen’s will, are still pending.

Kacie Breen’s attorney, Richard Ducote, said that while the news of the grand jury’s decision was welcome, it was not a cause for celebration.

“It was all a very tragic situation,” he said. “It was a choice between his survival and Kacie’s survival.”

An attorney for the Breen children said his clients were disappointed in the result but have not wavered in their resolve to see Kacie Breen held to account.