Wife testifies in husband’s murder trial in Falls County

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – James Michael Siepl was a bad-tempered, controlling husband who shot his wife’s older brother six times in front of her after a late-night argument, including five shots in the back, Siepl’s wife testified Wednesday.

Siepl, 54, a former nurse at Falls Community Hospital and Clinic, is on trial in Marlin’s 82nd State District Court on Dec. 18, 2022, on charges of murder in the shooting death of his brother-in-law, Lawrence Howard Ostwald.

Siepl, who placed a Bible next to him at the consultation table, decided to represent himself. However, Judge Bryan Russ has appointed College Station attorney Michael Casaretto as standby counsel who will assist Siepl as needed.

At the time of the fatal incident, Siepl, his 30-year-old wife Ashley, their 9-year-old daughter and Ostwald lived in a rural home at 1240 Farm-to-Market Road south of Riesel that Ostwald and Ashley Siepl’s grandmother abandoned.

The home was equipped with video cameras in nearly every room, including outside doorbell cameras, so the family could monitor her grandmother’s well-being before her death in 2021, Ashley Siepl testified Wednesday. After her grandmother’s death, Siepl installed even more cameras in the house, including in her bedroom and bathroom, which she said made her uncomfortable but was evidence of Siepl’s controlling nature.

After the shooting, authorities seized video camera footage that captured the family’s activities before and after the shooting, including the protracted argument between Siepl and his wife that sparked the shooting.

Falls County District Attorney Jody Gilliam and District Attorney Josua Griffin played more than two hours of the videos for the jury of seven women and five men Wednesday afternoon.

Siepl, who paced the house after Ostwald was murdered and stored his weapons in a gun cabinet, waited about an hour before calling 911. Portions of video from the den and kitchen that would have captured the actual murder were missing from the seized authorities, Gilliam told jurors in her opening statement Wednesday.

Siepl, angry over his late-night argument with his wife, is seen cooking pancakes for his young stepdaughter about two hours before his wife said he emerged from their bedroom with two 9mm pistols and shot one time shot her brother to the right of his eye and five times in the back.

Siepl, who remains jailed for two years, told jurors in his opening statement that he expected the evidence to show he acted in defense of himself and others. He called the Falls County Sheriff’s Office investigation “incomplete and inaccurate” and said it involved the “actions of a reasonable man in an unreasonable situation for which I was unprepared.”

Ashley Siepl testified that her marriage failed for several years because of Siepl’s controlling nature. She said Siepl pointed a gun at her three years ago and told jurors that they argued all night before he shot her brother over an argument she had with a co-worker at the Amazon plant in Waco. before he shot her brother.

She said Siepl wanted to access an Amazon workforce management app on her phone so he could monitor the times she clocked in and out, and he was upset about something he saw on the app.

Siepl woke her up at 2 a.m. to continue their fight, which raged on and off throughout the night and into the next morning, she said.

When her brother and daughter woke up around 10 a.m., Ostwald was planning to go Christmas shopping with his niece and get his dog groomed in Waco, which Ashley Siepl said would normally have been fine.

Her brother was a founder of Heart of Texas ComicCon and a director of Conlive, according to online tributes to him following his death. He was a fan of Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, and Pokémon and was known to many as “Sweet Larry Pie.”

For some reason, Siepl, still angry, told Ostwald that the girl couldn’t go with him that day. Siepl ordered the girl to her room and went into his bedroom, she said.

“I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t know why he said she couldn’t go.”

Siepl came out of the bedroom with pistols in each hand and pointed them at Ostwald, she said. She tried to push his hands down, but Siepl fired a bullet from the gun in his left hand, striking Ostwald in the face, she said.

“Larry turned around and said, ‘What the hell?'” Ashley Siepl said.

She was standing between the men, she said, adding that Siepl held the two guns over her shoulders and pointed them at Ostwald.

“I’m screaming ‘Stop, stop,’ but he didn’t stop,” she said.

Siepl pushed her through the kitchen door into the living room and fired more shots, hitting Ostwald in the back, she said.

Siepl hit her in the head, she was thrown to the ground and she fell under a coffee table, she said. Siepl sat on the floor with her body spread and shot her brother again, she said. While the seized video that showed the shooting was missing, a portion that remained showed Ostwald lying dead on the floor of the cave.

She said she reached onto the coffee table and grabbed a handgun that Siepl had placed there. As she clutched, it discharged, she said.

“He said, ‘What are you trying to do, kill me?’ I said, “No, please stop,” and he said, “It’s too late.” “It’s already done,” Ashley Siepl told the jury.

Her daughter came out of her room and saw her uncle lying on the floor, she said. Siepl picked his wife up from the floor and told her to take their daughter to the bedroom.

Ashley Siepl said she and her daughter were crying on their bed when Siepl came in with a gun and told her, “This is what I get. This is what I deserve, and this is the result of it.”

She said she thought Siepl would kill her next. But he apologized, said he loved her and then went to look for his phone so he could call his mother, she said.

Prosecution testimony continues Thursday morning.

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