A jury of eight did not buy Kristen Wagner's argument that the bullet she put through a glass door and into her husband's back from 27 feet away was a wayward shot from an accidentally fired weapon.

A jury of eight did not buy Kristen Wagner’s argument that the bullet she put through a glass door and into her husband’s back from 27 feet away was a wayward shot from an accidentally fired weapon.

It convicted her Thursday of first degree premeditated attempted murder.

PHOTOS from the trial.

Wagner, a Crestview resident, faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years and a maximum of life in prison, said Bill Bishop, the chief assistant state attorney in Okaloosa County. Sentencing is set for July 7.

“We’re very, very pleased with the jury verdict,” Bishop said. “We know it was a difficult case.”

Wagner’s attorney, Brad Stewart, argued it was his client, and not her husband, Ricky Wagner, who should have been treated as a victim of violence following the July 26, 2014 shooting at 543 Northern Dancer Drive in Crestview.

Ricky Wagner, Stewart said in a passionate closing argument, had choked his then-wife Kristen into unconsciousness prior to the shooting and held her in their home against her will.

He broke her cell phone to keep her from calling police.

Wagner, after finally escaping the home, had pulled the gun to defend herself from further assault, Stewart said, and it went off in her hand when she bent over to pick up keys that had been thrown at her.

“It was an unfortunate accident,” Stewart said. “That’s exactly what it was.”

Prosecuting attorney Kimberly Torres cautioned jurors to be leery of Stewart’s assessment of the details surrounding the shooting, and to carefully analyze testimony Wagner herself had given earlier in the trial.

She reminded them that at the moment she fired from outside into her home, and struck Ricky Wagner as he turned his back, there was no one preventing Kristen from simply walking away.

Torres picked up the gun used in the shooting and showed jurors the laser-aiming mechanism that allowed Kristen Wagner to know exactly what she was shooting at, even in the dark of night.

“The defendant said she wanted to get out of her relationship. On the night this occurred she decided how she was going to get out of that relationship,” Torres said. “She knew she had a gun, it was loaded and ready to go.”