MacKenzie Elmer

melmer@dmreg.com

A woman is accused of shooting her boyfriend to death at home before turning herself in, Des Moines police said Monday.

Pamela Jean Bullington, 56, is charged with first-degree murder in the city's 10th homicide of 2014, the death of Jack Duane Dennis late Sunday inside the home he shared with Bullington in the 2900 block of Maple Street.

Bullington fired at least one shot from a handgun, striking Dennis in the head, then called police, said Sgt. Jason Halifax, a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department.

"It's pretty uncommon for a suspect to call us after committing the act," Halifax said.

Bullington reported the incident, telling police she would be waiting for them on the back porch with the gun inside, Halifax said.

Police said Dennis was dead when officers and medics arrived on the scene. The east-side home, near the Iowa State Fairgrounds, is listed under Dennis' name, according to Polk County assessor records.

Bullington told police she had an abusive relationship with Dennis, Halifax said. But based on the position of the victim and the condition of the home, police don't believe the woman shot in self-defense.

Bullington had called her daughter about the incident, whom authorities later questioned along with another adult who lives in the basement. Police consider the investigation closed but are still collecting physical evidence from the home.

Bullington was being held Monday at the Polk County Jail with no bond.

On April 5, police visited Bullington, who was complaining of chest pain in the Lutheran Hospital emergency room. Bullington said she had been drinking and got into an argument with Dennis when he punched her in the left arm and rib area.

She alleged that Dennis had also pushed her down into a chair two weeks earlier, fracturing two of her ribs. A physician confirmed that two of her ribs were broken.

The officer arrested Dennis, who was at the hospital, after he admitted to both of the incidents, though he told police it was Bullington who had pushed him first.

Bullington also told police she "feared for her life" since Dennis had held a loaded handgun to her head April 4 because "he was mad at her," according to a police report. He had also threatened to burn down her family members' houses, she told police.

Officers told Bullington to stay with a family member or at a women's shelter once she was released from the hospital if she believed Dennis would come after her, the report stated.

Dennis was charged with attempted murder and terrorism in 2000, court records show. Prosecutors accused him of assaulting a man; a friend later shot the victim as he left a Des Moines apartment. Attempted-murder charges were eventually dropped, but Dennis did community service for the other charge.

Bullington had been arrested on charges of domestic abuse without intent but causing injury in 1994, court records show.

Bullington is the second woman charged with first-degree murder in Des Moines this year.

Stephanie Renee Moses, 35, of Des Moines was charged with first-degree murder after police found 36-year-old Jerry Victor Brueggeman dead at the Royal Motel, 3718 Douglas Ave., on June 1.

Like Bullington, Moses also called police to report the dead body, police said.

Moses later admitted to police and her former husband that she strangled Brueggeman, her boyfriend, according to the criminal complaint.

Moses pleaded not guilty, and her attorney has filed motions of defense of diminished responsibility and intoxication. Her jury trial has been set for Feb. 23.

In 2013, four of the 14 Des Moines homicides involved female suspects. Before then, no woman had been charged with first-degree murder in Des Moines since 2008.