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Couple's quarrels called common
By CARRIE JOHNSON
© St. Petersburg Times, HOMOSASSA -- The relationship between Patricia and James Hale had been a stormy one. "They just didn't get along. They loved each other and they hated each other at the same time," said Pam Murrin,an employee at Mike's Friendly Pub & Deli, a Homosassa bar the couple often frequented. They were bikers. She was called "Puff" and he was known as "Hippie," and it seemed that all too often they were angry at each other, Murrin said. But despite the many late-night arguments, Murrin still finds it hard to believe Patricia Hale would deliberately shoot and kill her husband, as authorities said she did Friday night in the parking lot of Jim's Club 19, another Homosassa nightspot. "I feel bad for her," Murrin said. "I know she didn't mean to do it." Divers from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office recovered a gun Saturday from a canal where Patricia Hale said she slipped and dropped her weapon as she tried to commit suicide following the shooting. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ronda Hemminger Evan said Monday that ballistics tests were still being performed to determine whether it is the same gun used to shoot James Hale, 52. Patricia Hale, 57, was still being held at the Citrus County jail on one count of second-degree murder in lieu of $50,000 bail Monday. Jim Turner, the owner of Jim's Club 19, said James Hale and his brother, Chad, were sitting at the bar about 10:55 p.m. when Patricia Hale came into the club and told James she needed to speak with him. According to Turner's video surveillance cameras, James Hale re-entered the club a little more than a minute after he left. He appeared to be fine until he reached the bar, when his knees buckled and he grabbed for the wall. "I don't believe they even had any time to argue," Turner said of the Hales. "Whatever it was, it was a pretty quick done deal." Hale was taken to Seven Rivers Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that night. According to the state medical examiner's office in Leesburg, the preliminary cause of death is a gunshot wound to the chest. Evan would not say how many times James Hale was shot. Patricia Hale told sheriff's deputies she was at the club to confront him about an extramarital affair he was having. He had moved out of their home at 6040 S Palmer Lane a few days before the shooting, she said. They began quarreling in the parking lot of the club. James Hale called her obscene names when she asked him to come home with her and she reached under the seat and pulled out a handgun, Patricia Hale told deputies. He started to approach her and she fired the gun, the report said. She said she then went behind the club to commit suicide but slipped and fell into a canal, dropping the gun. Turner said he had known the Hales for more than 10 years, although they weren't regulars at his bar. He said James Hale had just started a relationship with a waitress he had hired about a week and a half before the shooting. "I was just about to tell her that I don't like husbands or boyfriends hanging around while they're working," Turner said. "Maybe I should have told her the night before."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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