Jury sentences man to 10 years after being shown video of him fatally shooting wife

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- An all-women jury, which is rare but can happen, sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for the murder of his wife after being shown a video of the shooting. Now, the couple's daughter is finding the strength to tell her mother's story.

"Alright, goodbye. You're (going to) meet Jesus," Carey Birmingham told his wife, Patricia Birmingham, before he shot her with his gun outside their home in Spring.

In the video, Carey can be heard firing his gun three times.

"I hope it was worth it," he said.

The shooting happened while the couple's daughter, Olivia, was at school.

"I lost both my parents that day. My dad died that day, too, because the person who did that to my mom and my father aren't the same person," Olivia said.

SEE ALSO: Man accused in wife's shooting death in northwest Harris County, deputies say

Patricia and Carey had roughly a 30-minute argument leading up to the shooting.

Audio obtained by ABC13 contains several minutes before the video that became a large part of Carey's crime of passion defense.

"I am (expletive) done," he said.

"I am (expletive) done too," Patricia replied.

The two's argument, which was sparked by Carey's allegedly learning of Patricia's affair, became more and more heated.

Carey's defense attorney, Anthony Osso, said they pleaded guilty directly to an all-female jury. He said their strategy was to accept responsibility but convince jurors that Carey shot Patricia in the heat of the moment.

"We never tried to justify the actions of our client, but the defense wasn't about justification. It was about why he did what he did," Osso said.

But Olivia said she finds her father's defense questionable at best.

"I don't know, sudden passion? You have to have something. You have to have made that decision within you for a while; I feel like to do something, to do that to someone you really love," Olivia said.

Carey was given a 10-year sentence with the possibility of parole after five years.

Olivia said she spoke to her father in court and provided ABC13 with a summary of her statement:

"No matter what was said in this trial, you know what type of woman she was, and you know what you did and how he took away my favorite person in this world," she said.

Olivia testified that she had never witnessed her father physically abusing her mom, but she wanted to raise awareness that there are different types of abuse she experienced, including emotional and financial. She said that while she still loves her father, she can never forgive him.

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