‘I thought it was a gun,’ Oak Brook murder defendant says
Jerry Hudson thought his ex-wife was reaching for a gun when he shot her six times outside an Oak Brook hotel, he testified Friday.
“I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger,” Hudson said. “I had no intentions of killing her. I was defending myself.”
The shooting happened New Year’s Day 2010 after Hudson tracked down 45-year-old Melissa Bridgewater at a Doubletree Hotel where she had spent the night with her new boyfriend, according to testimony.
Hudson, of Bolingbrook, said he “bumped” into Bridgewater’s car with his rental vehicle as she backed out of a parking space around 6:30 a.m. He wanted to talk to her, he said, because she made threats involving a gun in earlier phone conversations, and it seemed out of her character.
According to Hudson, as he approached the car, Bridgewater told him, “I got something for you,” and swore at him, then reached for a “black object” near her center console.
That’s when Hudson pulled a semiautomatic pistol from his pocket and opened fire through her driver’s side window.
“I thought it was a gun,” he said, referring to the object.
Hudson, 51, admitted he shot Bridgewater six times at close range, including twice in the temple and three times in the back.
Afterward, he drove to Chicago, abandoned his rental car, threw away his gun, and went to a family member’s home.
Hudson said he did not surrender or call police for several days as his family raised money for an attorney. He turned himself in Jan. 5 after hiring a lawyer and being formally charged.
“I was in a panic,” Hudson said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Hudson sobbed and buried his face in his hands when Prosecutor Mary Cronin showed a photo of Bridgewater’s injuries on cross-examination Friday, prompting the judge to remove the jury while the defendant composed himself.
Cronin hammered away at Hudson for specifics about the dark object he claimed to see in Bridgewater’s car, but he was ultimately unable to say exactly where it was. Hudson also maintained he had never fired a gun before that day, despite having carried one for some time.
“You didn’t stop shooting until the gun was empty?” Cronin asked.
“Yes,” Hudson testified.
Hudson, who married Bridgewater in the late 1990s, said they divorced in 2005 but continued to have a “great friendship” and a “monogamous relationship.” Bridgewater also lived in Bolingbrook.
Three days before the slaying, he wrote a letter to family members saying he was dying of inoperable cancer and planned on “taking (Bridgewater) with me” because she “used me for 20 years.”
On Friday, Hudson said he wrote the letter when he was suicidal but later changed his mind.
“I realized I still have a lot to live for,” he said.
Hudson faces a potential life sentence if convicted. Closing arguments are set for Tuesday in DuPage County Judge Daniel Guerin’s courtroom.