Prosecutors also presented emails and Facebook hair tinsel wholesale messages from Diane Ward the day she died. They argued there were no suicidal comments.
The defense has indicated it will likely need two full days to put on its case. They plan to call five expert witnesses and several lay witnesses. At the start of the trial last week, Ward's lawyer said Ward was trying to take the gun away from his wife when it went off. Toxicology reports showed that Diane Ward had antidepressants and alcohol in her body before she was killed.
During the 911 call minutes after the shooting, Ward told a dispatcher that he shot his wife, according to authorities. When the dispatcher asked if he had done it on purpose or on accident, he said it was an accident, they said.
Bob Ward's company, Land Resource, filed for bankruptcy almost a year before his wife died. He was being sued by an insurance company that accused him of taking more than $20 million from the sale of lots in subdivisions he was building in Tennessee in 2007. The insurance company, which had issued bonds for the subdivisions, said Ward should have used the money to improve the synthetic feather hair extensions subdivisions, but instead paid off debts and went on a spending spree.
The lawsuit says the Wards used the money to buy their 8,800-square-foot mansion in Isleworth, the same neighborhood where Tiger Woods had his headline-grabbing SUV crash. The suit says the couple also paid off two loans totaling nearly $2.5 million for two houses in Georgia, bought a house on the Georgia coast for $750,000 and purchased several vehicles, including a $140,000 Mercedes-Benz sedan. The lawsuit was dismissed last month because of a lack of action by either side.
Washington Department of Employment Security economist Elizabeth Scott said it's possible for the unemployment rate to rise even if the size of the labor force stays the same. More people arriving, attracted by Kitsap's lower unemployment rate, could push the rate up. But if they haven't found work, the labor force number would stay the same.
"It's an attraction to people," Scott said of Kitsap's lower rate.
Of the 39 counties in Washington, 28 have higher unemployment rates than Kitsap County; 10 have lower rates. Ferry County in Northeast Washington Clip In Hair Extensions has the highest of 13.5 percent. San Juan County has the lowest at 5.7 percent.
Except for San Juan County, Kitsap County has the lowest of all of the other counties surrounding Puget Sound.
Kitsap's August unemployment rate was a full percentage point down from 8.8. percent, the highest it hit in the recession back in March 2010.
Employment Security estimates that 35 percent of all workers in Kitsap County work for the federal government. They earned about $59,000 in 2010, on average.
Fourteen percent of workers in Kitsap County worked in health care and social assistance. They brought in about $38,000. Retail workers made up 13 percent of the workforce, earning about $37,000.
State economists have identified which jobs groups in Kitsap County will grow the fastest by 2019. They include those in manufacturing, as well as factory-type jobs related to the military. Also, local job prospects look good in home health care, gambling, software publishing and advocacy
