An ex-girlfriend of former pastor Christopher Bullock, who is charged with killing the girlfriend after her and shooting himself, told a Walker County jury he once choked her until she blacked out.
The witness said she was standing by the kitchen sink when Bullock put his hands around her neck and said, "Do you know how easy it would be for me to kill you?"
She said, "I woke up on the floor with him standing over me."
On another occasion, she said, Bullock showed her that his mouth was full of pills. She said she walked out the back door, not believing he would swallow them. But she said he did, and she had to take him to the hospital.
Bullock, 49 is charged with the murder of 51-year-old Tammy Cropper, who was shot three times at The Woodland apartments on Park City Road in Rossville on Oct. 5, 2023.
The former girlfriend said she had a relationship with Bullock from 2019 until not long before he moved in with Ms. Cropper. She said during that time he contributed little to their household expenses.
She said he was often depressed and "he had thoughts of killing his wife and children." She said, "He mentioned suicide often."
Sonya Bullock Dickinson, the defendant's former wife, took the witness stand for the state in the trial at LaFayette, Ga. She said they met in 1997 when they were in college. She filed for divorce in 2016 after 17 years of marriage and three children.
She said he left the Seventh-day Adventist ministry and seldom worked after that.
Ms. Dickinson said he owned multiple guns during their marriage. She said once at 3 a.m. a gun went off downstairs and the bullet ricocheted around the room. She said he told her he had been cleaning the gun and it went off.
She said Bullock "had suicidal tendencies as a teenager" and often discussed the topic, saying, "You would be better off without me."
Ms. Dickinson said Bullock had no interest in reconciling with her, and she finally remarried in 2022. She said he congratulated her and said, "I wish you the best. You deserve to be happy."
Cell phone records pulled from the phones of Ms. Cropper and Bullock showed she was upset about him not contributing to the finances. She said, "I can't even get you to take out the garbage."
Shortly before the shooting, she gave him a list of the household expenses and said he needed to come up with half.
In the last few days of her life, Ms. Cropper was working her job from home because one of her grandchildren was sick.
On the day she was shot, she left a message with her employer that she had been "up and down all night." The call was at 4:57 a.m.
The defense focused on earlier vitriolic texts from Tim Matthews, the former longtime boyfriend of Ms. Cropper.
The defense has pointed to him as a possible suspect, but the state says he has an alibi and had no way to get into the apartment unit.
Grant Guise, GBI special agent, said there was no sign of forced entry and no evidence of a burglary. Some $250 in cash and some valuables were still in the apartment.
He said, "There was no evidence of a struggle."
The agent said the evidence showed that Bullock shot Ms. Cropper three times, then went into the bathroom and shot himself. He said a blood pool by the toilet indicated he lay there before crawling into the bedroom. He said there were a number of blood smears in both rooms.
Bullock's cell phone was found in the floor near some of the blood pools in the bedroom. Also found were several 9mm shell casings and projectiles. Bullock had earlier bought a Glock handgun from the White Oak Armory in Cleveland, Tn., it was stated.
Agent Guise said all the blood was contained to the bedroom and its bathroom. Nothing seemed out of place in the rest of the house.
Jerry Harris, who works for EPB Fiberoptic, said he was installing Internet equipment in a breezeway just outside the Cropper apartment that day from 11:11 a.m. to 12:48 p.m. and heard no sounds or comings and goings. The body was found by a grandson at 2:30.
Dr. Rachel Geller, a medical examiner for the GBI, said Ms. Cropper was shot in the right breast, the left side, and the right upper arm.
She said the shot in the breast damaged both lungs and also went through the heart.