Jury hears two versions of shootout

Defendant, victim testify

BENTONVILLE — A jury heard two very different versions Wednesday of a shootout involving a divorced couple.

The jury is hearing the case against Michael Landon Doll, who is charged with attempted capital murder, aggravated residential burglary and first-degree battery.

Doll, 54, of Jasper, Mo., is accused of attempting to kill his former wife June 7, 2016, in her Bella Vista home.

Brenda Doll testified Wednesday morning. Michael Doll took the witness stand a few hours later and gave his version.

Brenda Doll said she left work for lunch and went home to walk her dog. She was leaving her house when she saw her former husband walking toward her. Doll said she immediately locked her door and called 911. She heard the sound of glass shattering in her front door.

She said she heard steps on the shattered glass and saw her former husband holding a gun. She could see the red laser from the gun on the ceiling.

“I wanted him to know that I had a gun,” Doll said as she explained her reasons for firing the first shot.

She hoped he would leave when he realized she had a gun.

She shot more times, but didn’t strike Michael Doll. She went to hide in a closet and he shot several times.

“I wasn’t counting, but he fired a lot,” she told jurors.

Brenda Doll testified the last shot hit her in the chest.

“I thought I was gonna die,” she said as she described pain from the wound.

Paramedics treated her at the house and didn’t take her to the hospital.

Michael Doll said he only went to his former wife’s home to get military and health records and other documents that had been mailed to her.

He admitted to kicking the front door. He told jurors he heard a gunshot while he was outside the house and didn’t know where the shot came

from and there was no place for him to hide.

“I threw the rock and said I was coming in,” Michael Doll said.

Doll said he was standing in the house and looking outside when his former wife came up from behind him with a gun.

“I felt the bullet go by me and it hit the grandfather clock,” Doll said.

He said he never fired his weapon with the intention of shooting his former wife. He pulled his gun after his former wife fired for a third time, he said. Doll said he was shooting at the door and frame to keep her from coming out of the room with the gun.

Doll said he never aimed his gun at her and told jurors he intentionally missed when he fired his gun.

“I knew what to do because of my training,” said Doll, a military veteran. “I wasn’t going to run out in an open area.”

Doll said he was concerned someone was also outside shooting at him.

“I still today believe that two people were shooting their guns at me,” he said.

Brenda Doll said Michael Doll threatened to kill her in

February 2016 after a judge ruled in her favor in a property dispute. He denied the statement.

Michael Doll continued to say his actions were self-defense and told the jury he could have killed his former wife when she was holding what he described as a ridiculous gun.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys finished presenting their cases Wednesday.

Closing arguments will begin today before Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green.

Doll is being held on $500,000 bond in the Benton County Jail.

Doll