Drug-use fight preceded homicide, detectives say

The couple who owned and ran Chit Chat’s bar in Pompano Beach fought about the husband’s illegal drug use the day before detectives say he shot and killed his wife.

Patrick Palmer is in a Broward County jail, being held without bond and facing a premeditated murder charge. Sherry Palmer’s body was found in their backyard in Pompano Beach on April 18.

Court documents don’t provide a motive for the killing, but Palmer, 51, told Broward Sheriff’s detectives that Sherry, 63, his wife of two decades, found out he had relapsed.

He’d been smoking cocaine for the past six months, and was also taking prescription medication for back pain and drink- ing alcohol, according to an arrest affidavit.

On the day the couple argued, Sherry told a witness that if Palmer was using illegal drugs again, she would not go through that “hell” again and would leave him.

The next day, Saturday, April 14, Sherry texted the witness and confirmed Palmer was using narcotics again. That night, two neighbors heard gunfire, the affidavit said.

During a police interview on April 18 while Palmer was hospitalized for psychological evaluation, he told detectives he remembered a “bang,” a gun going off on April 13, and that he went to sleep, the affidavit said.

Asked if he shot his wife, Palmer told detectives, “I don’t think so.”