GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Jurors heard a recording Friday of the chilling confession made by an Ottawa County man during a 6-hour interview with police last year.
Wendell Popejoy is on trial for the December 2017 murder of Sheila Bonge. Popejoy admitted police that he killed his neighbor after a dispute over a shared driveway.
Popejoy said he shot Bonge, then burned her clothes and dumped her body in his backyard.
He later took the gun he used and threw into the Grand River. Police have yet to recover it.
Popejoy said multiple times his girlfriend Rhonda was sleeping at the time of the shooting but he later told her about it.
"Maybe that's where she said, 'What did you do,'" he said as he tried to remember the sequence of events. "And I said I took care of the problem."
Popejoy called what he did "stupid," but said he does not regret that Bonge was gone.
Popejoy stressed the whole thing was done on impulse as he sat in the interview room that December night and let it all sink in.
"What are you thinking about?" Detective Ann Koster asked in that recorded confession. With a loud sigh Popejoy bellowed, "What the hell did I just do."
Popejoy's trial will continue on Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Day one: Trial starts for Ottawa Co. man accused of killing his neighbor, attorneys debate premeditation
Day two: 'There's a dead lady behind your house,' compelling audio shared in day two of Wendell Popejoy trial
Day three: Girlfriend of man who allegedly killed his neighbor takes stand on third day of his trial
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