Athena O. Wells, a 50-year-old White/Caucasian woman, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of July 14, 2026, inside an apartment in Spokane's East Central neighborhood. Spokane police were dispatched shortly before 1:30 a.m. to an apartment at 23 S. Haven Street after a man called 911 and reported that his friend had been shot. Officers entered the residence and found Wells suffering from a gunshot wound to her chest. Police and emergency medical personnel attempted to save her, but her injuries proved fatal.
A pistol was found on the floor near the base of a sectional couch in the living room. Several people had been inside the apartment around the time of the shooting, and investigators began trying to reconstruct how the gun had discharged. One man told detectives that he and his girlfriend had been lying on one side of the sectional watching television while Wells was on the opposite side. As he was beginning to fall asleep, he heard a gunshot. Wells suddenly jumped up, cried out that she had been hurt, and then collapsed. He called 911. The witness said he did not know exactly where the firearm had come from but believed it may have been on the back of the couch before falling to the floor and firing.
Another resident told police he had been in his bedroom when he heard a loud pop from the living room. He then heard Wells say that she had been hurt and that the injury was burning. When he entered the room, he found a chaotic scene, with Wells bleeding and the firearm on the floor. He initially told investigators that he believed the shooting had been accidental because the people in the apartment generally got along. At that stage of the investigation, detectives had not determined whether Wells had been intentionally shot or whether the firearm had discharged accidentally.
Attention soon focused on Jerry Dale Huntoon, who was 52 at the time. A woman who had been sleeping on a couch told police she awoke to people screaming and saw Huntoon nearby appearing frantic and panicked. According to her account, Huntoon made a statement indicating that he had bent over and his gun had gone off. She then saw Wells lying motionless on the floor. Investigators determined that Huntoon had been in the apartment when the firearm discharged but left the residence before officers arrived.
Police later contacted Huntoon by telephone while he was at another person's home. He agreed to return to the Haven Street apartment and speak with detectives. During that interview, Huntoon denied being present when Wells was shot and claimed he had left the residence at approximately 11 p.m. the previous evening, roughly two and a half hours before the shooting. His statement conflicted with witnesses who placed him inside the apartment at the time the gun discharged.
Huntoon was booked into the Spokane County Jail later on July 14, 2026. The investigation subsequently resulted in formal criminal charges. Spokane County prosecutors charged Jerry Dale Huntoon with second-degree manslaughter, alleging that he caused Wells' death through criminal negligence. Prosecutors also charged him with first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The charging information identifies the weapon as a. 380-caliber pistol and alleges that Huntoon knowingly possessed the firearm despite having a prior felony conviction that prohibited him from legally possessing one.
The manslaughter charge represents a significant development from the earliest public reports, when investigators said they were still uncertain whether the shooting was intentional or accidental. Prosecutors are not alleging in the filed manslaughter count that Huntoon deliberately murdered Wells; instead, the State alleges that his criminally negligent conduct caused her death. The separate firearm charge concerns his alleged possession of the pistol despite his status as a person legally prohibited from having a firearm.
Public records also show that Huntoon had a previous felony DUI conviction in Spokane County. His criminal history had previously reached the Washington Court of Appeals after an earlier felony DUI prosecution, and court records confirm that he had been convicted of felony DUI before the shooting that killed Wells. The more recent charging document in Wells' case specifically relies on a prior felony DUI conviction as the basis for the first-degree unlawful-possession charge.
As of the most recent information publicly available, Huntoon has been arrested and formally charged in connection with Wells' death, but the filing of charges does not establish guilt. No final conviction or sentence in the case was located. The criminal proceedings therefore remain important to the eventual determination of legal responsibility for the shooting, while the evidence described in police and court records presents a tragic sequence in which Wells was relaxing with friends when a firearm discharged and ended her life without warning.
