Emma Lightsey picked up a gun in a Perry County Courthouse, pointed it at a prosecutor’s head and asked him to hit her.

Lightsey was attempting to demonstrate what happened the day she shot her boyfriend.

Still, that demonstration wasn’t enough to prevent a Perry County jury from convicting her of murder yesterday.

At the end of the two-day trial, Lightsey was found guilty of killing Mike Sapp, her boyfriend.

During the course of the case, Lightsey went through two attorneys before a Montgomery attorney; Bill Wadley was assigned to the case.

Prosecuted by the District Attorney’s office out of Dallas County, the case was of particular interest to state officials as well.

Former Dallas County assistant district attorney and current assistant attorney general Don McMillan tried the case for Ed Greene.

District attorney Greene was proud to have McMillan involved in the trial.

“We greatly appreciate the Attorney General (Troy King) allowing him to take the time to try this case,” Greene said.

Greene said the case has dragged on for several months, while Lightsey switched lawyers.

“She’s a very volatile person,” Greene said. He suggested that might be the reason two lawyers withdrew from the case before Wadley took over.

Lightsey was accused of shooting her boyfriend at their home in Perry County on Sept. 2, 2002.

Prosecutors used phone records, witness testimony and an autopsy report to lay out the events of the night.

Witnesses said that they heard gunshots from the resident on the night of the murder at about 7 p.m.

Phone records show that Lightsey made an operator assisted phone call to an ambulance service in Selma at 8:59 p.m. The ambulance service attempted to respond, but couldn’t verify the address because the number given to them was disconnected.

Autopsy reports provided by the prosecution show that it took Sapp about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to die from his wounds. Sapp was shot twice, once in the abdomen and once in the center of his chest.

Lightsey testified during the course of the trial she only did so out of self-defense and that the pistol used, “just appeared.”

McMillan asked Lightsey to demonstrate the use of the murder weapon. Lightsey refused, saying she didn’t know how to operate the weapon.

He then laid the weapon on the courtroom floor and asked her to verify if it appeared on the floor of her home like it did in the courtroom. Lightsey testified earlier in the trial that she didn’t know where the gun came from, that it had just “appeared” on the ground.

“She got off the stand and grabbed the gun,” McMillan said.

McMillan said she came out of the witness stand, picked up the gun (it wasn’t loaded) and pointed it at his head. She then commanded McMillan to slap her, in order to further illustrate the events on the day of the actual murder.

McMillan refused.

“She just freaked out and they (the jury) saw that,” he said. McMillan said the incident wasn’t planned.

“I had no idea what she was going to do,” he said.

The incident, McMillan believed, was part of what convinced the jury of Lightsey’s guilt.

It also gave McMillan an experience he doesn’t want to repeat.

“I never had a gun pointed at me,” he said. “It’s a humbling thing. I was glad to know the gun wasn’t loaded.”

Lightsey’s bond was immediately revoked when the guilty verdict came down. She’ll be held until the sentencing portion of the trial is complete.

Murder carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Lightsey also has a prior conviction of reckless endangerment in Dallas County. She was found guilty of reckless endangerment after shooting at a clerk employed at the Probate Judge’s office in the parking lot of the Dallas County Courthouse.