A man who shot and killed his estranged wife in Bremen in August 2020 will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty on Thursday in the Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court.

Christopher Stone, 46, took the guilty plea to avoid a death penalty case on malice murder and other charges in a September 9, 2021 court date just more than a year after he shot and killed Crystal Nicole Stone at Higgins Hospital in Bremen on August 12, 2020.

District Attorney Jack Browning reported the life sentence was handed on Thursday against Stone following an outburst in the courtroom where Stone shouted expletives while the case was being reviewed before the court.

“Even in a moment where the family is able to address the court and get whatever is laying on their hearts off their chest, and find some closure and peace in all this… Even in the face of all this, he couldn’t do that,” Browning said.

Stone was represented by attorney Jason Swindle. Browning said he let him know that he intended to seek the death penalty and take the case to trial if Stone didn’t agree to the plea deal.

Stone pleaded guilty to the shooting death of his wife with a shotgun just outside of Higgins Hospital in Bremen, where he had called his estranged wife Crystal to come out and help with delivery. Browning reported that Stone ran a courier business that provided delivery service for the Tanner Medical System, and that Crystal had assisted them with the business during their relationship.

It is believed she was lured to the scene to help with the business that night. She took her 15-year-old autistic son with her on the trip to the hospital campus at around midnight. Though he didn’t see the incident, he was in his mother’s vehicle just feet away from where she was shot, where first responders found him when he arrived.

Earlier in the day, Crystal Stone had called Bremen Police about a domestic incident with Stone, and had been told about how to obtain a temporary protection order but had decided against it in an effort to avoid further angering her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

Browning reported as well that Stone had a history of verbal and emotional abuse, and previously documented physical abuse against Crystal Stone as well prior to her death. The couple was in the midst of a divorce that Browning said was being held up by Stone. He was unwilling to let it go, while she had already moved on with her life and begun seeing another individual.

During their meeting, Browning said the evidence points to Stone then shooting Crystal three times with a shotgun and leaving her for dead in a parking area near the hospital near where doctors go in and out in the middle of the night.

Browning said that it was one of “the most horrific crime scene I have seen in all my years I have been a District Attorney,” and that he was glad that the case ended without a lenghty trial to spare her family from having to relive the events that took their daughter away.

“They were pleased with how the case was handled,” Browning said.