McClellandtown man testifies he was assaulted before fatal shooting

A McClellandtown man testified Wednesday he shot a Masontown man last year after the man and his girlfriend assaulted him.
“It all happened so fast,” Christopher Shellhammer, 31, testified on the third day of his criminal homicide trial in Fayette County Court.
Shellhammer testified he fired his gun three times, but only thought he hit Michael Henrick, 39, in the chest. An autopsy report showed Henrick was also shot in the back at a Peach Street home in Masontown on Jan. 15, 2018.
Shellhammer told jurors he was at the home to see Kelly French, Henrick’s girlfriend. Under questioning from his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Michael Aubele, he testified he met French on a dating website and met up with her three previous times to talk and smoke marijuana.
While Shellhammer testified he never sold French drugs, she testified earlier this week that she was only on the dating website to find someone who could do so.
On one of the prior occasions he met up with French, Shellhammer testified, she asked him to meet Henrick. Shellhammer said when he got there, Henrick punched him in the face before he could leave his vehicle and stole the marijuana he brought with him.
Shellhammer testified he put his van in reverse and fled.
While he was hesitant about going back on Jan. 15, Shellhammer testified that French assured him Henrick wasn’t home. He testified he took his gun, which he has a permit to carry concealed, with him.
Shellhammer testified French met him on her porch and had him come inside the house, asking him to lock the door behind him. He said she went to the dining room table and opened a beer, and Henrick appeared, making fists and asking what he was doing there.
French smiled and stood beside Henrick, Shellhammer said, and he went to the door to try and leave. One of the two “body checked” him, Shellhammer testified, while French held her hand over the door’s lock and hit him in the head. He testified Henrick punched him in the face and told French to take the gun, as French told Henrick to knock out Shellhammer.
Shellhammer testified he fired his gun three times, and the weapon jammed.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Benninger asked Shellhammer why he went back to the home if he was afraid because Henrick had allegedly accosted him before.
“She convinced me it was safe,” he testified, referring to French.
Shellhammer acknowledged that neither French nor Henrick had weapons on them on Jan. 15, prompting Benninger to ask why he pulled his gun on two unarmed people.
“I pulled a gun on two aggressive people,” Shellhammer testified.
In rebuttal testimony, Benninger called James Thompson, an inmate at the Fayette County Prison who testified that he talked to Shellhammer in the prison and kept notes about their conversations.
Thompson said Shellhammer told him he wanted to have a relationship with French, but had trouble with Henrick.
On the night Henrick was shot, Thompson testified Shellhammer told him he became upset when French refused to tell Henrick she invited Shellhammer to the house. Thompson testified Shellhammer told him he hit French, prompting a fight between Shellhammer and Henrick.
Thompson told jurors Shellhammer related that when he was losing the fight, he shot Henrick in the chest, and as Henrick started to run away, he fired twice more.
Thompson also testified Shellhammer told him that he believed French and Henrick set him up so they could rob him.
Aubele questioned Thompson’s motivations and showed a letter he wrote to the district attorney’s office in which he asked for a “consideration” for a 12 to 24-month continuance on a pending criminal case, and for a new court-appointed attorney, which he now has.
“I didn’t know about that,” Thompson said, calling himself a “concerned citizen” who would have testified even if his request was denied. “I can only tell you what he (Shellhammer) told me.”
The trial will conclude today with closing arguments.