Commerce man charged with shooting his wife

A Commerce man who allegedly shot his sleeping wife multiple times in the head early Friday morning then called his parents and told them to come pick up the troubled couple’s 3-year-old daughter. He then called 911 and told the operator he’d killed his wife.

That is the sequence of events reported by the Commerce Police Department, which has charged Martin Lewis Seymour, 31, with the murder of his 29-year-old wife, Jamie Sue Seymour.
Jamie Seymour was a 1997 graduate of Madison County High School, where she served on the cheerleading squad. Martin Seymour was a 1995 graduate of MCHS.

Apparently upset because his wife, who police say was engaged in an extramarital affair, had planned to leave the next day with the couple’s daughter for Indiana, Seymour shot her as she lay on the couch in the living room, said Detective Chad Knight, head of the department’s criminal investigation division.

“We believe she was asleep when it happened, based on the placement of the body and the entrance wounds,” said Knight. “It didn’t appear that there was any kind of struggle.”

Knight confirmed that the child slept through the shooting. When Commerce officers arrived, they found Martin Seymour sitting in the driveway. The couple’s daughter was already in the car with the suspect’s parents, Knight said.

Preliminary evidence depicts a troubled marriage. Knight said investigators have determined that Jamie Seymour had been involved in an extramarital affair for about a month. Interviews with family and friends, Knight said, indicated that she planned to go with her parents to Indiana for a time of “separation,” but others said she had indicated that she was “through” with the marriage.

Officers found the .380 caliber handgun — which had apparently been purchased just the day before with a check that is expected to bounce — in the kitchen of the 211 Arlington Lane residence.

Knight said police believe Martin Seymour bought the gun “with the intention of taking his life, hers or that of somebody else.”

The detective also said Martin Seymour had been drinking — and appeared to be intoxicated — at the time he shot his wife.