Loeffler to be tried in wife’s death Sept. 17th

A Sept. 17th murder trial date was set Tuesday for an 86-year-old La Pine-area man accused of fatally shooting his 83-year-old wife, as court documents revealed he claimed to have done so because he was sure his wife and daughter were conspiring to kill him.

Attorneys in the case of Lawrence Loeffler met with Deschutes County Circuit Judge Michael Adler to set the start of the eight-day trial.

Loeffler, who pleaded not guilty earlier this month to the fatal shooting of his wife, Betty, was not required to appear at Tuesday’s trial-scheduling hearing.

Meanwhile, the search warrant affidavit in the case has been unsealed, revealing more details in the Jan. 28 shooting at the Loefflers’ home near La Pine.

The documents describe interviews in which at first, Loeffler described fighting with his wife and being scared for his life before shooting her twice.

They say that later he described overhearing her the night before in a phone conversation that convinced him there was a plot against his life. The documents say he told investigators that the next morning, he shoved his wife from the kitchen where she was boiling water and shot her in the back of the neck.