‘Horrible’ marriage leads to attempted murder charge for 68-year-old Fresno man
Harry Gordon is a narcissist who argued with his wife almost everyday, becoming so angry he gunned her down in the driveway of a northeast Fresno home, prosecutor Elana Smith said on the opening day of Gordon’s trial.
Gordon, now 68, is charged with attempted murder and corporal injury of a spouse after ambushing his estranged wife and shooting her three times on Jan. 29, 2016. She survived after spending weeks in a hospital recovering from her wounds.
Defense attorney Yan Shrayberman said he will try and show the jury that Gordon was suffering from mental illness and was getting treatment, but still wasn’t thinking clearly at the time of the shooting.
Smith painted a bleak picture of the Gordons’ 24-year marriage, saying Wednesday in court that it was torn apart by Harry Gordon’s controlling nature and steady stream of emotional abuse.
“She was never good enough, she was always doing something wrong,” Smith told the jury. “And when she filed for divorce it sent him into a tailspin.”
He accused her of cheating on him and eventually got a restraining order against her, forcing her out of their house.
Their son, Harrison, 24, described his parent’s marriage as “horrible.”
“It was constant fighting and yelling,” he said. “It was everyday or every other day.”
Harrison Gordon has two older brothers but it was just him and his younger sister who lived with their parents when they moved from the Bay Area to Fresno several years ago.
The relationship with their father was strained at best, Harrison Gordon said.
And the tension between the parents got worse after the children moved in with their mother, Smith said.
On Jan. 29, 2016 the victim and her two children were housesitting for a relative and taking care of his daughter when Gordon showed up with a .22 caliber handgun. He parked around the block and hid near the relative’s home in the 5700 block of North Millbrook Avenue, Smith said.
When the child’s grandmother showed up at the house to return the little girl to her home, the victim and her daughter came out to greet them.
The victim’s daughter, Rachel Gordon, 21, testified she heard the sound of someone stepping on dry leaves seconds before she saw her father appear.
It frightened her and she asked him, “What are you doing here?” He didn’t respond, but she knew her mother was in danger. She told her to run.
She said her father pushed her aside with his arm and began shooting as her mother ran toward the front of the house.
The daughter then shoved him with both hands, causing him to fall on his back. Smith said the daughter may have saved her mother’s life.
Harrison called 911 and police and paramedics arrived.
Gordon was arrested outside the home by Fresno police. He faces possible life in prison if found guilty.
The trial continues on Thursday.
This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 5:17 PM.
