POCATELLO — A 7-year-old boy was inside the home when his father fatally shot his mother and her boyfriend this past October, according to video evidence presented during the first day of a preliminary hearing for the man facing two first-degree murder charges for the incident.

Jesse Patrick Leigh, 40, of Pocatello, is accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife Jennifer, 41, and another man Timothy Hunt, 21, inside Leigh’s mobile home on the 4200 block of Philbin Road in Pocatello on the evening of Oct. 15, 2021.

Handcuffed and shackled, Leigh appeared in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge Scott Axline on Tuesday at the Bannock County Courthouse for the first day of a preliminary hearing scheduled to last four days. Wearing a yellow Bannock County Jail jumpsuit, Leigh lowered his head on several occasions and covered his face with his hands as witnesses testified.

The first witness was Leigh’s son, who is 8 years old but was 7 at the time of the shooting.

Instead of putting the boy on the stand to testify in person, both Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog and Leigh’s attorney, Bannock County Public Defender Dave Martinez, stipulated to present a forensic interview that the boy completed with authorities at a local child advocacy center on Oct. 18.

The interview consisted of the boy explaining that he entered the Philbin Road home with Jennifer and Hunt and saw Leigh armed with a pistol. The boy said that he was present when Leigh shot Jennifer. The boy said he heard his dad fire five shots during the incident. He also said that he was aware his father owned numerous firearms. Additionally, the boy said he ran out of the mobile home after the shots were fired and told a man named TJ to run away too.

The man the boy identified as TJ, whose full name is Terry James Cameron, also testified Tuesday. Cameron testified that he, Jennifer, Hunt and the boy went to a football game earlier in the evening on Oct. 15 and that he was the person who drove Jennifer’s car to Leigh’s home the night of the shooting to drop the boy off with his father.

Cameron, who was waiting outside of the mobile home when the shooting occurred, testified to hearing what he described as someone popping plastic bubble wrap before the boy came running from the residence and shouted at him to run away.

Cameron ran, hid behind a truck and observed a man exit the Leigh home carrying a firearm. Cameron was unable to say if the man was Leigh, but said he later observed Leigh’s silver Dodge car leaving the mobile home park.

Moreover, Cameron testified that Jennifer and Hunt had begun staying with him a few weeks before the shooting occurred.

Jennifer’s 13-year-old daughter, of whom Leigh is not the father, also testified Tuesday, though objections from Leigh’s defense counsel resulted in most of her testimony being struck from the record. One statement from the daughter that was not stricken was her testimony about the relationship between Leigh and Jennifer being “toxic.”

Law enforcement personnel testified Tuesday as well, including two Pocatello police evidence technicians who documented and collected evidence from the crime scene. Four photos were admitted into evidence via the testimony from the first evidence technician. The four photos depicted the bodies of Jennifer and Hunt as well as a trail of blood inside Leigh’s home.

A Pocatello police patrol sergeant testified about securing the scene with crime scene tape and ensuring a log was created to keep track of who was entering and leaving the crime scene.

Pocatello Police Detective Rich Sampson testified about observing the autopsies of Jennifer and Hunt, which were conducted on Oct. 18 at the Ada County Coroner’s Office in Boise. Sampson said that he observed multiple traumatic injuries to Hunt’s person and there were several bullet fragments that were removed from Hunt’s body.

Jennifer had sustained one penetrating gunshot wound to the head, said Sampson, adding that he observed the wound had what he described as a stellate defect. Sampson explained that a stellate defect indicates that a person sustained a contact gunshot wound, meaning the firearm used to shoot Jennifer was placed directly up against or within millimeters of her head when it was fired.

According to court records the Idaho State Journal obtained in January, the forensic pathologist who conducted both autopsies determined Jennifer “sustained a fatal penetrating gunshot wound to the left side of her head,” and Hunt “sustained three fatal penetrating gunshot wounds to his torso — two in the chest and one in the left side of his back.”

The neighbors who lived next door to the Leigh home on Philbin Road, a husband and wife, both testified Tuesday as well. The husband explained that he was lying in bed watching television around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 15 when he heard some loud banging noises. The husband didn’t realize it at first but later learned the banging sounds were Jennifer and Hunt attempting to gain entrance to the Leigh family home.

The husband said the banging sound continued, so he turned on his porch light in an attempt to signal to whomever was making the noise that they had just woken up the neighbors and they should stop. The banging continued, however, so the husband grabbed his phone, dialed 911 and walked outside where he saw Leigh.

As soon as the police dispatcher answered the phone, the husband said he heard Leigh telling his son to not go inside the home as he had just done something bad. Leigh then asked the husband to take custody of his son before fleeing, the husband said. The husband testified that he entered Leigh’s mobile home, checked Hunt for a pulse and found none before telling the 911 dispatcher to send police officers to the home.

The wife who lived next door to the Leigh family home said in testimony that two days after the Oct. 15 shooting she observed a bullet hole in her home and contacted police. A detective arrived and photographed the bullet hole and recovered a bullet from inside the home. Further, the wife testified that the bullet hole was about two feet above where her child sleeps.

The last two witnesses to testify Tuesday were Leigh’s mother and stepfather.

Leigh’s mother said she was awoken shortly after midnight on Oct. 16 to the sound of Leigh entering her home through a back door. She described Leigh as appearing hysterical in that he was crying and shaking uncontrollably. Eventually, Leigh was able to tell his mother that he had just shot Jennifer and Hunt, the mother testified. Leigh’s mother described her son’s relationship with his wife as “rocky,” adding that in the months leading up to the shooting it had become “really bad.”

The stepfather’s testimony did not differ much from his wife’s.

Officers from the Chubbuck Police Department located Leigh at his mother’s home on the 4600 block of Tahoe Place near Cotant Park in Chubbuck around 1:40 a.m. Oct. 16 about two hours after the shooting, police told the Journal in October. Officers found Leigh asleep next to a Girsan Regard MC 9mm pistol, according to court records the Journal obtained in January.

Following his arrest, Leigh was transported to the Pocatello Police Department for an interview, during which his jacket and pants, which contained suspected bloodstains, were collected, court records show.

In addition to facing two felony first-degree murder charges for allegedly shooting Jennifer and Hunt, Leigh has also been charged with a felony for discharging a weapon inside a residence within city limits, according to court records. Herzog told the Journal on Tuesday that prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty against Leigh.

The felony first-degree murder charges are each punishable by a maximum penalty of up to life in prison if Leigh is convicted.

The second day of the preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday and the entire hearing should last until Friday, at which point Axline must determine if prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to bind Leigh’s case over from magistrate to district court in preparation for a possible trial.