An ex-wife will testify on behalf of her former husband who has been charged in the accidental shooting death of their son.
Christopher Wyatt, 32, is facing a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child under the age of 16. His 12-year-old son Jeramyah Wyatt was fatally wounded Aug. 31, 2020 at the family home at 5445 Singletary Road in Lady Lake.
This past week in Lake County Court, Judge Larry Metz ordered that the case will go to trial in August. Wyatt’s ex-wife, Ivy Sienna Grayford, will be called to testify on her husband’s behalf, according to court documents. The couple divorced about a year after the death of their son.
Wyatt told investigators that he, his wife and their children watched a movie the night of Aug. 30 and they all fell asleep in the master bedroom. The next morning, Wyatt and his wife carried their one-month-old child downstairs, leaving Jeramyah and his 7-year-old and 10-year-old sisters alone in the master bedroom with a loaded Diamondback assault rifle, stored without a case under the bed.
The parents heard a loud bang followed by the 10-year-old screaming. Wyatt ran upstairs and discovered his son had been fatally shot in the head. EMS personnel arrived on the scene and determined Jeramyah had died as a result of the gunshot wound.
The prosecution is planning to introduce as evidence an incident 10 months earlier in which Jeramyah and the other children were home alone and thought they heard a noise. Jeramyah armed himself with his father’s shotgun and went to investigate the noise, according to a motion filed in Lake County Court by the prosecutor’s office. Law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families were called to investigate and Wyatt and the children claimed that Jeramyah did not use the shotgun, but had retrieved a BB gun. The investigation was closed, but Wyatt was counseled on the proper storage of firearms. He signed a form acknowledging that the safe storage of firearms is required by Florida law.
Wyatt remains free on $100,000 bond.
