Testimony starting in trial for Macon man accused in estranged wife’s slaying

An attorney representing a Macon man charged with the fatal shooting of his estranged wife told jurors Monday that a mechanical malfunction in the man’s car will discredit witness accounts of the killing.

Testimony is set to begin Tuesday in the trial for 45-year-old Jasento L. Flowers Sr. in the 2014 slaying of 38-year-old Bridgette Flowers. He is charged with murder and aggravated assault.

Travis Griffin, Flowers’ attorney, said in his opening statement that his client’s car windows weren’t working on the day of the shooting, meaning that witnesses’ accounts that he rolled down his window and fired shots at them can’t be true.

Prosecutor Jonathan Adams said the Flowerses had been married about 10 years before they separated in January 2014.

Weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, Jasento Flowers knocked Bridgette unconscious at the Gray Highway Wal-Mart, Adams said.

She was driving a friend to a house on east Macon’s Trinity Place from a cookout at her home nearby on Feb. 22, 2014.

Flowers, who was living on Trinity Place, came up from behind the house where Bridgette was dropping off her friend. He walked up to her minivan and asked if something was wrong. Then he pulled out a pistol and shot her in the face, Adams said.

Bridgette’s daughter, who was also in the van along with Bridgette’s sister and another friend, moved to the driver’s seat and drove the van home.

Adams said Flowers fired more shots at the van as it drove away.

Witnesses are set to testify that they saw Flowers drive up to Bridgette’s home on Maynard Street and fire more shots, injuring two people, he said.

Adams characterized Flowers’ attitude as being, “if I can’t have you, then no one else can.”

Griffin said Bridgette’s family has turned his client into a “patsy” in a conspiracy to pin the killing on him.

Their version of the events is “impossible,” he said.

“Jasento Flowers loved his wife,” Griffin said. “He still loves her now.”

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398,

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Testimony starting in trial for Macon man accused in estranged wife’s slaying ."