By Sonia Smith
The Advocate

LIVINGSTON, La. — Livingston Parish sheriff's deputies arrested a 22-year-old emergency medical technician Sunday afternoon in the killing of his wife.

Deputies booked Couty Alexander, 18059 Watts Road, Livingston, into Livingston Parish Jail on a count of second-degree murder after he confessed to shooting his wife, 24-year-old Christa Ann Alexander, said Jason Ard, chief of operations for the Sheriff's Office.

Alexander told detectives during questioning Sunday afternoon that he shot his wife with a 9 mm handgun in the back of the head while she was trying to gather clothing from her closet, Ard said.

Deputies have recovered the weapon, Ard said.

Alexander called 911 at 5:51 a.m. Sunday, telling emergency dispatchers that he returned home from work to find his wife dead, Ard said.

An EMT with Acadian Ambulance, Alexander had finished a 12-hour shift at 5 a.m. Sunday, said R. Porter Taylor, operations manager for Acadian Ambulance.

He had recently completed paramedic school, Taylor added.

Ard said that Christa Alexander was shot and killed before her husband went to work.

Mavis Rabalais, 69, the Alexanders' next-door neighbor and landlord, described the couple as quiet newlyweds who married in March and were active members of the Fundamental Baptist Church on La. 63.

"This is a bad day," Rabalais said.

Couty Alexander has 13 siblings, Rabalais said, and grew up nearby, on Palmer Road.

The Alexanders lived in the unincorporated community of Colyell north of French Settlement. Couty Alexander had worked as a missionary in the United States and abroad.

Rabalais described Christa Alexander as a sweet, kind, helpful woman who rarely went into the yard outside her tan brick house without her husband.

The couple was expecting their first child in December, Rabalais said.

"It's just unbelievable that somebody would want to harm her," Rabalais said. "You just don't expect something like this out here."

Rabalais added that she last saw the couple Saturday afternoon when Couty Alexander was collecting the bodies of the turtles he had shot the previous weekend in his backyard pond.

Alexander is being held without bond, Ard said. The investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible.

An autopsy will be performed today, Ard said.