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Arthur "Art" Gonzales, an FBI supervisory special agent, called 911 on the afternoon of April 19, 2013, to report that he had shot his estranged wife inside their home in rural Stafford County, Virginia. Julie Serna Gonzales, 42, was struck four times in the chest and died at the scene.

The call did not reach Stafford dispatchers at first. According to trial testimony reported by The Free Lance-Star, it rang instead in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where the couple had lived and kept an internet-based phone line before moving east. Gonzales got through to a Stafford dispatcher, Tammy Embrey, and said, "My wife just attacked me with a knife and I had to shoot her."

Gonzales, also 42, was an 18-year bureau veteran and an ethics instructor at the FBI National Academy at Quantico. He and Julie had married in 1995 and moved to Virginia for his teaching post. Prosecutors said the marriage had collapsed and that Gonzales was involved with a civilian employee at the academy.

Gonzales told investigators that Julie grabbed an 11 1/2 inch serrated carving knife from a kitchen counter and slashed his left forearm three times before he drew his bureau-issued .40-caliber pistol and fired, according to court coverage. Prosecutors countered that he had staged the scene and killed her to eliminate a threat to his career and his relationship. Paramedics reported finding a knife in her hand.

A Stafford County grand jury indicted Gonzales weeks later on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was released on a $25,000 bond and was later dismissed by the FBI, which cited a lack of candor during the investigation.

The case went to trial three times. The first ended in a mistrial in 2014 after jurors deadlocked, reportedly voting 10 to 2 for acquittal. A second jury in early 2015 found Gonzales not guilty of murder but could not agree on a reduced manslaughter charge.

Prosecutors tried him a third time in July 2015. Gonzales waived his right to a jury, and Stafford Circuit Court Judge Sarah Deneke, who had presided over the two earlier trials, found him not guilty of voluntary manslaughter. She said the evidence gave her no choice, and Gonzales left the courthouse a free man.