Brett Seacat Trial: Ex-Kansas cop charged in wife's murder testifies in own defense

(CBS) KINGMAN COUNTY, Kan. - Brett Seacat, a former police officer accused of killing his wife and setting their Kansas home on fire in April 2011, testified Thursday in his murder trial, CBS affiliate KWCH reports.

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Seacat told the jury his wife seemed "upset" when the couple spoke about divorce and that they had been "back and forth" about the split during the last week she was alive, the station reports.

"She hadn't really seemed like she had made up her mind about it," he said.

The prosecution argues that the 37-year-old Seacat killed his 34-year-old wife, Vashti, because she was going to divorce him and that he intentionally set the house on fire to cover his tracks.

Brett Seacat is accused of shooting his wife in the head and then starting two fires in different locations of their Kingman, Kan. home on April 30, 2011. He is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson.

The defense argues that Vashti Seacat intentionally set the house on fire and committed suicide.

Brett Seacat and the couple's two sons were at home the night of the fire. They were able to escape the blaze unharmed.

During Seacat's testimony Thursday, defense attorneys questioned him about a projector found in his Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center office, according to the station. Prosecutors argue Seacat used the technology to force Vashti's suicide letter which was found in her journal.

Brett Seacat testified he asked a secretary for the projector April 29, 2011, a day before Vashti's death.

"What I needed was to examine something, an actual exercise I had done as part of financial crimes," he told the jury. "I was showing how a false social security card was made."

He also spoke about cell phones and burnt hard drives investigators found in the trash at his place of work. Seacat testified that he threw away his old cell phones and torched hard drives from his laptops in order to protect his personal information. He told jurors he wasn't trying to hide anything and he was going to put new hard drives in the laptops to sell.

"I thought I had a divorce coming up and I needed some money," he said, according to the station.

Seacat's testimony continues Friday.

Complete coverage of Brett Seacat's trial on Crimesider