Man charged with shooting girlfriend on I-10
At first, he told investigators a robber shot his girlfriend seven times on the side of Interstate 10.
But now Huy N. Ha, 22, the boyfriend of 28-year-old victim Kayla Pham, is in jail on a charge of attempted murder, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff ’s Office.
Pham was in critical condition Tuesday night at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
Investigators with the Sheriff ’s Office say Ha eventually admitted that he was the one who shot her.
But his confession apparently came after a bogus account of a violent robbery.
Deputies with the Okaloosa County Sheriff ’s Office responded to a Mobil service station off I-10 in Crestview at about 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve and found Pham suffering from at least seven gunshot wounds.
She was flown to Sacred Heart while Ha was questioned.
Ha said they were on their way home to Orlando from Pham’s family’s home in New Orleans when Pham asked him to pull over so she could get out of the car briefly. By Ha’s account of nearby landmarks, investigators figured the scene was near the interstate’s 42-mile marker in Santa Rosa County.
When Pham got out, Ha said another car pulled up behind them and an unknown man approached her.
Ha said he heard gunshots and Pham scream for help. He said he got out of the car and found her lying in the grass, shot. He put her back in the car, drove to the Mobil station and ran inside to get a clerk to call an ambulance.
Lawmen with the Florida Highway Patrol and the Sheriff ’s Office checked the grass at the scene, but found no evidence of a shooting.
Ha then confessed that he shot Pham with a large-caliber handgun inside the vehicle after an argument, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Ha has also been charged with aggravated battery. He was being held at the Santa Rosa County Jail Tuesday night with no bond.