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By
Ben Dutcher
- March 13, 2025
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A jury acquitted George Kuhn, 46, of first-degree murder despite his apparently confessing to the crime on March 13 before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Martin P. Welch.
Kuhn was exonerated of killing his fiancée, Kristy Helmert, 36, on June 12, 2022 but the jury found him guilty of illegal possession of a firearm with a prior felony conviction.
During opening statements, the prosecution presented jurors with an audio recording of Kuhn’s 911 call in which he allegedly says, “I shot my fiancée in the face.”
However, defense attorney Derrick Hamlin argued that Kuhn confessed because he felt responsible for her death in the moment, as he was distraught and drunk.
On the fifth and final day of his trial, Kuhn testified that he was deeply in love with his fiancée and that the pair announced a Halloween wedding in 2022. Kuhn explained a year before her death, he and Helmert had been foraging in West Virginia when she was taken to a hospital for a knife injury to her hands.
After several objections from the prosecution, the court instructed the jury to disregard any testimony that implied the reason for the injury. The defense argued that the incident was significant in establishing Helmert’s mental state implying it was a suicide attempt.
Kuhn said he immediately drove Helmert to two hospitals after the injury so she could receive adequate care.
“When you arrived at the hospital in West Virginia, did you call and say, ‘I cut my fiancée’s wrists?’” asked the prosecutor, emphasizing the difference in Kuhn’s behavior between the two incidents. Hamlin argued that Kuhn was not intoxicated during the first incident.
During closing statements, the prosecutor reviewed police body-worn camera footage of Kuhn’s arrest. Throughout the interview Kuhn is heard to say, “I don’t give a f*ck about what I did,” eight separate times. The prosecution continued to emphasize that Kuhn essentially admitted to the crime after his arrest.
During Hamlin’s closing statement, he argued that the prosecution had taken his client’s words out of context. He said that Kuhn was unfairly treated and manhandled by the arresting officer.
Hamlin also suggested a lack of evidence of first-degree murder and questioned why Kuhn was not instead charged with manslaughter, asking “Where’s the premeditation?”
Following deliberation, the jury acquitted Kuhn of first-degree murder.