Girl, 9, Grabs Baby Sister After Stepdad Fatally Shot in Face by Mom Collapses and Drops Her: Prosecution

Margaret E. Shafe, 31, was given the maximum possible sentence on Friday of 293 months (more than 24 years) for the February 2024 shooting of her U.S Army husband, Greg Shafe, 35, on the Fort Riley base, after she was found guilty by a federal jury on February 14, 2025.

Greg had been scheduled for deployment to Poland, but he had instead stayed at home to help care for his wife and their young baby, who had been born premature and was still in the NICU at that time, per KCTV.

"Margaret Shafe deserves to go to prison," said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser in a press release from his office. "The evidence in this case showed she murdered her husband while the couple’s two young daughters were in the home."

He went on to praise the "brave testimony" of Margaret's daughter, who was nine at the time of the fatal shooting, for helping to secure the guilty verdict after she "witnessed her mother shoot her stepfather in a fury."

Emphasizing the follow-through on threats she allegedly made just minutes before his death, Margaret's sentencing document began with the following statements she allegedly made that night before killing her husband.

• "I am gonna kill him."
• "I'm going to make him feel my f--king pain, and he just laughs at me."
• "And you know I'm the one that gets the last laugh. And I've been trying -- and I've been trying, and I want him dead!"
• "I f--king hope you f--king die bitch. I hate you. Yeah, you're shaking."
• "I'm f--king done with you."

These quotes were captured in a recording made by Greg amid what would become their final argument and attributed to Margaret at approximately 7:04 p.m. on the night of February 19, 2024. By 7:25, Greg was lying on the ground, "suffering from a gunshot wound to the face." He would die the next day, per the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

In requesting beyond the maximum possible sentence, prosecutors laid out in their filing the defendant's "reckless disregard for thesafety of her two young daughters," her "failure to render aid," as well as an alleged lack of remorse and attempts at "victim blaming and humiliation" amid a "history of physical and emotional abuse" allegedly inflicted by Margaret on Greg. As a result, the prosecution made the unusual request that the court sentence her to 40 years, which did not occur.

Prosecutors detailed the final argument between Margaret and Greg, describing the defendant as "intoxicated" and hurling "threats of violence" at her husband for several minutes before he stepped outside to "disengage from the conflict."

Margaret followed him outside, per the report, and continued to "assert her intent to kill him" before she went back inside and, unbeknownst to the deceased, retrieved his firearm. When he came up the steps to the second floor, holding their 11-month-old child, Margaret was just feet away when she unloaded with a single bullet, which struck him in the face.

Also just feet away, per the memorandum, was Margaret's 9-year-old daughter, brushing her hair in the bathroom. The report details Greg falling into the bathroom, where the girl was, and dropping the baby as he did so.

The young girl reportedly ran into the hallway to retrieve her younger sister and retreated into the bathroom, where she hid, per the documents, and called her father to tell him that her mother had just shot her stepfather. Prosecutors state that she showed her stepfather's body in the video call to her father. It was the girl's father who called 911 and alerted police.

Prosecutors noted that Margaret's actions after this shooting are unknown, but they emphasized that it is clear she did not attempt to render aid to her husband, nor did she check to see if her daughters were injured, nor did she call 911.

According to the files, she ultimately grabbed both girls and put them in the front seat of the vehicle and proceeded to drive with them, while still intoxicated through the gate of Fort Riley. She was arrested a few hours later, per Local 12 News, when she attempted to reenter the base and was stopped by security.

The documentation goes on to assert a history of physical and verbal abuse from Margaret toward her husband, while also acknowledging his alleged infidelity in the past. In the hours leading up to his death, prosecutors allege that Margaret was drinking at home with her 11-month-old.

Greg, too, was home as he was off for the President's Day holiday, until about 3 p.m. when he drove into Junction City, Kansas. While he was there, Margaret reportedly texted him and "instigated an argument over his past infidelity," per the prosecution, calling him selfish and saying "the only thing he brings to the table is money."

He ultimately replied to her, per the documentation, "My head says you should file; my heart says you shouldn't."

After he returned home, there was a six-minute Facetime call with the defendant's mother at 7:04 p.m. where she allegedly threatened to kill her husband and expressed hopes that he would die multiple times, per the court filing. They note that at no time did he raise his voice or meet her anger with his own during this, but he did purportedly record it.

That recording ended At 7:11 p.m., per Stars and Stripes, citing an arrest affidavit, when a co-worker came to the house to borrow a helmet. As Greg went outside to talk with the other soldier, his wife allegedly followed and continued berating him and threatening his life, per a statement from that soldier, before going back inside and ultimately retrieving the gun she would allegedly shoot him with when he came upstairs with their baby.

"Within minutes of the co-worker leaving the residence, the victim is shot," the affidavit reports.

When she arrived at the front gate with her daughters in the front seat, prosecutors stated that at no time did she alert anyone that her husband had been shot. And later, when being interviewed by law enforcement, she never even asked if he was still alive.

Instead, per the prosecution, she used that opportunity to try and paint her husband "as a porn addict and implied that he had a sexual interest in children," which she carried into the trial and tried to use as justification for his murder, expressing concern for her older daughter. The jury, however, rejected this.

In detention, per the filing, Margaret allegedly bragged about shooting and killing Greg "because he cheated on me," telling one cooperating witness that she would do it again. She further allegedly talked about refusing to sign his body over for his family to bury him until her mother got her car.

The documentation asserted that she "went so far as to throw a 'f--k you' party on his birthday, "making confetti from paper scraps the jail, reinforcing that she did intend on having the last laugh." All of this, the prosecution argued, shows a complete lack of remorse for her actions.

As for support behind their claims that his death was the culmination of years of physical and emotional abuse, the prosecution alleged that Margaret herself admitted to becoming physically violent with Greg when she was drinking.

His family testified that she was verbally abusive to him from the very beginning of their relationship, with her shouting and Greg "rarely raising his voice." Text messages, the document asserts, corroborate these statements, demonstrating what they described as a "pattern of emotional abuse and manipulation."

They stated that she constantly belittled her husband, and threatened to leave him with their baby, with Greg often acquiescing to her demands.