By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sean Wright, 19, is accused of shooting his 17-year-old sister to death last November. The Enquirer/TONY JONES

A 19-year-old man who shot his younger sister to death last November told police he thought the shotgun wasn't loaded.

Sean Wright's taped statement to Cincinnati police in the early-morning hours of Nov. 16, just hours after 17-year-old Nicole Wright died, was played in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Wednesday during his trial on charges of murder and reckless homicide.

During a confrontation with her brother Nov. 15 at his Northside home, Nicole Wright threatened to commit suicide. Because she had made similar threats before, Wright wanted to give her the shotgun to make the point she didn't really want to do it, said Wright and his attorney, Peter Rosenwald.

First though, Wright emptied seven shells from the 12-gauge shotgun - the number he previously loaded into it, he told police.

"I walked downstairs, I was like, 'Here you go, you wanna kill yourself - here, go outside, I don't want a mess in here,' " Wright said. "She said she's going to eat pills."

As the two talked, the gun dangled from Wright's right hand. When he tried to hand it to her, it fired.

The shotgun had a shell already in the chamber, Wright said. It was the first time, he said, that he had ever fired a gun.

"I shot her on accident," Wright said.

Wright said buying the gun was a mistake.

He bought the shotgun and a box of shells at the beginning of November from "a black guy that was selling it," he told police.

He said he bought it for protection.

"I wish I never got it," he said. "It was a stupid mistake."

E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com