After Greg Shields ripped the covers off the bed where his elderly uncle, Samuel Murrell, had been sleeping, yelled at him and cut him multiple times with a knife sometime after midnight Feb. 1, Murrell’s wife was worried what Shields might do next, she said in court Friday morning.

“I did tell Greg I’m going to call 911 and he said, ‘If you do, I’ll slit his throat,’ ” Maude Murrell testified during a preliminary hearing for Shields in Warren District Court. “I didn’t want to see that. … I was afraid (Shields) would have done it.”

Shields, 57, is charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death of 87-year-old Samuel Murrell. 

Shields lived with the Murrells at 1313 S. Lee Drive, helping them with errands and driving them to doctors’ appointments and other places. He is now in Warren County Regional Jail under a $1 million cash bond.

Warren District Judge Sam Potter sent the case against Shields to a grand jury after hearing testimony from Murrell and Detective Melissa Wartak of the Bowling Green Police Department.

Wartak pushed the wheelchair carrying Murrell to the witness stand when Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron called Murrell to testify.

Under questioning from Cohron, Murrell said that she and her husband had been in bed for a few hours when Shields ripped off the covers and talked about how his car, which he had bought from his uncle, had broken down.

“He was mad and it was looking like he was taking it out on Sam,” Murrell said.

Wartak said Shields told police he had walked home on the night of the slaying from the area of Double Springs and Beech Bend roads, where Shields reported the car had stopped.

Shields yelled and swore at his uncle, Maude Murrell said, then left the bedroom and came back holding multiple knives.

After he returned from the bedroom, Shields cut his uncle on the arm, wrist and chest, Maude Murrell said.

Later that night, Maude Murrell said she left the bedroom and went to the garage to smoke a cigarette and was joined soon afterward by Shields.

After smoking, Murrell said she came through the kitchen and heard her husband call out her name from the bedroom.

“I went in there to see what he wanted and he couldn’t say anything,” Murrell said.

Shields tried to get Samuel Murrell out of bed and help him to his walker, but Murrell fell twice, hitting his head the first time on a nearby dresser, Maude Murrell said. 

Shields attempted to bandage his uncle’s wounds and checked his pulse twice, telling Maude Murrell at first that he had a strong pulse, only for it to weaken the second time he checked, Maude Murrell testified.

Maude Murrell said that Shields had called 911 and told her to tell police that an intruder had come into the house, attacked Samuel Murrell and fled the residence.

Wartak testified that the story about an unknown assailant attacking Samuel Murrell seemed unlikely because the back door to the residence was secure and showed no signs that anyone had gone through there.

Shields would not answer Wartak’s questions, and he had spoken with another officer earlier before saying he was confused by the officer’s questions and cutting off the interview, Wartak testified.

Preliminary findings of a postmortem exam indicated that several factors contributed to Murrell’s death, including old age, knife wounds, a broken hyoid bone in the neck and fractured vertebrae in his neck, Wartak said.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.