By Myra Thrift

Waycross Journal-Herald

Staff Writer

WAYCROSS — Testifying to lavish spending, family discord and vicious threats on the part of their mother, Betty Jacobs, who eventually killed their father, Dr. Davis Jacobs, with a bullet to the chest, two of the couple’s sons, Davis Jacobs Jr. and Scott Jacobs, said that the fatal shooting should have come as a surprise to no one.

Both men testified Tuesday about their parents’ battles — instigated by their mother — as they were growing up and after they reached adulthood.

Betty Jacobs is on trial for the Aug. 23, 2007 shooting death of her former husband, Dr. Davis Jacobs, at his Lister Street eye clinic office.

She is charged with malice murder, felony murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The trial entered its third day this morning.

Both of the sons testified Tuesday about a childhood visit to the Jacobs farm in Brantley County where their father was staying. They said their mother put them in the car, a gray Mercury Cougar, and drove out Central Avenue to the farm where they found a steel gate that was locked.

Both said she backed up, got a running start and slammed through the gate, then rammed the car into the mobile home.

“She stepped out of the car with a gun,” said Davis Jacobs Jr. “Dad went back inside and slammed the door. Mama laughed, thought it funny that she scared him and made him run.”

The sons also testified that their mother constantly accused their father of dalliances with “other women” and that he admitted to having one affair.

“She accused him of nurses at the hospital, of people at stores, but he would deny it. If someone smiled at him, she accused him,” Jacobs Jr. said.

“Was that the dominant theme of the arguments?” District Attorney Rick Currie asked.