Mindy McCree Denies Shooting

Mindy McCready denies shooting boyfriend: 'He was my soulmate'

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

The past few years haven't been easy for Mindy McCready; the country singer has dealt with drug addiction and jail, plus a protracted custody battle over her son with Billy McKnight. But Jan. 13, the day her boyfriend David Wilson died of a gunshot wound, was likely her lowest point in recent memory, as she told NBC's Andrea Canning on TODAY Tuesday.

"I have never gone through anything this painful," she said in an interview at her home in Little Rock, Ark. "He didn't just touch my heart, he touched my soul. He was my soulmate."

Wilson, a 34-year-old record producer, was initially rushed to the hospital earlier in January after suffering reportedly self-inflicted gunshot woundthat did not immediately kill him. McCready was with him after the shooting. "I just started screaming, calling 911," she said. "I lay down next to him and just just pleaded with him not to die."

"He was responding," she added, saying he was only making "sounds," not words.

The investigation as to the cause of death remains open, and there are no suspects in the case (including McCready), Cleburne County Sheriff's Department said. Tests that will determine whether it was suicide or murder are due back in a few weeks.

But there remain lingering questions. McCready denied that Wilson, the father of her other son Zane, was having an affair, and explained that the bullet wasn't found until the next day because "it was in the dog's mouth." 

And when asked directly whether she shot Wilson, she was adamant: "Oh, my God, no. He was my life. We were each others' life."