A woman is expected in court Friday (June 15) after investigators say she shot and killed a man Wednesday in Chippewa County.

Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk says his deputies arrested 49-year-old Julie Birtzer. Birtzer is being held in the Chippewa County Jail for the death of 51-year-old Ralph Hakes. The jail captain says she was booked on 1st degree homicide charges.

Detectives say Hakes was found dead in the master bedroom of the home they shared. Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk says Birtzer shot Hakes once in the chest with a shotgun.

Kowalczyk says Birtzer told detectives the couple started having problems on Tuesday. He says the situation got worse the next day. The sheriff says Birtzer shot Hakes, and then called her son before calling 911. Deputies then took her to the Sheriff's Department. Kowalczyk says Birtzer gave a statement to investigators about what happened in the house and that's when the situation changed.

"Once the investigators had gained information as to Julie’s involvement, that's what turned the interview from an interview into an interrogation," Kowalczyk says.

Autopsy results from the Ramsey County Medical Center in Minn. confirm Hakes died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

“The single shot was the only shot fired by Miss Birtzer. She's familiar with guns. The Sheriff's Department seized only one weapon at this point in our investigation,” Kowalczyk says.

Kowalczyk says the county has been out to the home where the shooting happened many times for a number of reasons, including accidents and thefts. Department records show officers had more than a dozen contacts with Birtzer and more than 100 with Hakes, who had been arrested several times.

The county is also sending evidence to the State Crime Lab in Madison.