Police officer found guilty on three charges

CLAYTON, Mo. - A St. Louis County police officer was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree assault against another officer he was dating and of possession of cocaine and marijuana.

Prosecutors argued Thomas Zeigler, 31, shot his girlfriend Patricia March early on the morning March 3, 2003. Both were police officers for St. Louis County.

Prosecutors said March, 31, was shot while sitting in Zeigler's car parked outside his St. Louis County apartment. Investigators said Zeigler fired one shot that struck March in the face.

March survived and has had multiple operations to remove bullet fragments, rebuild her bones and to replace one of her eyes with a glass one. She remains out on disability.

On the day of the shooting, Zeigler gave two detectives several different accounts of what happened, including some accounts that he fired a shot. Zeigler testified at the trial that he told detectives what they wanted to hear because one told him he wouldn't see his children again.

He testified that he didn't shoot March but didn't see her shoot herself either.

March testified last week that Zeigler shot her. She said they got into a quarrel after she told him she was breaking up with him.