Deputies in Madison County responded to a home on Highway 72 East in Carlton on the evening of February 25, 2026, and found 77-year-old Gregory Waco Compton unresponsive in his living room with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Emergency medical services pronounced him dead at the scene.

Seventy-year-old Marion Jackson Compton was at the house when deputies arrived. Investigators say she called 911 and told the dispatcher she had shot her husband; she was taken into custody and has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, elder abuse and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Marion Compton reportedly told officers the couple had been arguing after her husband shot her dog about a week earlier and described him as a narcissist.

She is being held without bond while the Madison County Sheriff’s Office continues its investigation. Does anyone in the Carlton area have information about the Comptons or the events leading up to February 25?