SUNBURY -- It was Richard C. Curran's strange behavior just hours after allegedly shooting to death his former wife that tipped off a Canadian border patrol officer that something was amiss.

Border patrol officer Tamara Holmes said Curran was acting strangely the evening of Aug. 24, 2005, when he attempted to cross the Canadian border at Niagara Falls, N.Y.

"He wasn't making eye contact with me," Holmes said from the witness stand during the second day of testimony at Curran's homicide trial.

Curran, 34, of Shamokin, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the Aug. 24, 2005, fatal shooting of Tina Curran, 31, of Mount Carmel, who died after being shot seven times in the parking lot at Shamokin Community Hospital, where she worked as a nurse. Curran was captured while attempting to cross into Canada.

When Curran attempted to cross the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls, Holmes asked him a series of questions regarding his citizenship, residency, identification and destination.

When prompted, Curran told Holmes he was a police officer.

"He was looking straight ahead and when he'd answer he'd turn his head slowly to the left," Holmes remembered. "I've dealt with police officers before and I've never had a police officer stare straight ahead."

Curran told Holmes that he had one handgun under the driver's seat of his Ford Focus, but customs officials found much more.

Inside Curran's car were two handguns, a bayonet and 785 rounds of ammunition.

Also seized from Curran's car were a bulletproof vest, pepper spray, a gun holster, two empty duffle bags and $2,626 in cash.

Curran's defense attorney, Karl Rominger, of Carlisle, asked retired Coal Township Police Chief Richard Higgins if it was unusual for a police officer such as Curran, who was employed as a police officer in Bernville, Berks County, at the time of the shooting, to have such items in his personal vehicle.

"I would never condone the concept of carrying this amount of ammunition or a weapon in a car. Never," Higgins said. "And I've been in law enforcement 34 years."

In comparing the volume of ammunition to that used in sport shooting, Rominger said: "Large amounts of ammunition are not unusual per se."

"I think in police work you have to be extra careful," Higgins said.

"I'm not saying he's the world's best police officer," Rominger responded.