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MIDDLETOWN — Three minutes after Charles Frost allegedly killed Debbie Dockery in his Helton Drive home Friday night, the Middletown man dialed 911 and calmly told a police dispatcher that he'd shot the 47-year-old woman "right in the face" after she tried to "cut (his) guts out" with a knife.

"You did what?" the dispatcher said on a 911 recording released by Middletown police Monday.

"Killed her," Frost said of Dockery.

"You killed her?" the dispatcher repeated, struggling to understand Frost's heavy Southern drawl.

"You ain't kidding," Frost said.

"What do you mean you killed her?" the dispatcher said.

"Well, she's dead," Frost said.

Frost, 59, told the dispatcher he had shot Dockery "right in the face" with "a .38 Special."

When the dispatcher asked what made him kill her, Frost replied, "She had a knife on me, ready to cut my guts out. ... She's still laying here on the floor with it in her hand."

Once during the three-minute exchange, the dispatcher asked Frost if he'd been drinking. He replied, "I was a bit earlier."

Frost stayed on the line with the dispatcher until police arrived and arrested him. He was charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and was arraigned Monday in Middletown Municipal Court.

Judge Mark Wall set Frost's bond at $1 million. He faces a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and up to $1,500 in fines, if convicted.

Frost, who remains housed at the Middletown City Jail, is scheduled to appear again before Wall at 9 a.m. Wednesday to confirm that he will have legal representation. Frost said during his arraignment that he plans to hire local attorney Kevin Kash to represent him. However, Frost acknowledged that he had not yet contacted Kash.

Kash was out of town and could not be reached for comment, according to his secretary.

As Frost left the courtroom, a man, who identified himself as Frost's son, stood and asked how he could help.

The man, who did not give his name, declined to comment outside the courtroom after the arraignment.

Police responded to Frost's home at 4205 Helton Drive at 11:18 p.m. Friday after his call, and recovered a .38-caliber revolver from the kitchen, said Lt. Don Owens.

Owens declined to release where in the home the shooting took place or at what time.

In his call to 911, Frost said he had shot Dockery "three or four" minutes before calling police.

He asked the dispatcher to "send the cops out here" and said the gun he used to shoot Dockery was laying on a table.

He answered nearly all the questions posed by the dispatcher, saying no one else was at the house at the time of the shooting and Dockery had a knife.

When the dispatcher asked if Frost had been cut during the apparent disturbance, he did not answer. Instead, he told the dispatcher that the deceased woman still held the weapon in her lifeless hand.

Frost walked outside his home, phone still in hand, to meet officers.

Frost has been involved in two domestic-dispute incidents with Dockery, once in 2004 and once in 2006, according to court records. Neighbors described their relationship as "on again, off again," and were surprised Dockery was at Frost's home the night of her death.

In 2004, he was found guilty of domestic violence and given one year probation. He was also ordered to attend a domestic violence program, court records show.

In June 2006, domestic violence charges again Frost were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled, according to court records.

Frost also was found guilty of open burning in 2001 and attempted assault in 2003, according to police records.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or mengle@coxohio.com.