Posted on 12/09/2015 1:10:03 PM PST by CedarDave
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - He wouldn't stop hitting her.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. He jabbed her forehead with his meaty hand, she said, his fingers like sledgehammers, her head snapping back and forth so violently she thought she would pass out.
Or worse. "It hurt," Marlina James said. "It just hurt so bad. I just wanted it to stop. I kept asking him to stop. 'Please stop,' I kept saying. 'Leave me alone,' I said. Honest to God, I couldn't take it anymore. He just kept hitting me and hitting me."
James, 36, tells her story in the office of her lawyer, Nicole Moss. Her head is buried in her tear-stained hands as she speaks. She cannot look at me. She cannot stop talking about what happened that June 23, 2013, morning at her home off East Central. It's as if she were pleading again for the pain to stop.
On that June morning while she was still in bed, John Lumpkins raged at her kids over a conversation about a dog. She told him to leave her children alone.
"He was standing over me, hitting me, yelling at me, the sweat and the spit hitting my face," she said. "His eyes were so red. I was scared. There was nowhere for me to go."
All she could think about, she said, was protecting her children, who were either cowering in the bedroom or in other rooms nearby.
"I just knew I was gone," she said. "I was done."
But she wasn't done. She reached under her pillow for a loaded handgun, which she had purchased for protection a year before.
She closed her eyes and fired.
Lumpkins died of a gunshot wound to the heart, according to an autopsy report.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
The lady is a member of a minority and has been subjected to domestic violence both growing up and in previous relationships. Her attacker was Black. Women in the under class for whatever reason have not learned to avoid such circumstances. I suspect not having a stable family life in childhood and having rotating boyfriends in her adult life is the primary reason. Part of me blames the victim for her situation. And the other part, the liberal culture. This is a consequence of the "War on Poverty" and the welfare state that rewards single-parent women with more money for bearing children. It's a repeating set of circumstances that won't be solved by just throwing more money at those in this situation.
Soundds like she had a crappy lawyer who didn’t bother to defend her adequately. And at least her lawyer should have gotten her a jury trial.
“James said she is remorseful for killing Lumpkins. At times, she said, she still misses him”
““James said she is remorseful for killing Lumpkins. At times, she said, she still misses him—
Her lawyer is a buffoon for allowing her to say this. He should do 2 years for abject stupidity : )
She closed her eyes and fired.
Lumpkins died of a gunshot wound to the heart, according to an autopsy report.
Bad Woman! Bad! She should have called 911. She should have gotten a restraining order. She should have realized Climate Change was at fault.
/lib stupidity.
From the looks of her, it was one of those cases where, if you can’t afford a lawyer, the court will get you one. I’ve seen enough of these bottom feeders to know they couldn’t represent a bar of soap in a Castro street bath house.
Sounds like a valid charge for someone who pulls the trigger with their eyes closed. "She closed her eyes and fired. "
“Wife” in title is wrong - it’s her boyfriend. That’s part of the problem.
Indeed. Crappy lawyer, Crappy DA to have brought charges. Was foolish to have a bench trial.
Barring further evidence than what we are told in the article; If I had been on a jury, I’d have defied even a directed verdict from the judge and found her not guilty.
I hope the Judge finds himself in similar circumstances some day and learns what a ‘reasonable person’ might do when being beaten possibly to death.
So a reasonable person would have just laid there and allowed herself to be beaten to a pulp? Judged is whacked.
Dave; are you going to do a NM ping on this, or do you want me to do it?
The article says she was abused as a child. Sadly, these women often tend to pick abusers as boyfriends or husbands over and over again as adults.
she needs money for better lawyer to appeal. that her lawyer didn’t introduce evidence in her favor and not having a jury trial a big mistake.
Why the hell did she agree to a bench trial?
This case stinks (as related here), and I bet at least one or two on the jury would have had none of it.
I’m surprised the judge went for it, and it makes me wonder if there’s a lot more going on than is being reported here.
A judge can't direct a verdict for the prosecution in a criminal jury trial.
State District Judge Benjamin Chavez. The name of the judge.
They get paid whether the client goes to prison or not.
It really makes me wonder why there were no photographs of her beat up. That alone might have been enough to sway the case--and yep, jury trial, for sure.
What's up with that?
No doubt that the judge wouldn’t have a court appointed attorney and his attorney would have opted for a jury trial.
The prosecution presented “no witnesses”? Seriously? All trial evidence is admitted through witnesses.
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