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Closing arguments complete in Lincoln murder trial

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The jury trying Linda Morris for the 2010 murder of her boyfriend, Shawn Monroe, has heard all of the evidence and closing arguments from both sides, and will begin their deliberations this morning.

Circuit Judge Julian King will read his charge as to the law starting at 8:30 a.m., and the jury will start discussing the case after that.

They will be dealing with two very different versions of events. What both sides agree on is that there was some sort of altercation early on the morning of May 29, 2010, that ended with Morris stabbing Monroe with a knife in the back and three times on the chin. The fatal blow was a 2-inch deep wound around his right forearm that severed his radial artery. He died the same day from a massive blood loss.

Monroe was living in a rented room in a house at 500 2nd Ave. North in Lincoln with Annie “Mama Bell” Thornton, her son Sidney Thornton and Willie “Shorty” Jenkins, who helped with various household tasks.

According to the state’s witnesses, the couple got into a heated, but verbal argument over $20 that Morris said Monroe had taken from her, and that Morris had made threats.

Donquarius Barr, a family friend, spent several hours with Monroe shortly before he died, and testified that the victim had told him several times that he was afraid to go home and feared for his life. Barr also testified that while they were walking down the street about 3 a.m. they had spotted Morris standing under a streetlight.

Barr eventually left the 2nd Avenue house around 4:30 a.m., after going to a convenience store and spending some time in Monroe’s room.

The 911 call, made by Jenkins, came in at 5:13 a.m.

Other members of the household and witnesses for the state offered similar testimony, although with some variation regarding the time line and who exactly had been present.

Taking the stand on her own behalf, Morris testified that she had gone to the hospital that morning and had a chemotherapy pump installed in her chest to fight a recently diagnosed cancer.

According to her version of events, she returned to the house around midnight to find that Monroe was not there. She said she laid down on the daybed in Morris’ room and fell asleep for some time. She said she did not know exactly what time she woke up, but she realized it was late and left to go home. As she was leaving the house, she said she saw Monroe coming up the road, and he gave her $10. He said he needed to talk to her, but when she kept walking and said she was going home, she claimed he jumped her, threw her to the ground, then dragged her into the house, slammed her down on the daybed and began slapping, punching and choking her.

She testified that she managed to get out from under him, at which point he ran into the adjacent kitchen. Monroe’s room is the front room of the house, but Morris said the front door is always kept locked with a key, so the kitchen door was her only means of escape. She said the light was out in the kitchen, so she said she began swinging the knife to prevent Monroe from lunging at her. She said she knew she connected once with his back (as a result of the two of them lunging at the same time), but was unaware of the wounds to his chin. One of these wounds was caused by enough force that it penetrated the jawbone and caused the dislocation of his jaw. When she cut his arm, she said he screamed and woke up Annie Thornton, who turned on the lights and told Morris to leave. She went home, put the knife on her kitchen counter and went outside to wait for the ambulance. She did not call 911 because she thought the Thorntons would take care of that.

The state, represented by District Attorney Steve Giddens and Assistant District Attorney Christina Kilgore, argued that Morris’ statement given the day of the stabbing made no mention of going to sleep on the daybed, and that in fact she had been waiting outside, with the knife, for Monroe to be alone so she could confront him about the stolen money. Once Barr left, she let herself into the house and attacked Monroe in his room, with the fight spilling over into the kitchen.

In this scenario, a key piece of evidence is that both of Monroe’s two pairs of shoes were placed neatly underneath the bed, and when police and paramedics arrived he was outside in the driveway in his stocking feet. Morris testified Monroe had shoes on when she met him coming up the street, and that he did not stop to take them off (that she was aware of) while he was assaulting her in the front room. Giddens also pointed out that photos taken of Morris immediately after the incident show no marks around her neck. Morris said he had actually only choked her using two fingers of one hand.

She said all of the state’s witnesses were lying because they tended to favor Monroe over her.

Monroe’s toxicology reports found alcohol, cocaine and Valium in his system at the time of his death. A toxicology expert said based on the levels, he had stopped drinking some time before he died, and that the cocaine was ingested fairly recently.

Defense attorneys Jon Adams and Trina Hammonds argued that the combination of alcohol and cocaine made Monroe violent and unpredictable.

Giddens pointed out that the defense had taken testimony from Morris’ adult daughter, who had confronted Monroe earlier in the evening and even shoved him, but that he did not react.

The defense’s primary argument is that Morris was acting in self-defense, but failing that, they also asked the jury to consider manslaughter provoked by a sudden heat of passion or reckless manslaughter.

Murder in Alabama is punishable upon conviction by 10 to 99 years or life in prison. Manslaughter carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison.

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Keywords: Lincoln, Alabama, Linda Morris, murder, closing arguments,

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