Weeping murder defendant testifies at trial

ELLSWORTH – A murder defendant told a jury Thursday she did not intend to harm or kill live-in boyfriend Robert Leighton when she shot him six times last summer in their mobile home.

Malia Lowry, 46, wept as she recalled the incident while she testified in her own defense in Hancock County Superior Court. She told jurors the gun went off by accident when Leighton, 26, was shot last July in the bedroom of their mobile home on Route 182, one mile west of the Cherryfield line.

“He moved or jerked or something and I pulled the trigger,” Lowry said. She said she did not intend to pull the trigger. “It kept firing,” she added. “I didn’t know what was happening.”

Lowry’s testimony came on the fourth day of her murder trial. She is accused of shooting Leighton six times with a .38-caliber gun loaded with hollow-point bullets during the early morning hours of July 6, 2000. Lowry said Leighton had her hold the loaded gun to his back as they lay in bed.

According to prosecutors, Lowry shot Leighton in jealousy after she discovered he was interested in another woman. Defense attorneys say Lowry shot Leighton in terror after he came to dominate her and forced her at gunpoint to participate in his sexual fantasies.

Lowry said Leighton had subjected her to violent sexual attacks in the days leading up to his death at the mobile home they shared in Township 10. She said he told her about his fantasies of killing people and that he wept while repeatedly watching a scene from the violent Oliver Stone film “Natural Born Killers.”

Lowry said Leighton had also threatened to harm her son and to mutilate her. She said he was fascinated with vampires and that he liked to drink blood.

“He said there were demons all around him,” Lowry said. “He scared me so bad.”

Lowry testified for 31/2 hours Thursday as lawyers on each side of the case questioned her about the events surrounding the night of Leighton’s death. Approximately 20 of Leighton’s relatives and friends were in court while Lowry and others spoke.

Dr. John Lorenz, a defense witness, testified that Lowry may have shot Leighton because she felt she had no choice. He said Lowry may have pulled the trigger on the gun reflexively instead of intentionally because of the confusing, controlling and threatening atmosphere that Leighton is alleged to have created.

“Her ability to control what she was doing was remarkably diminished,” Lorenz said.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson argued that even if Lowry was suffering from some sort of mental disorder, she made a conscious choice to shoot Leighton.

“You brought the gun into the bedroom, you loaded it and you held it at his back,” Benson said. Lowry agreed.

Under cross-examination by Benson, Lorenz said that Lowry’s state of mind would not prevent her from engaging in goal-oriented behavior. She would have known that guns were dangerous and that holding a gun in Leighton’s back could harm him, he said.

Lowry’s decision to not shoot herself, even though the couple had talked about a possible suicide pact, exhibits an ability to restrict the effect of Leighton’s delusional behavior on her, Lorenz said. He added that the test he administered to Lowry indicated that she likes to put herself in a favorable light and that she is afraid of rejection.

Lorenz insisted, however, that Lowry was especially suggestible to Leighton’s behavior and frame of mind.

According to Lowry, things went well between her and Leighton when they started dating in 1995 but his behavior changed over time. She said Leighton started cutting himself if she refused to participate in his sexual fantasies. She said he physically inspected her to see if she may have had sex with anyone else while he was at work.

She added Leighton encouraged her to rapidly shoot her gun while they shot at targets behind their home. He kept track of the mileage on her car and demanded she follow a list of chores every day, she added. Others have testified that Leighton replaced windows in the mobile home with plywood so that the inside of the house was always dark.

Closing arguments are expected today.