RULINGS COULD AID PROSECUTION IN MURDER CASE.Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer Prosecutors won a series of evidentiary ev·i·den·tia·ry adj. Law 1. Of evidence; evidential. 2. For the presentation or determination of evidence: an evidentiary hearing. Adj. 1. rulings Tuesday expected to strengthen their murder case against a man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend in Saugus last year in retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and for sending him to jail. Judge Judith Ashmann decided that North Valley Superior Court jurors may hear testimony from friends and family of Laurel Prejean about how the woman feared that Mark Bowersock would kill her. Bowersock is accused of gunning her down on Feb. 3, 1995. The judge also ruled that jurors, during the trial expected to start next month, may hear about the stormy storm·y adj. storm·i·er, storm·i·est 1. Subject to, characterized by, or affected by storms; tempestuous. 2. relationships Bowersock had with Prejean, 36, and a former girlfriend. Bowersock, 40, of Woodland Hills is accused of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery in the shooting death of Prejean at her sister's Seco Canyon home. He also faces the death penalty if convicted of killing Prejean in retaliation for her testimony against him just a few weeks before she was killed. Prejean testified Bowersock had beaten her. The testimony landed him in county jail after a judge found he had violated his probation in another case, in which he had been convicted of beating a prior girlfriend. Deputy District Attorney Susan Chasworth said the rulings will go a long way toward helping the jury understand why prosecutors believe Prejean was killed for testifying against her former boyfriend. ``He had threatened her. She had expressed fear . . . to just about every person that knew her. That is consistent with the fact she was hiding out from him,'' Chasworth said. Bowersock's attorney, Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Charles Klum, said he was not perturbed per·turb tr.v. per·turbed, per·turb·ing, per·turbs 1. To disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious. 2. To throw into great confusion. 3. by the rulings, although he characterized it as ``character evidence'' not usually heard by jurors. ``The evidence is pretty overwhelming that he was the one inside that house, but we do not think he went there with the intent to shoot her,'' Klum said. ``It wasn't like he just walked in and shot her. It is unclear who first had possession of the gun. There is evidence there was a struggle.'' Klum has said the defense strategy will concede Bowersock shot Prejean but without premeditation premeditation n. planning, plotting or deliberating before doing something. Premeditation is an element in first degree murder and shows intent to commit that crime. (See: malice aforethought, murder, first degree murder) PREMEDITATION. . He said Tuesday he would be seeking perhaps some type of lesser manslaughter manslaughter, homicide committed without justification or excuse but distinguished from murder by the absence of the element of malice aforethought. Modern criminal statutes usually divide it into degrees, the most common distinction being between voluntary and conviction. |
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