Jury Acquits Battered Woman She Admitted Shooting Ex-Husband Eight Times With An Air Rifle, Blinding Him In One Eye

Sending Susan Candace Smith to prison for shooting her abusive former husband with a BB gun would have “compounded a tragedy,” her lawyer said.

A Spokane County jury agreed, refusing to convict the battered woman of assault Friday.

“It was terribly sad, all the way around,” one member of the jury said afterward. “Nobody wins.”

Smith admitted shooting Paul Helme eight times with her son’s air rifle before dawn on Nov. 19, 1993. She faced up to 11 years in prison for first-degree assault.

Four of the shots ripped into Helme’s head, permanently blinding him in one eye.

Smith said she fired in self-defense because the drunken Helme was combative and threatening to kill her.

Authorities claimed otherwise, saying the evidence shows Helme, 37, was not a serious threat at the time he was shot.

“It was just a cold, calculated act,” said Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll.

Driscoll said the cluster of entry wounds around Helme’s face, and the time required to reload the air rifle after each shot, suggests Helme was either held down by two men who were in Smith’s North Stone home, or he had passed out.

His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.289 percent - nearly three times the legal limit to drive a car.

“It’s like he had a bull’s eye on his face,” Driscoll told the jury in his closing argument. “He was a stationary target.”

But the prosecution conceded Smith’s struggle with Helme left her bruised.

Helme assaulted Smith that night in violation of a domestic violence protection order. He was later convicted and sentenced to six months in jail.

But defense attorney Maryann Moreno portrayed Helme as a violent brute who refused to allow Smith, the mother of his two children, to walk away.

After their one-year marriage ended in divorce in 1989, Moreno said Helme followed the woman from town to town, ending up in Spokane. Their seven-year relationship revolved in maddening cycles: abuse followed by “honeymoon” periods, followed by more abuse.

Defense witness Karil Klingbeil of Seattle, an expert on domestic violence, found Smith to be a classic example of battered woman’s syndrome.

Smith’s own testimony Thursday, detailing the beatings, brought many in the courtroom to tears.

The next day, Moreno asked the jury of seven women and five men to “stand in the shoes of Susan Smith.”

Over the years, Smith has suffered numerous broken bones and teeth, and obtained about a half-dozen protection orders against Helme. He was arrested more than 20 times for domestic violence, according to Moreno.

Sometimes, she fought back.

Her only prior criminal conviction, for third-degree assault, came after she stabbed Helme in 1987.

This time, she used her 12-year-old son’s air rifle to defend herself.

Shortly before midnight on Nov. 18, 1993, Helme burst into Smith’s house. He was angry and drunk.

Smith was sitting on the couch with two male co-workers, having some beers before going to their janitorial job cleaning a bar-restaurant.

Despite the presence of the other men, Helme choked his ex-wife, pulled her hair and slammed her head against the wall and floor. He ripped out the phone and threatened to kill her, Moreno said.

Helme finally was persuaded to leave and the three went off to work. When they returned hours later, Helme was waiting on the couch.

The other men didn’t intervene with the warring couple. A short time later, Smith said she was standing at the rear door when Helme advanced with a wooden clothesline support.

That’s when she started shooting, she said.

In finding Smith not guilty, the jury rejected first-degree assault, and the lesser charge of third-degree assault.

Smith’s reaction?

“Drained. Everything just fell out from inside of me, and all the weight is gone,” she said.

The single mother intends to move again, though, because she is still afraid.

“There’s still fear,” she said. “That hasn’t changed.”

, DataTimes