Fatal Actions ‘Not Cold-Blooded’ Victim’s ‘Personality Disorder’ Fueled Rocky Love Affair, Lawyer Contends

Defense attorneys for accused murderer Stephen Cherry told a jury of 10 women and four men Thursday that the Post Falls man’s actions last June were anything but “cold-blooded and passionless.”

In opening statements at Cherry’s murder trial, Public Defender John M. Adams said Susan Foutz, who was shot to death at her home last June, suffered from a personality disorder that fueled the rocky love affair that ended in tragedy.

Foutz was on-again off-again with Cherry, Adams said, one day wanting to marry and pick out wedding rings, the next day uninterested.

“You are going to hear how her personality disorder affected him,” Adams said. “These events were not coldblooded and passionless.”

Prosecutors, however, argued Cherry maliciously planned the “murderous scenario,” that shattered the serenity of Susan Foutz’ Hauser Lake home.

According to police reports, Cherry attempted suicide at the scene, but recovered.

He was found outside his ex-girlfriend’s house with a bolt-action rifle, five spent bullet casings, one round still loaded and four extra bullets in his pocket, prosecutors told jury members in opening statements of Cherry’s murder trial.

Cherry, 46, had parked his truck down the road out of view, sneaked up on Foutz’ home and waited for her with the rifle, prosecutors maintained.

He’s charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault. In addition to allegedly killing Foutz and wounding 40-year-old Charles Babb, who had stayed with Foutz the night prior, he chased Foutz’ roommate Tami Hoover through the house and into the woods, threatening to kill her.

Hoover, 32, sobbed throughout questioning Thursday as she recalled being awakened by a shotgun blast, then looking out a front-door window to see Foutz lying dead in the car.

“Stephen’s body kind of jerked and she was sliding down the passenger seat,” Hoover said.

The jury also heard the 911 tape of Hoover talking with police dispatchers as gunshots rang out in the background. The tape continues until Hoover said Cherry shot through the locked front door, entered the house and began chasing her.

She escaped through a sliding door, ran outside and up a nearby hillside in her bare feet and nightclothes.

“He said, ‘You might as well stop now ‘cuz I’m going to shoot you anyway,”’ Hoover said, crying. “I thought I was going to die.”

She eventually reached a neighbor’s house, where a wounded Charles Babb also was waiting for police, Hoover said.

Babb testified that he came out of the house that morning to see Cherry standing at the driver’s side of Foutz’ car where she was sitting, holding a rifle pointing downward from his hip.

Foutz and Cherry exchanged a few words before she screamed, “Oh my God,” and Babb realized they had both been shot, he said. With a hole through his elbow and a bullet wound to his abdomen, Babb said he ran to a neighbor’s house.

The neighbor, Dennis Shipp, testified Babb was fearful Cherry was chasing him. Shipp’s wife tried to stop Babb’s bleeding while he hid their four children in the closet and waited for police.

Adams grilled both Babb and Hoover about discrepancies in their court testimony and what the two told police last June.

Prosecutors objected to Adams’ “argumentative manner,” as he asked Hoover why she told different stories to police than she did to her mechanic, friends, and prosecutors.

“At the time I was in hysterics,” Hoover said. “There were a few people that talked to me and I was very upset that day. I was scared.”

, DataTimes