Woman Recants Story In Husband’s Battery Trial Wife Says She Fell Down Stairs The Night She Nearly Died Of Injuries

When Kootenai County deputies pulled alongside James Loss’ boat as it drifted on Lake Coeur d’Alene, what they found was enough to make one officer draw his gun on the owner.

They saw a bloody towel, clots of hair and blood splattered on chairs, windows, railings and a marine radio.

“There was blood all over the boat,” Sgt. Dan Soumas told a jury Thursday.

Then he found Jerrene Loss. Her face swollen, her pink nightshirt covered in blood, she told the deputy that her husband, James Loss, had beaten her.

“She told me she was afraid she would be killed,” Soumas testified.

But on Thursday, as James Loss’ aggravated battery trial began, his defense attorney told the jury that Jerrene Loss has changed her story.

The woman who almost died the night of June 14, 1996, now contends she fell down a flight of stairs and that her husband accidentally kicked her in the nose - but only because she had moved into the way of his foot.

“Things are not always as they appear,” said defense attorney Glen Walker. He said Loss even tried to keep his wife from committing suicide that night when they both had been drinking on the boat.

Not only has Jerrene Loss changed her story about the attack, but, Walker said, she also has admitted killing her infant child nearly 29 years ago.

According to court documents, Jerrene Loss now contends she lied to deputies because she was afraid they’d find out about that killing.

But those who work with victims of domestic violence say this is a classic case of an abuser gaining control over his victim.

“Fear will make people do amazing things,” said Holladay Sanderson, director of the Coeur d’Alene Women’s Center.

Those who know Jerrene Loss insist she is making up the story about the child’s death in a twisted attempt to protect her husband.

“This woman would never hurt anybody,” said Chanin Crewdson, James Loss’ daughter from a previous marriage. “That baby died of crib death.”

On the night of June 14, a frantic call crackled over the radio waves.

“Help me, help me. He’s hurting me. He’s killing me in the middle of Lake Coeur d’Alene,” one boater testified he heard.

Sheriff’s deputies scoured the lake until finding Loss’ 35-foot boat.

Kootenai County prosecutors contend the Spokane couple had been arguing all day over money.

Soumas says Jerrene Loss told him her husband had punched and kicked her and then snatched the radio away from her when she called for help.

A neurosurgeon testified that the damage to Jerrene Loss’ brain would have killed her that night if she hadn’t been treated. The same doctor testified that a head injury like hers could be caused by a fall but it would have to be a “significant blow to the head.”

In September, James Loss pleaded guilty to the battery charge, although he said he didn’t remember some of the evening because he drank so much.

In January he withdrew his plea, saying he had found out from his wife that he hadn’t beaten her.

Jerri Loss is expected to testify at the trial, which is scheduled to continue into next week.

Walker said she now admits she confessed to her husband that night that she held a pillow over her son’s face and suffocated him.

James Loss became angry and threatened to tell everyone, including police, the defense attorney said. His wife became suicidal and tried to jump off the boat. He pulled her back aboard, accidentally giving her bruises, Walker said.

Jerrene Loss also says she fell down some stairs and accidentally stepped into the path of her husband’s swinging foot, Walker said.

“He was not actually trying to make contact,” Walker said.

James Loss’ ex-wife, Caroline Weldon, says she’s seen all of this before. Only back then, she says, Loss was abusing her and she was making excuses for him.

Weldon was married to Loss for nine years and had three children with him. She and their daughter Chanin Crewdson sat in the back of the courtroom watching the trial. They hoped it would help them find closure after years of abuse.

“He pointed guns at me, pistols and knives,” Weldon said.

Crewdson said one of her earliest memories is of her mom lying on the floor - Loss had kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach.

Weldon says she’s not surprised that Jerrene Loss changed her story.

She says she too dropped abuse charges several times.

“He is a very conniving, convincing person,” Weldon said. “He would convince me that it was my fault.”

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