Defendant in murder trial alleges drug use, violence and control by deceased

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: June 4, 2008

Sue Ann Cole took the stand as day two of her second-degree murder trial drew to a close Wednesday in Marianna.
Cole has admitted killing boyfriend Danny Durden at their residence in Grand Ridge the day after Christmas 2007, but claims it was an act of self-defense.
She said she fired a 12-gauge shotgun at him as he advanced on her during what would be the last of many violent arguments that, according to her, had become almost daily occurrences in their relationship.
Cole and Durden met in 2005 while both were correctional officers at Calhoun Correctional Institution, and started living together shortly thereafter.
On the stand, Cole described their relationship as idyllic at first, but one that soon deteriorated into a cycle of violence.
Drug and alcohol abuse, she said, was also common in the household. Certain drugs, she said, they both enjoyed but Durden objected when she started using crack cocaine.
Just as their relationship crumbled in short order because of that and other factors, the beginning of their romance was even swifter.
Within a week of meeting Durden, Cole had his nickname, “Dirty D,” tattooed on her arm, along with a rose, stars and bars, and language identifying herself as his girlfriend.
She said on the stand Wednesday that she left her husband for Durden and that she wanted to be with him forever, in part because she felt he had rescued her from what she described as an abusive marriage.
But as time passed, violence between Cole and Durden became common, and law enforcement had been called to their home more than once on domestic disturbance calls.
Violence brought them into the legal system in November of 2006, with Durden eventually placed on probation for committing domestic violence upon her.
Defense attorney Walter Smith did his best to capitalize on that history of violence in an attempt to portray Cole as someone in the grip of “battered woman syndrome.”
He called a clinical psychologist to the stand who had analyzed Cole in three sessions after she had been incarcerated on the murder charge. The doctor had come to the conclusion that Cole had all the classic earmarks of someone with the disorder. Cole’s reported history of childhood sexual abuse, the violence in both her marriage and her relationship with Durden, her admitted drug use and her behaviors during the sessions all fit the parameters that at least one published expert had laid out as indicators of the syndrome, the doctor testified.
Prosecutor Mark Sims, on cross examination, did his best to leave jurors with questions about the doctor’s ability to make such judgements.
He focused on the fact that she had never received any formal training in the disorder and that she had spent most of her professional life dealing with the male population, rather than women, in the forensic division at Florida State Hospital.
Sims also questioned whether there has been widespread professional acceptance of the reality of battered woman syndrome as a true disorder. It is not, he emphasized, currently listed in the index generally accepted by the profession as the definitive guide to mental health disorders.
Sims also had a chance to question Cole on the stand. He asked her why she hadn’t called 911 after the shooting if she, in fact, loved and still loves Durden as she claims.
Cole told him she didn’t call for paramedics because she had planned to keep Durden’s skeleton so that she could have him with her forever.
Cole had also told the psychologist in their sessions that after she’d shot Durden, she’d kissed him, combed his hair, talked to him, and that she harbors dreams and wishes that he were not dead.
Durden’s body was found in a shed outside the couple’s dwelling at 6741 Chips Drive near Grand Ridge several days after the shooting. In interviews with authorities, Cole said she had shot Durden inside the house and used a lawn mower to drag the body to the shed.
A few days later, she contacted a minister, who called authorities on her behalf and led them to the discovery of the body.
In was revealed in court that she sold the gun she’d used to shoot Durden and had traded his car for drugs after the killing.
In addition to the live testimony presented Tuesday, Smith also played a tape for the jury that Durden had reportedly made a few days after his arrest on the domestic violence incident of November 2006.
It was a snippet of a song he’d written after he was released.
Durden, playing electric guitar in the background, sang in part of revenge.
Among the lyrics were these: “You’re gonna pay for the things you done to me.”
Cole said she believed the song was specifically about her. She made a copy of the tape and gave it to her mother for safekeeping shortly after it was recorded. She said she was in fear for her life after that and told her mother at the time to give it to authorities if anything happened to her.
The song, she said, was related in part to Durden’s belief that she had stolen a large retirement check that he got when he took early retirement from the Department of Corrections.
She said Durden accused her of other things as well, tightly controlled her movements and isolated her from her family to an extent.
Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments Thursday morning and could begin their deliberations around mid-day.