Defense claims abuse led to shooting death

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: June 3, 2008

The second-degree murder trial of Sue Ann Cole got underway Tuesday, with jurors hearing from 14 witnesses on the opening day, including the defendant’s teenage daughter.
Cole is accused of shooting boyfriend Danny Durden to death last December at the home they shared near Grand Ridge.
She is expected to take the stand in her own defense after the trial resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Circuit Judge Bill Wright indicated he expected the jury to retire for deliberations sometime today.
Cole, 34, has admitted to the killing, but claims it was an act of self defense.
Cole also admitted that she hid the body in a shed outside the home at 6741 Chips Drive where Durden was fatally shot in the abdomen on Dec. 26 2007.
His body was found after Cole spoke with a church pastor about the events and the minister contacted authorities on her behalf.
At trial, jurors heard Cole’s account of the incident in a taped statement she made to an investigator a few days after the body was found.
She said she left the body in the house overnight after the killing, locked the door and spent the night somewhere else. She said she returned to find the body stiff and heavy on Dec. 27.
She said she wrapped Durden in a blanket and a tarp. Then, because he was so heavy, she said, she tied a cable around the body and pulled it with a lawn mower to the shed.
She also admitted cleaning up the scene. She told the investigator he’d probably find a bloody mop and bucket in the weeds outside the house and some rags from the clean-up in a garbage bin..
She also told him where to find a spent shell casing that she found on the floor after the shooting. She said she’d placed it in a trash can in the bathroom after she found it. Cole also told the investigator that, a day after the shooting, she’d sold an unsuspecting friend the semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun she’d used in the killing.
Cole’s daughter also testified at the trial, sobbing at times as she described what her mother had told her about the shooting a few days after the killing. The teenager said her mother claimed Durden had threatened to kill her, threw her against a wall and choked her shortly before the shooting took place.
She said her mother also told her that she’d bathed Durden’s body, cleaned up the mess, wrapped him in a blanket and put him in the shed. She said her mother told her that she’d sat in a doorway after shooting Durden and listened to him take his last breaths of life.
On the opening day of the trial Tuesday, defense attorney Walter Smith pointed out that Durden had previously served a year’s probation for the offense of domestic violence upon Cole, and authorities have acknowledged that they had been called to the Durden property on more than one occasion over the years in relation to domestic disturbances between the couple.
On the taped statement to the investigator, Cole said that she felt “there was no other way out of this situation. Just it was a very, very hellacious day and a hellacious relationship and a very abusive relationship mentally and physically.”