Defendant breaks down screaming as she’s led from courtroom; appeal likely

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: June 5, 2008

Moments after a jury found Sue Ann Cole guilty of second-degree murder, her knees buckled and she had to be pulled screaming from the courtroom.

Jurors deliberated roughly two hours Thursday before finding Cole guilty as charged in the shooting death of boyfriend Danny Durden late last year.

She faces a possible life sentence in prison, with a minimum 25-year term also possible in the case.

A pre-sentencing investigation hearing has been set for June 24 at 1:30 p.m.

Cole was stoic as the verdict was read, but then put her head down on the table.

As she stood to be escorted to jail, her legs buckled and officers pulled her toward the door on her knees.

Screaming as she was taken out of the courtroom and down a back hall, her continuing cries could be heard by the people who lined the opposite hallway in the main corridor.

Cole’s defense attorney, Walter Smith, said her case will likely be appealed in due course.

Durden’s body was found in a shed outside the couple’s residence near Grand Ridge after Cole told a minister about killing him in the house and placing the body in the shed. The preacher called authorities, and Cole was shortly charged with second-degree murder.

Jurors could have convicted Cole of a lesser included charge of manslaughter, which carries a maximum 30-year term, or could have found her not guilty. Prosecutor Mark Sims said he felt the panel came to the correct decision.

“Based on the evidence, I feel like the jury reached the right decision in recognizing that this was an “unjustified killing,” Sims said.

He said he felt Cole’s changing story concerning the events of Dec. 26, 2007, had played a role in the jury’s verdict.

When she first told her story to a minister’s wife soon after the killing, she said she and Durden had been arguing during the day and that she heard him say “Dead (expletive) don’t lie” while he was pacing in the yard and talking to himself. She said she then grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and waited for Durden in the threshold of a bathroom next to a bedroom in the house and shot him as he entered that doorway roughly 9.5 feet away.

Testimony offered by firearms experts at trial supported this version of events, Sims said.

Jurors had to decide between that version of events and other stories Cole told at different points as the case progressed.

In one instance, she told a relative that Durden was chasing her when she grabbed the gun and that he had put his hands around her throat during an argument that day.

She also said on the stand at her trial that Durden had pulled the phone line off the wall.

In his closing argument, Sims told jurors that was the first he’d heard of that, and pointed out 16 other inconsistencies in Cole’s story.

Smith in his closing tried to characterize Cole as a mentally ill, battered woman who killed Durden in the belief that her life was in danger because their relationship had been marked by violence many times.

Durden had in fact served probation in the past for committing domestic violence upon Cole.

Jurors, however, rejected Smith’s argument that his client was innocent of murder and that she was justified in shooting Durden or deserved nothing higher than a manslaughter conviction.