Murder trial begins for Ore. ex-soldier

[unhappycamper]

Murder trial begins for Ore. ex-soldier
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Apr 9, 2008 6:30:05 EDT

EUGENE, Ore. — Jurors heard opening arguments in the death penalty murder trial of Tyke Supanchick, an ex-soldier accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife as police tried to kick down the door in a futile attempt to answer the victim’s plea for help.

Supanchick, 30, does not deny killing 25-year-old Kelly Supanchick two days before Christmas in 2005. However, defense lawyer Randall Vogt told Lane County jurors that Supanchick did not act intentionally when he killed her with blasts from a shotgun as she sat, hands bound, in her Eugene duplex.

Vogt said his client suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and thought he was under attack when police started pounding on the door. That’s when investigators say he used the failure drill, a military tactic of rapidly firing a few rounds into the body and then one to the head at close range.

“He did it because she was in front of him and he was under attack,” Vogt said. “He simply reacted. It was not an intentional act.”

But Bob Lane, the deputy district attorney for Lane County, said Supanchick’s actions and his videotaped interview with investigators destroy any claim of mental disorder or unintentional shooting.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_exsoldiertrial_040808/