MAHONING COUNTY TRIAL Defense: Shooting was matter of self-defense

The jurors heard opening statements Tuesday.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When Tremaine Brown shot his girlfriend in the head last summer, he was protecting himself against a woman who was in a drunken rage, Brown's lawyer said.
But prosecutors say it was a cold-blooded killing for which Brown should be sent to prison.
Jurors will decide which side is right after hearing testimony in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where Brown is on trial for murder.
In his opening statement Tuesday to the seven-man, five-woman jury, assistant prosecutor Jeffrey Limbian said Brown killed his 21-year-old girlfriend, Tawanna Thomas, with a single gunshot to the left side of her head June 18.
He said Brown became angry when Thomas refused to have sex with him that night.
She was tired after working all evening and simply wanted to go to sleep, Limbian said.
"He kept pounding on the bedroom door," Limbian told jurors. "She wouldn't let him in, and he got madder and madder."
He said Thomas, half-naked and wrapped in a blanket, eventually went outside to sleep in her car, hoping to get away from Brown.
Followed woman
Brown followed her, pulled out a gun, pointed it at her and pulled the trigger, Limbian said. The gun didn't fire because the safety was on, he said.
"She got to live a little longer, but not much," he said, noting that Brown unlocked the safety and shot Thomas in the left temple.
He said Brown then went back into the couple's Stansbury Drive home, put on some shoes, went back outside, dragged Thomas out of the car and drove away in it.
Thomas died less than two hours later.
"A complete act of gruesome cruelty," Limbian said. "There was no self-defense. This was a cold, calculated, purposeful murder."
Defense attorney Douglas B. Taylor admitted in his opening statement that Brown shot Thomas, but said it was justifiable.
Taylor described Thomas as a woman who drank excessively.
"And when she drank, she got mean," Taylor said.
He said Thomas also "had a jealous streak" because Brown had fathered a child with another woman while she was dating him, and that she had a fondness for guns.
"That's a lethal combination," Taylor said. "Unfortunately, it turned out to be lethal for her."
Was it jealousy?
He said Thomas had become enraged that night because of Brown's continuing relationship with the mother of his child, and had threatened to go kill the woman.
He said Thomas went to her car with a gun wrapped in a blanket. He got into the back seat and tried to calm her. While they were talking, Thomas dropped her gun and Brown picked it up, Taylor said.
He said Brown got out of the car and asked Thomas to come back inside. Instead, she told him she had another gun and was going to shoot him with it, Taylor said.
When she reached between her legs, Brown feared she was reaching for a gun and shot her, Taylor said.
Taylor and Limbian both said there was no other gun in the car.
Judge James C. Evans dismissed jurors for the day after the opening statements, which were late Tuesday afternoon.
Because the judge had a prior commitment today, the trial won't resume until Thursday when Limbian will begin calling witnesses.
bjackson@vindy.com