Opening statements made in murder trial of city man

The man on trial wasn't the killer, a defense lawyer says.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Edward C. Anderson purposely killed his girlfriend, Mary M. Thompson, by shooting her after an argument in the East Philadelphia Avenue residence they shared, said Robert Bush, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.
Bush made the comment Tuesday in his opening statement to a jury in Anderson's murder trial.
Shortly after shooting Thompson three times in her back July 15, 2004, Anderson went onto the porch, looked around, jumped into his Cadillac and departed, leaving her to die, Bush told the eight-woman, four-man jury.
Ten to 20 minutes later, Thompson, 37, stumbled out of the house, off the porch, and across the lawn, Bush said. Having collapsed in a neighbor's driveway, she later died in St. Elizabeth Health Center.
"Her life was snatched away from her," Bush said just after the jury returned from viewing the shooting scene. "The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them," Bush told the jurors.
Defense
"We believe the evidence in this case will show that a woman died. A woman died in an act of violence. ... She didn't deserve to die," said Thomas E. Zena, the defense lawyer. "This lady died as a result of gunshot wounds" apparently inflicted inside the house, and she later collapsed outside, he said. Zena said, however, that Anderson's defense is that he didn't kill Thompson.
If he's convicted of murder with a firearm specification, Anderson, 61, faces 15 years to life in prison. The trial is before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute, detectives said.