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Edmonds found guilty of attempted murder
By JUSTIN DENNIS
YOUNGSTOWN
A jury determined Terrance Edmonds was not acting in self-defense when he shot his girlfriend in the head, putting her in a vegetative state.
After nearly five hours of deliberation, jurors returned the unanimous verdicts just after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, finding Edmonds, 31, guilty of felony counts of attempted murder, felonious assault, domestic violence and illegal possession of a firearm.
Edmonds made no visible reaction when Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court read the verdicts.
Assistant county prosecutors Steven Yacovone and Jennifer McLaughlin declined comment on the verdicts until Edmonds is sentenced Oct. 10 in Judge Krichbaum’s court.
Edmonds admitted to shooting 32-year-old Denise Thurston once in the head during an argument July 21, but he testified Tuesday she would have shot him first.
He testified Thurston came to the East Hilton Avenue home on the South Side he shares with his mother, threatened to kill him over accusations of infidelity and fired several shots outside and toward the home.
Edmonds said he approached Thurston while she remained in her vehicle outside the home and attempted to talk with her. He brought a loaded .380-caliber handgun with him, however.
“I feared for my life. ... I was trying to defuse the situation,” he told the jury Tuesday.
Edmonds’ defense attorney Robert Rohrbaugh of Youngstown said he was disappointed in the verdict but accepted it.
“We tried to demonstrate to the jury that my client’s conduct was reasonable, and that he didn’t have any ability to retreat or have any other recourse but to fire his weapon in self-defense,” he said. “In essence, if he didn’t do that, she was going to kill him.”
Edmonds’ mother Freida Hicks, who testified in her son’s defense Tuesday, said after the verdict she believes the charges were racially motivated. She testified Tuesday she was frightened when Thurston, a white woman, allegedly fired multiple shots outside and toward her home.
“[Prosecutors] were trying to paint her like she was an angel when she was not,” Hicks said. “She was saying she was trying to kill my son because he cheated on her. There’s a lot [authorities] don’t know and a lot they didn’t want to hear.”
Though Edmonds echoed those sentiments during his Tuesday testimony – at times suggesting police could have moved the .380-caliber handgun that shot Thurston or shattered glass from Thurston’s vehicle found along East Hilton – Rohrbaugh said those weren’t elements of the defense.
Members of Thurston’s family were not present for the verdict. Thurston has remained hospitalized since the shooting.