The trial of the man accused of killing his former wife in her Columbia apartment last year began Tuesday, Aug. 16, with his attorneys admitting there is enough evidence to convict him.
However, attorneys for Damon Willie White say he is not guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Thelma Wynn.
White's trial began in Howard County Circuit Court with opening statements and testimony from nine witnesses. It is expected to last into next week.
White's attorneys conceded that prosecutors probably will be able to prove White stabbed Wynn more than 100 times Sept. 7 of last year, then poured gasoline and lit her Long Reach apartment on fire.
"Thelma Wynn was murdered. It was not an accident. It was not a justifiable homicide," defense attorney Janette DeBoissiere said. "But it wasn't planned or premeditated either. It was an unplanned emotional response to something that happened."
White, 36, is facing life in prison should he be found guilty of first-degree murder. He has also been charged with first-degree arson, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
Prosecutor Ned Curry opened his case with an outline of Sept. 7, 2010, a day that began with Wynn's four children leaving for school, one daughter returning home later that afternoon to a locked door, smoke coming from the door of the third-floor apartment and no answer from those still inside.
Wynn, 37, had been stabbed 103 times by a knife and left in a pool of blood in her bedroom, Curry said. Her body was found next to a closet where White allegedly started a fire using a pile of clothes, fuel and a lighter.
Firefighters arriving at the apartment complex in the 6000 block of Majors Lane had to push aside a large freezer blocking the front door. Through the smoke, rescuers first found White on the floor of the dining room, bleeding from self-inflicted stab wounds on his wrist, chest and neck, Curry said.
The firefighters who testified Tuesday said they carried White, bleeding and unconscious, out of the apartment, then went back inside to search for others. They climbed over a couch blocking the living room from a hallway to the bedrooms, then found Wynn on the floor of the master bedroom. The flames had spread from the closet to the bedroom's ceiling, the firefighters said.
The fire was put out quickly, the firefighters testified, but Wynn was already dead.
On the way out of the apartment, firefighters noticed all four stove burners were on, and the oven had been set to 500 degrees, they said.
Once married, since divorced, Wynn and White had been living together since the summer of 2010. The night before her death, Wynn, White and their son, Shomari White, had fallen asleep together in the master bedroom, according to Shaneira Isaac, Wynn's 16-year-old daughter, who testified Tuesday.
Shomari, Wynn's youngest child, was born Sept. 28, 2003, her first and only child with Damon White. Wynn and White were married in July 2006; they were divorced in December 2009.
Each had accused the other in court filings of "cruelty or excessively vicious conduct," and Wynn said White had cheated on her.
They separated in March 2008, the same month White allegedly assaulted Wynn while driving her to work, according to a request for protection she filed in April 2008 in Howard County District Court.
White was Wynn's transportation — he took her to and from work, and his attorney claimed White would even drive Wynn to meet her boyfriend in Baltimore.
White had driven Wynn home from the hospital the night of Sept. 6. She arrived back at her apartment upset and crying, Isaac testified, because she had lost a baby that week.
Isaac, the second-oldest of Wynn's children, was the first to return home on Sept. 7. After seeing the smoke, she pulled a fire alarm, and a neighbor called 911. A truck from the nearby Tamar Drive fire station promptly arrived.
Prosecutors, in their opening statement, said White called his sister and a cousin earlier that day, and asked them to take care of his kids and said he loved them.