Opinion ID: 1407226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: factual background of crime

Text: The defendant and the victim, Unita Lynn Lusk, began living together in September of 1990, approximately one year before the victim's death. This relationship was stormy and marked by episodes of violence, prompting the victim from time to time to leave and then resume the relationship. Sometime during the summer of 1991, the victim left the defendant and sought refuge for the night at her grandmother's house in Madison, West Virginia. The next day, the victim telephoned her father, Roy Lusk, and asked him to pick her up at her grandmother's house. Mr. Lusk drove to his mother's (the victim's grandmother) home to pick up his daughter, and as Mr. Lusk and the victim were leaving the home, the victim observed the defendant in front of the house sitting in his automobile. The defendant wanted to speak to the victim. Mr. Lusk and the victim initially ignored the defendant and proceeded to walk down the street toward Mr. Lusk's automobile, which was parked approximately two blocks from the grandmother's house. After walking about one block, Mr. Lusk and the victim were once again confronted by the defendant, who had driven his automobile from the grandmother's house toward Mr. Lusk and the victim. The defendant again asked to speak to the victim. This time the victim chose to enter the defendant's automobile, while Mr. Lusk remained approximately ten feet away. Mr. Lusk could see into the defendant's automobile but could not hear any of the conversation; however, he did observe the defendant lean toward the victim, and the victim crying as a result. After talking for approximately thirty minutes, the victim exited the automobile and proceeded to walk with her father back toward the grandmother's house. They walked approximately one-half block from where the conversation between the victim and the defendant took place when the victim, who was still visibly scared, nervous, and shaking, related to her father that the defendant had told her he would kill her if she ever left him again. Mr. Lusk accompanied the victim back to the grandmother's house where she gathered her belongings and returned to live with the defendant. Approximately three months after this conversation between the defendant and the victim, a series of events occurred which ultimately left the victim dead and the defendant charged with the crime of murder. On November 9, 1991, while at the defendant's mobile home, the victim made several telephone calls to a friend, Billy Dale Nelson. The victim first telephoned Mr. Nelson at 3:00 p.m., stating that she and the defendant had been fighting. Mr. Nelson offered to pick up the victim, but she refused, expressing concern that the defendant would be upset. Approximately an hour later, the victim again called Mr. Nelson and requested that he go to her father's house and tell her father that she and the defendant had been fighting and to come to pick her up because she needed to get away. Mr. Nelson's mother went to the home of the victim's father to relay this information to him. At approximately 5:00 p.m., the victim again called Mr. Nelson and asked if her father had been told to pick her up, as she had packed her clothes and could not wait any longer. The victim's sisters were then sent to the mobile home to assist the victim in leaving. At approximately 6:45 p.m., while traveling toward the mobile home, the sisters stopped to telephone the victim to confirm that she really wanted to leave. During this conversation the victim, who was crying, reiterated her desire to leave, at which point the telephone went silent. The victim's sisters arrived at the mobile home approximately five to ten minutes after this last telephone conversation and found the victim shot in the neck and the defendant covered with blood while talking on the telephone with the paramedics. The victim died by the time the paramedics arrived.