Opinion ID: 150482
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Night of April 30 to May 1, 2001

Text: On the night Flora Lanier died, James Collins was 44 years old. Collins has long suffered from severe mental impairments. A brain aneurysm that he suffered in 1994 exacerbated those impairments, leaving him often unable to speak, understand, or think clearly. Defense experts calculated his current IQ in the low to mid-60s, well below the average score. A neurologist testifying for the defense estimated that Collins' aneurysm had reduced his score by 10 to 15 points. Collins began the night of April 30th in the company of his friend, Benny Price, who was homeless but had accepted Collins' invitation to spend the night in his apartment. Between about 11:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., the two men ate dinner and talked in the apartment. Lanier showed up between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. Price testified that he thought Lanier had been using PCP; she smelled of ammonia and seemed only periodically aware of her surroundings. Price had reason to know what a drug user looks like: the government impeached his testimony with a prior conviction for delivery of a controlled substance (and two for burglary). Lanier had also brought rocks of crack cocaine for herself and Collins to smoke. Collins made clear to Price that the drugs were not for him, so Price went to sleep on the floor. Collins and Lanier shared a bed in the same room where Price was sleeping, with a makeshift barrier to give them some privacy. After going to bed, Price overheard Collins telling Lanier to stop taking people's money to buy drugs for them and then keeping the money for herself. At that point Collins was calm, speaking in a normal tone and calling Lanier baby. What happened next was the subject of dispute at trial. Price testified that he awoke around 6:00 a.m. to the sound of Collins and Lanier arguing and physically fighting. According to Price's testimony, the combat was mutual, with both Collins and Lanier wrestling. Price testified that both Collins and Lanier were yelling; he heard Lanier yell, I'm going to die anyway. Not wanting to be around for this fight, Price immediately left the apartment. On the ground floor, he heard glass break and saw Lanier go through the third-floor window, then come back inside real suddenly. Lanier then got on the kitchen table in front of the big window, and she hit it with her fist and leg, then stepped outside the window. She remained halfway out for a moment before Collins snatched her back inside. As Collins pulled Lanier back in, all the blood went down the window like that. From her apartment window one floor up, Ethel Patterson saw a different scene. Patterson testified at trial that Collins and Lanier were tussling, but Collins was the aggressor, hitting her in the head with his fist, while Lanier was in a purely defensive posture, with her hands up over her head . . . trying to block it. [1] Eventually Patterson saw Lanier coming through the window . . . with both hands forward. Patterson denied at trial that Lanier ran through the window herself (though a police detective testified that this was contrary to what he had taken down from Patterson at the scene). After calling the police, Patterson saw Lanier bleeding profusely in the window and saying, I am dying, before Collins jerked her back in. Patterson went down to the third floor and found Lanier bleeding to death in the hallway; according to her testimony, all the doors were closed and no one was helping Lanier.