Lethal Intent

by Sue Russell

  When he first suggested they stop somewhere, she’d been reluctant. She didn’t have a key and was afraid the dog would bark if she tried to slip in late, which might wake up the motel manager. Plus, Ty had to get up early for work. But when he pressed her, she relented. It was his car; he was at the steering wheel.

  Lee suggested a spot near Bunnell and once there, they talked for perhaps a couple of hours with Mallory returning repeatedly to the subject of porno movies. He’d smoked a lot of pot, but was handling it. By then comfortable with him, Lee admitted that her real occupation was hustling. Mallory seemed surprised.

  ‘You mean for sex? I thought eventually we would get it on. But you don’t do it for free?’

  ‘No, I don’t. This is my job. This is what I do for a living.’

  ‘How much?’ Mallory pressed.

  ‘A hundred dollars an hour.’

  Lee told the jury that she’d explained rubbers were mandatory. Mallory had some in his trunk, but wanted to move to a still more remote spot before they began. Lee suggested another place so dark and wooded that they couldn’t even see down the deserted trail. He’d retrieved a flashlight from his glove compartment and put it on the dashboard, then suggested they both disrobe. Lee did so first, while Mallory went back to get his condoms and a blanket, ‘so we wouldn’t get anything on the car seat’.

  Lee was half-undressed by then and said, ‘This ain’t fair’, still in good humour. She mentioned her stretch marks and beer belly but he’d thought her not bad and said, ‘You’ll do.’

  She’d suggested he take off his clothes so they could get started because it was cold in those first few hours of December 1989.

  ‘He ignored me, and he was starting to act like he was unbuttoning his pants, unzipping his pants, and he said, “What if I told you I don’t have enough money?”’

  She asked how much he did have and when he said he only had a little for breakfast and gas, she told him no way. She wasn’t there for her health, they’d have to call it off. She’d turned to grab her clothes which she’d put in the back seat and as she did so, she saw him coming towards her.

  ‘I was going to turn to look at him, and before I even got a chance to turn and look at him, he wrapped a cord around by neck and pulled me towards him.’

  Here it was then, the bondage to which Tricia Jenkins had alluded. After establishing that Lee had said ‘no’ to sex with him by then, Jenkins said, ‘Tell us what happened after you felt the cord around your neck.’

  ‘… I’m really nervous, and really shy, and embarrassed—and this is hard for me …’

  Her words were falling on an unusually rapt courtroom. ‘He said, “You’re gonna do everything I tell you to do, and if you don’t, I’ll kill you right now … just like the other sluts …” He said, “It doesn’t matter to me. Your body will still be warm for my … huge cock.” And so, he was choking me and holding me like this, and he said, “Do you want to die, slut?”’

  She said he’d then told her to lie down on the car seat and to give him her hands.’

  ‘He lifted up my hands like this … and tied my hands to the steering wheel.’

  He was sitting in the driver’s seat. She was lying down.

  ‘He told me to slide up and get comfortable, he was going to see how much meat he could pound in my ass.

  ‘And he walked around from the driver’s seat—opened the door—the door was closed. He was very aggressive so he got in and he lifted my legs all the way up … then he began to start having anal sex.’

  Under Jenkins’s probing, she went on. ‘I was crying my brains out … he was saying that he loved hearing my pain and he loved hearing my crying, and it turned him on.’

  Leaning forward, her forefingers pressed against her temples as if in extreme concentration, she told her hushed audience that Mallory had bruised her cervix and ribs. Then, she claimed, he’d got out of the car, taken his clothes and walked back around to the driver’s side. He’d fetched a red cooler from the boot, containing what she thought to be two large bottles of water, plus a tote bag and towel.

  Still tied to the steering wheel, she said she turned her head, straining to watch.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Lee said she asked.

  ‘I’m full of surprises,’ her alleged attacker retorted, producing a bar of soap, toothbrush, rubbing alcohol and a small Visine bottle, then holding them in front of her face. No one in the courtroom could imagine what was coming next.

  She continued: ‘This guy begins to take a bath, because he had blood all over his face. And some other jazz which I don’t think I should say.’

  Lee told the jury that Richard Mallory poured the water all over himself while saying that he had to clean himself because the last sluts he’d been with had given him terrible diseases.

  ‘I thought to myself: “I think this guy is going to kill me … dissect me or something. I don’t know what he’s got in his bag.”’

  Lee’s horrific tale ran on.

  ‘He puts his clothes back on. He gets the cooler, brings it back to the trunk, he puts everything in the tote bag, he leaves it there, he goes around the passenger side—grabs the bottle of Visine and goes around the passenger side—and he says, “This is one of my surprises.”’

  The defendant looked worn. She mumbled and sighed. She then described what Mallory had done with the Visine bottle.

  ‘He lifts up my legs and puts what turns out to be rubbing alcohol in a Visine bottle, and he sticks some up my rectal area. It hurt really bad because he tore me up well.’

  She’d been crying, and he also squirted rubbing alcohol up her nose. And for a moment, tears seemed to well up in Lee on the stand, but they subsided. She then described the way Mallory put the items back in the tote bag and the tote bag back in the boot. She was breathing hard as she said that his door was open and that she, still tied up, was freezing to death.

  ‘I’m thinking he’s going to kill me. I’m trying desperately to get untied. I tried a million times. Finally he even said, “I can see you moving in there, don’t worry, you’re going to get untied.” I kept trying. I kept moving my body.’

  After what felt like an hour, he finally grew cold outside in the winter weather that he said he loved, and got back in the car. Lee went on with what he’d said: ‘“I’m going to untie you from the steering wheel. You’d better be a good girl.” He untied me … put the rope around my neck and held it like a noose so he could hold me. I moved over, he moved in. He closed the door. He was still saying all kinds of jazz about what he wants to do. So then he told me to turn toward him, lay down, spread my legs. He had all his clothes on. I guess he was just going to unzip.’

  At Jenkins’s prodding, Lee said she may have asked why he had all his clothes on but she wasn’t sure. It was hard with the alcohol-induced blackouts she’d had, to recall every incident, every word.

  ‘He had me turn and wanted to start having sex with me … I later learned it was jacks to a stereo or TV or something. So, he was holding me like this, like reins.’

  She held her arms up to her neck to demonstrate a restraining hold. She then grabbed for the cords, she said, thinking that she’d got to fight or she was going to die.

  ‘He’s already said he killed other girls. I gotta fight.’

  She’d been working her way closer to her bag which she’d put near the hump between the seats. Then Mallory grabbed her and slapped her really hard in the face and started choking her. She jumped to her feet and, as he got onto his knees, pushed him back. They struggled.

  ‘I jumped up real fast, and I spit in his face. And he said, “You’re dead, bitch. You’re dead.”’

  She lay down quickly and grabbed her bag as he started to come towards her.

  ‘I grabbed my bag and whipped my pistol out towards him, and he was coming towards me with his right arm, and I shot immediately. I shot at him.

  ‘He started coming at me again. I shot. He stopped. I kind of pushed him away from me. He kind of s
at up on the driver’s seat. I hurriedly opened the passenger door, ran around the driver’s side, opened the door real fast, looked at him and he started to come out. And I said, “Don’t come near me, I’ll shoot you again”, or something like that. “Don’t make me have to shoot you again”, something like that. He just started coming at me and I shot him … he fell on the ground.’

  She then described what happened after she shot him for the last time. ‘I stood there and looked at him. Thought what I’m going to do with the car, and just said, “I gotta drag him away from the car”, ’cause he’s near the car. I dragged him away, got back in the car, totally nude.’

  She’d reached to turn the ignition key, but it wasn’t there. She said she hurried back to Mallory’s body and frantically searched his pockets. She then spotted a piece of carpet.

  ‘I didn’t want birds to be picking at his body, so I grabbed the carpet and threw it over him.’

  She drove back to Quail Run, crying and shaking. She had to get dressed, had to think. She went to the car boot and cleaned herself with the things Mr Mallory had used.

  ‘Sat there, didn’t know what to do. Drinking a beer and thinking what am I gonna do?’

  Deciding she’d have to lie low, she cleaned off the fingerprints and put what was left of his marijuana in her own tote bag. She was scared while she was throwing stuff out. Looking at his watch, she noted it was 6.30 a.m. She recounted her thoughts to the jury: ‘“I’ve gotta hurry up and get back to Ty. I’m tired and beat up. I’m hurting all over. My crotch hurts, my vagina hurts, my nose hurts. I’m freaking out. I’ve gotta go take a shower.” These are the things that are going through my mind.’

  Her most pressing need was to dump the car. She’d planned to drive it through a car wash but instead went straight home to the Ocean Shores Motel. She said that Ty opened the door for her and that she immediately saw that their dog, Maggie, had wreaked havoc, ripping the furniture and the curtains. She told the jury that, coincidentally, they were supposed to move that day. Everything was ready, packed in boxes. Anticipating a visit from the cops once the motel manager saw the damage the dog had done, Lee said she called over to the new apartment and said they were coming right over. (Her report, of course, contradicted Ty’s.)

  Yes, Ty had quizzed her angrily about what she thought were hickey marks on her neck, but she’d brushed off the accusation, saying she must have scratched a mosquito bite. Once they’d moved their belongings to the new apartment, Lee drove Tyria back to the motel where they picked up Ty’s moped, which she drove to work, and Lee’s bicycle, which she put in the boot. She then went to the car wash and cleaned off the car.

  ‘I forgot the glove box, and that’s where his … I found his wallet underneath the seat.’

  She scanned its contents, verifying that the man she’d left in the woods was indeed named Richard. And she found she’d also forgotten to get rid of all the stuff that was under the seat.

  ‘Everything. I was finding like pens, tumblers, business cards, vodka bottle.’

  So she threw it all out near where she left the car.

  Did she take anything out of Mr Mallory’s wallet? Tricia Jenkins enquired. She believed she had retrieved somewhere between $38 and $42. Had she taken his credit cards? She had not.

  Jenkins went on to let the jury know that Lee had a prior felony conviction, defusing the impact of that news on the jury. She also established that Lee had never had anal sex before this occasion with Mr Mallory. What had she said to her attacker, Jenkins wanted to know, when he turned violent?

  ‘I couldn’t. He was choking me so hard, that blood was running to my head, spots were before my eyes.’

  It was 11 a.m. when Jenkins announced that she had no further questions.

  John Tanner would cross-examine the defendant in what seemed a wise and calculated strategy. If the mild-mannered Mr Tanner could unnerve Ms Wuornos, it would be enormously more effective than if it were done by the combative (and consequently less sympathetic) Mr Damore. Yet John Tanner wasted no time with pleasantries, heading straight for the blatantly apparent weaknesses in Lee’s tale of terror.

  She had seen the video the day before, along with the jurors, had she not? And she had not made one single mention of anal rape, or of being tied up, or of having alcohol squirted in her rectum, had she?

  Lee sounded mildly indignant when she replied, ‘I told you that he was getting violent. Also, I told you before, in the first confession, that he was talking about anal sex.’

  ‘Did you, in fact, anywhere in that videotape, or did you tell Detective Horzepa at any time, that you were strangled with a cord by Mr Mallory?’

  ‘Every time I tried to start telling him about what was happening, he’d interrupt me and ask me, “How many times was this person shot? What kind of items did you take? Did he say anything after … when you shot him? Where did you leave his car?” I never got a chance to ever express myself. I was always interrupted. ’

  Here she was really straining credibility: the jurors had seen the videotape. They’d also seen the real-life presence of Larry Horzepa on the witness stand and had seen him to be an apparently gentle, soft-spoken fellow. They’d also seen him give her a chance to express herself.

  When John Tanner reminded her that Horzepa had in fact said he wanted her to tell him all the facts, she switched tactics. She explained that her main, in fact only, purpose in being there to confess, was to proclaim Tyria’s innocence. She could remember nothing, she said. ‘I was hysterical. I was shocked. And they had forced me to talk, saying they were going to arrest Ty Moore if I don’t answer their questions on the case, which I didn’t want. I was only there to confess about Ty’s innocence, ’cause I had just got done talking to her on the phone and told her I was going to confess to clear her. I didn’t even know I was going to have to talk about anything because of that. If I did, believe me, I couldn’t remember nothing. I was totally out of it.’

  John Tanner challenged her further. ‘You could remember being anally raped if you’d been anally raped, couldn’t you?’

  ‘I wasn’t even interested in telling them certain things, because I was interested in Tyria Moore, and I was mad that they had threatened me that if I don’t talk to them, they were going to arrest Ty Moore, so I was pretty well belligerent and stubborn,’ she said.

  Foolhardily, she expanded the accusation, saying that these threats had come before the camera was turned on. Of course, the jury had seen for themselves the previous day what were clearly the interview’s first, introductory moments in glorious videotaped colour.

  Tanner went on to have Lee again make her claim that she didn’t talk about the anal rape and the alcohol and being tied up because the detective had cut her off. Was it, he suggested, that she’d forgotten about it? And now she’d given another reason for not mentioning it, he reminded her. She’d said she was just there to talk about Ty Moore and was stubborn.

  Lee said there were a lot of reasons why she hadn’t brought up the anal rape. ‘I was there to confess that Tyria Moore was innocent. ’ She took a breath, then added: ‘That was pretty much a flat-out lie because I loved her so much I was protecting her.’

  ‘Well, are you lying to protect her today?’

  ‘Oh, I’ll be more than happy to explain that Tyria Moore knows more than she’s saying, that she knows it’s self-defence,’ Lee said, sarcasm creeping in.

  ‘Are you lying to protect her today?’

  ‘No, I’m not. I will tell you all about Tyria Moore.’

  John Tanner took Lee back to her accusation that she’d been forced to talk. Yes, she’d been advised of her rights, but she’d spent fifteen minutes with the deputies before either the tape or video was turned on.

  ‘That was when they threatened me.’

  ‘They threatened you?’

  ‘Yes, they did.’

  She rambled on, but her claims had a hollow ring.

  Lee’s statements took another startling turn when the lo
ver to save whom, she claimed, she had confessed, became the target of her accusations. She had never publicly said a bad word about Ty (whom privately she called ‘butt-face’) before this day, yet now her negative feelings came spilling out, laced with sarcasm.

  She’d been pretty amazed to find that her ex-lover had been taken into protective custody, she said sarcastically.

  Clearly, the long, lonely hours in various Florida jails had provided Lee with ample time to think. And she’d come to the hard realisation that Tyria had betrayed her to save her own skin. She’d also realised that Ty had repeatedly lied to her during those incendiary taped phone calls between them. The calls that had led her to confess and landed her in this mess. There was no mistaking it. The woman she loved so very desperately had abandoned her and turned on her.

  Now, with her own neck on the line, Lee siezed what might be her last chance to strike back and blurt some accusations of her own. It seemed she was about to verify rumours that she wasn’t willing to go down without implicating her oh-so-innocent ex-lover.

  Ty knew a lot more than she was letting on, Lee enigmatically informed Mr Tanner and the jury.

  Rising to this irresistible bait, Mr Tanner asked just what exactly it was that Ty had knowledge of, but wasn’t telling. A hush fell over the spectators: were they now going to hear that Ty had played an active role in the homicides? Would they hear that the original second suspect who’d been out walking the streets, was indeed guilty of murder?

  Lee’s response was decidedly anticlimactic: ‘She knows that it’s self-defence, but she is not telling anybody anything. That’s basically about it.’

  There was a pause, but she seemed to know she had to say more.

  ‘She knows it’s self-defence, and she’s not saying anything because she’s involved with these books and movies. And she’s involved in her family, not losing her family. I know her very well. She doesn’t want to lose her family, and she’s willing to lie for that. She’s also worried about being arrested for accessory to the fact, after the fact.’