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Lawyer: Abuse led to slaying
By JIM ROSS INVERNESS -- Patricia Hale, the Homosassa woman accused of gunning down her husband this year in a parking lot, plans to invoke a battered-spouse defense. That line of defense will allow Hale's lawyer to show a jury how spouse abuse affected his client's state of mind. The lawyer, Charles Vaughn, declined on Wednesday to describe what abuse Hale said she suffered at her husband's hands. Vaughn formally notified the court and prosecutors of his strategy earlier this week. Such notification is required at least 30 days before trial. Hale, 57, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and demanded a jury trial. Her case remains in the early stages, though, with the next hearing scheduled for Jan. 17. Friends said James and Patricia Hale maintained a stormy, fight-filled marriage. Authorities said the battle turned deadly Aug. 24 outside Jim's Club 19. The bar's owner said James Hale and his brother, Chad, were at the bar that night when Patricia Hale arrived about 11 p.m. and said she needed to speak with her husband. She suspected he was having an extramarital affair. According to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, Mrs. Hale pulled a pistol from her pickup truck and shot her husband in the bar's parking lot. He stumbled back into the club; she walked into some nearby woods. Mrs. Hale later told deputies she planned to kill herself in the woods. But she said she fell and lost her weapon. Deputies found her later sitting in the front seat of her truck. She also told authorities she fired the gun when her husband reached for it. When pursuing a battered-spouse defense, lawyers may introduce evidence and testimony designed to show how abuse affected the defendant and made her feel she needed to protect herself. That testimony could come from doctors who could examine Mrs. Hale and review the case circumstances. In other court news: Marc Mediate, now serving life in prison for kidnapping and raping a Citrus County woman in 1986, hasn't gained any ground with his many appeals. But now he has won a minor technical victory. The 5th District Court of Appeal last week said Circuit Judge Barbara Gurrola was wrong when she denied Mediate's request to file a motion attacking his conviction, sentence and the quality of defense counsel he received. Mediate failed to file the proper motion before the time limit expired. Gurrola said that, even though another legal precedent cleared the way for a late filing, Mediate was not eligible. The appellate court, based in Daytona Beach, disagreed and said Mediate is entitled to file his motion. The same court already has upheld the conviction and sentence under different grounds. - This report includes information from Times files.
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