Jurors relieved at end of mother's trial - UPI Archives (original) (raw)

EUGENE, Ore. -- Jurors who convicted a pregnant mother of murder and attempted murder in the shootings of her children said Monday they felt 'a tremendous weight lifted from our shoulders' after they reached the verdict.

Elizabeth Diane Downs, 28, was found guilty Sunday of murdering one daughter, Cheryl Lynn, 7, and assaulting and trying to kill Christie Ann Downs, 9, and Stephen 'Danny' Downs, 4.

Mrs. Downs, who is nine months pregnant, faces a mandatory life sentence plus 40 years. The state plans to take custody of the unborn child. Her surviving children are already in a foster home.

'We never thought we would take as long as we did, but tough decisions are never made easily,' said juror David W. Brewer.

'We felt a tremendous weight lifted from our shoulders. It was a long, tough decision that we agonized over.'

The victims were shot in Mrs. Downs' car on a rural road near their home in Springfield on May 19, 1983.

Mrs. Downs, a divorcee who once was a surrogate mother so others could experience 'the joy of having a child,' testified a shaggy-haired stranger flagged her down and shot her children when she refused to give him her car keys.

The prosecution argued she shot the youngsters because they interfered with her affair with a former boyfriend, Robert Knickerbocker of Chandler, Ariz., who had told her he did not want her children. The nine-woman, three-man jury deliberated 36 hours over three days to reach the verdict after a 31-day trial. Defense lawyers said the verdict probably would be appealed.

One juror, Robert E. Cockrum, said he planned to 'take about a year off' to recover from the emotional and physical ordeal of the trial.

'We were going to stay there until we were sure in our minds. If it took us until July or even Christmas, we still would have been there,' Cockrum said.

The most emotional point in the trial came during presentation of the prosecution's case when Christie Downs testified in a halting voice that 'my mom' shot her and her brother and sister.

The child suffers a slight speech impediment and limited use of her right arm as a result of the attacks. Her brother is paralyzed below the chest.

Minutes before the jury entered the courtroom, an outwardly confident Mrs. Downs laughed and talked with her attorney, James C. Jagger.

She showed no emotion while Judge Gregory G. Foote read the guilty verdicts,except for a slight rhythmic jerking of her head. She glanced at the jurors only once, when they stood to leave the courtroom.

Mrs. Downs has said the unborn child is not Knickerbocker's, but has refused to name the father, describing him during the trial only as a 'young, attractive male' who became disinterested in her after she became pregnant last year.

She said she had affairs with several men and 'I asked them all of them to leave their wives, too. 'Knick' was the dummy who did it.'

'I really didn't treat him any differently,' said Mrs. Downs, who described herself as a flirt. 'He just took it differently.'