This story beforehand aired on July 2, 2016.
Seven years after she shot her husband of their suburban lounge, Linda Duffey Gwozdz was in a Los Angeles County courtroom denying, as strongly as she might, that she is a murderess.
“This was a horrible accident,” she cried in courtroom, together with her late husband’s kin trying on. “I want and pray always that I might be capable of take away your ache, however I can not.”
This case just isn’t a whodunit; it is extra of a why’d she do it? Linda admitted she shot her husband, Patrick Duffey, in 2007, however she mentioned it was an terrible, and unlikely, accident. She has needed to persuade authorities that truth may be stranger than fiction, as a result of her authorized protection has featured, amongst different issues, a forged of cartoon characters.
Her lawyer used the phrases of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd to clarify her actions as he insisted she is harmless.
Linda talked to police voluntarily and with out a lawyer simply hours after the taking pictures:
Linda Duffey to police: It was pointed down … and the subsequent suppose I do know, his head was proper there! … he was simply laying there!
Shaun McCarthy and Shannon Laren are veteran murder detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division for 13 years. Forgive the cliché, however they actually did suppose they’d just about seen all of it.
Then, on April 26, 2007, they bought a name a couple of taking pictures on the Duffey’s home in suburban Whittier:
Linda Duffey to 911: My husband was gonna go taking pictures … and I by accident shot him. We want assist.
911 operator: OK, keep on the road with me ma’am …
The detectives discovered Patrick Duffey lifeless on the sofa; his left hand was in his pocket.
“And his proper knee was being supported by a pillow. Very snug, relaxed,” Sgt. Laren advised “48 Hours” correspondent Richard Schlesinger.
There was blood pooled on the ground and splattered on the wall.
“There was a fairly good sized blood puddle…” Laren mentioned, pointing to the ground on the finish of the sofa the place Patrick Duffey’s head rested.
“Clearly he had a gunshot wound to the top,” mentioned Lt. McCarthy.
The couple’s two teenage sons, Sean and Thomas, had been in school, so Linda was the one surviving witness. Det. Laren had a humorous feeling.
“It regarded like he’d been sleeping on the sofa,” he mentioned, “and anyone simply walked up and shot him in his sleep.”
“I used to be leaning … that this was an accident,” mentioned McCarthy.
Detective McCarthy has been investigating murder circumstances for about 13 years and is aware of tips on how to spot even the tiniest clues. He noticed little or no that made him suspicious.
“Did you guys disagree regularly on circumstances?” Schlesinger requested the detectives.
“I disagree with all of my companions on each case,” McCarthy replied.
“How does that work?” Schlesinger requested.
“I feel we sort of wait till we have now extra info,” mentioned Laren.
“I needed to listen to her story,” mentioned McCarthy.
“She was very entertaining … beloved to inform tales,” mentioned Julie Prendergast, who has been listening to Linda’s tales since they first turned mates in a school music program within the Eighties.
“She mentioned, ‘Properly, really I am from Eire,” Prendergast mentioned. “And he or she began speaking with what I believed was a fairly phony accent. …That was my first indication that Linda was a bit bit completely different.”
Prendergast mentioned Linda may very well be irreverent, even goofy.
“I’d … say, ‘Linda … I am gonna inform you one thing and also you’re gonna need to giggle, however we’re at school proper now so do not giggle out loud.’ And it could simply come out anyway,” she mentioned.
After they left college the 2 mates ended up working on the identical place. And someday, Prendergast mentioned, Linda referred to as with some information.
“She mentioned, ‘I am so excited. I am getting married, and I would such as you to be in my marriage ceremony!'” she mentioned.
Pam Nylen
The groom was a person Linda had met 4 years earlier: Patrick Duffey, a radio engineer, gun fanatic, and personal pilot.
“She simply mentioned it was like her dream come true and he or she could not be happier,” mentioned Prendergast.
Patrick’s sister, Katherine Hunt, mentioned he and Linda had been soul mates and playmates.
“They appeared joyful as a household. …They perceive one another,” she defined. “They had been kidding with one another, joking with one another.”
Linda Duffey to police: We’re simply all the time simply joking round with one another and playing around and having time…
And it was that silliness that turned a cornerstone of Linda’s story when she defined to police what occurred the day she killed her husband:
Linda Duffey to police: And I got here into the household room and he was sitting on the couch…
She mentioned that they had simply come again from a health care provider’s appointment. Patrick had power circulation issues. Linda mentioned he’d been planning to go to the taking pictures vary. His .38, certainly one of three revolvers he stored in the home, was close by.
Linda Duffey to police: We hold it on this little locked field…
Linda advised police she often stayed away from the weapons. However that day, she picked up the .38.
“And the story bought stranger because it went on,” mentioned McCarthy.
Linda Duffey to police: We do that little foolish factor. We all the time sort of relate little foolish conversations to, like, cartoons that we have seen once we had been youthful and stuff. And he does this foolish little Elmer Fudd voice: “No extra buwwets.”
“And he or she claims she mentioned to him, ‘No extra buwwets?’ in Elmer’s Fudd’s voice,” McCarthy defined. “And he or she mentioned his response was, ‘No extra buwwets.'”
Linda mentioned it was a sport they performed on a regular basis. And when her husband mentioned ‘no extra bullets’ in his Elmer Fudd voice, she took it to imply the gun was empty; that it was protected to attempt one thing Patrick had taught her.
“She mentioned that she then needed to impress him by exhibiting him she will be able to shoot it cowboy type,” mentioned McCarthy.
It is referred to as fan firing, and any fan of westerns is aware of it; you maintain the set off down and hold pulling again the hammer so the gun fires rapidly.
Linda Duffey to police: He advised me there was no bullets within the gun.
She mentioned as soon as she began fan firing, she could not cease in time to keep away from hitting her husband, who leaned into the road of fireplace.
Linda Duffey to police [crying]: …and the subsequent factor I do know he —his head was proper there.
“The assertion concerning the fan firing, it simply did not sound correct,” mentioned Laren.
However his associate, Lt. McCarthy, who had heard his share of loopy explanations from suspected killers, listened to that panicked 911 tape, listened to Linda’s story and concluded the story was simply wacky sufficient to be true.
“The overwhelming feeling that I bought from her was she was odd at finest and eccentric at worst,” he mentioned.
After the detectives interviewed Linda for an hour, they let her go residence.
“While you left work that day did you’ve in your thoughts that she was a suspect?” Schlesinger requested McCarthy.
“No,” he replied.
His intestine advised him Linda was harmless, however he’d want extra. He’d want science.
IS FACT STRANGER THAN FICTION?
When he first studied the scene the place Linda Duffey killed her husband, Det. Shaun McCarthy was fairly certain it was an accident. He believed her story that she had reenacted their favourite Bugs Bunny cartoon after which fan fired the gun.
And when he talked to Linda later that day, she mentioned nothing that made him doubt her:
Lt. McCarthy: Begin with while you bought up this morning
Linda Duffey: It’s my fault.
Lt. McCarthy: No, it isn’t your fault. … it is simply that we have to perceive …
Detectives Laren and McCarthy had been starting to grasp extra about what occurred contained in the Duffey residence, particularly after they talked to the medical expert, who had simply executed an post-mortem on Patrick Duffey.
“There was a second gunshot wound,” mentioned McCarthy.
Linda Duffey claimed this was an accident, however she had shot her husband within the head not as soon as, however twice. Consider it or not, even seasoned investigators can miss that sort of clue on the crime scene.
“You would not see the second gunshot wound?” Schlesinger requested.
“As a result of dry blood and the quantity of blood and coagulated blood … we weren’t aware about the second gunshot wound,” mentioned McCarthy.
“What did you make of that?” Schlesinger requested.
“Properly, it is — it definitely was a purple flag,” McCarthy replied.
But it surely was not only a purple flag for McCarthy’s associate, Shannon Laren. It was extra like a vibrant purple arrow pointing proper at Linda Duffey.
“There was so many extremely inconceivable occasions that will’ve needed to have all lined up for this to truly have been an accident,” he defined. “They did not line up.”
Nonetheless, McCarthy was not satisfied. “Why did not you simply say this has bought to be homicide?” Schlesinger requested.
“As a result of I wanted to be satisfied myself that this was homicide,” McCarthy replied. “The very last thing on this planet I wanna do is ship an … harmless particular person to jail for the remainder of their lives.”
It wasn’t sufficient for McCarthy to know what occurred. He needed to know why it occurred.
“We struggled to discover a compelling motive. And we regarded. And we regarded. And we regarded,” he mentioned.
However they could not actually discover one. The Duffeys gave the impression to be a mean center class household dwelling within the Los Angeles suburbs. There was a life insurance coverage coverage on Patrick, however they’d purchased it many years earlier. There was no proof of dishonest. And contemplating her persona, McCarthy could not simply dismiss Linda’s story.
“It is like, ‘OK, perhaps this might’ve occurred the way in which she says, ‘trigger she’s so quirky and eccentric,” he mentioned.
But it surely was about to get a bit more durable for McCarthy to imagine Linda’s story due to Tracy Peck, a firearms professional for the sheriff’s division who was introduced into the case by McCarthy and Laren.
Bear in mind, in keeping with Linda, she fired the way in which they did within the films. It’s doable to try this fairly simply — with the proper of gun.
The weapons used within the cowboy films had been single-action weapons. You’ll be able to simply hold firing rapidly by pulling and releasing the hammer whereas the set off is held again.
“When the hammer is fanned, the cylinder will rotate with this sort of gun. So it’ll fireplace the cartridges within the chambers of the cylinder as its being fanned,” Peck demonstrated.
The Duffeys had two single-action revolvers in the home. However the gun Linda used to shoot her husband was not certainly one of them. It was a double-action revolver — and there is a massive distinction.
“The shooter merely pulls the set off, which accomplishes each cocking the hammer and releasing the hammer. And the gun will fireplace,” Peck demonstrated.
To fast fireplace a double-action revolver, the shooter has to do all kinds of issues on the proper time and in the precise sequence.
Requested if that kind of gun is designed to be fired that manner, Peck mentioned, “No.”
“For the needs of this case, I basically invented a manner through which I’d conceivably fan this. That included pulling the set off, releasing the set off, fanning the hammer, pulling the set off, releasing the set off, and fanning the hammer, however doing it fairly rapidly,” Peck demonstrated.
And Peck mentioned it’s totally laborious to intention whereas doing all that. She mentioned the surprising, deafening noise of the gun, and the recoil, would have alarmed Linda if she did not know the gun was loaded.
Based on Peck, it could have been subsequent to not possible for Linda, who claimed to be an beginner, to shoot her husband twice, quickly by chance — particularly for the reason that wounds had been so shut collectively.
“I do not discover it a really plausible story,” she advised Schlesinger.
“I nonetheless needed to imagine her,” McCarthy mentioned of Linda. “But it surely clearly could not have gone down the way in which that she mentioned it went down.”
By now, Detective McCarthy was all however sure that Patrick Duffey’s loss of life was no accident, however the two detectives felt they did not have sufficient to show it. Due to a heavy workload — it took two years — however in January 2009, McCarthy and Laren introduced Linda again in for an additional chat.
The dialog was recorded:
Linda Duffey to police: He confirmed me tips on how to do it actually quick. He goes, “You gotta do it just like the cowboys.”
“Properly, within the second interview — I feel we had been each satisfied that this was a homicide,” mentioned McCarthy.
The detectives confirmed her a video of Tracy Peck fan firing the gun.
“I feel she was definitely shocked once we defined to her how tough it could be,” McCarthy mentioned. “I might inform the sunshine bulb went on in her mind. And he or she mentioned… I gotta not less than change the story a bit bit.”
Linda now mentioned she and her husband had practiced fan firing with an unloaded revolver for years:
Linda Duffey to police: Possibly like, yeah, 15, 20 occasions.
Requested if he believed her this time, McCarthy advised Schlesinger, “No.”
However the detectives needed to offer Linda one final likelihood to indicate them how she fired the gun. They made her an uncommon provide.
“Meet us on the vary. We’ll convey an actual duplicate and present us how one can fireplace this gun within the method that you just mentioned,” mentioned McCarthy.
The detectives had been sure Linda wouldn’t kill once more, in order that they let her go residence once more and waited to listen to from her about their provide. Days changed into weeks, then months, and life went on on the murder bureau.
“We modified companions,” Det. Laren mentioned. “And when that occurs, you begin getting new circumstances. …And different circumstances begin falling by way of the wayside.”
Because the years handed, Linda may need thought she was off the hook, however her previous was about meet up with her.
“The district legal professional mentioned, ‘I am gonna file this case. And you want to go get her,'” mentioned McCarthy.
A NEW LOOK AT THE CASE
With no information for almost 5 years, Patrick Duffey’s brother, John, and sister, Katherine Hunt, thought the police had determined his loss of life was an accident and had closed the investigation. However Hunt mentioned she had a tough time believing what Linda advised her when she referred to as on that terrible day.
“She was incoherent,” Hunt recalled. “And I mentioned, ‘What occurred?’ ‘He was cleansing his gun, and it by accident went off.'”
Linda advised police that she had shot Patrick by chance, however later that night time she advised his siblings he’d shot himself.
“Might you image him having that sort of an accident? ” Schlesinger requested Hunt.
“No, completely not,” she replied. “We had been raised with weapons.”
“And we had been taught to empty our … weapons earlier than even coming into the home. And that was just like the primary rule,” mentioned John Duffey.
“It was laborious to imagine that he had executed one thing like that,” mentioned Hunt.
And Hunt realized she was proper the day after Patrick died, when she met Linda on the funeral residence.
“I mentioned, ‘The place was he shot?’ And he or she went like this. Similar to that,” she mentioned, tapping the highest of her head. “That is when it hit me that he did not shoot himself… I mentioned, ‘So inform me what actually occurred’ … she mentioned, ‘Oh, you are gonna hate me, you are gonna hate me.’ … I mentioned, ‘No, I am not gonna hate you, however I must know what the reality is.’ …And I mentioned, ‘Did you shoot my brother within the head?’ And he or she mentioned, ‘Sure.'”
It was there, within the funeral residence the place Hunt first heard the story of Elmer Fudd.
“Pat had advised her, ‘No bullets.’ Like, ‘No buwwets,’ like — like Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, as a result of they’d speak in cartoon characters typically,” Hunted laughed. “She thought the gun wasn’t loaded, and it went off. …I could not fairly perceive why she had lied. If it was an accident, it was an accident. However she had lied to us.”
However police nonetheless needed to show she had lied to them about why she shot him. Detectives had interrogated her twice, and launched her twice. The second time they let her go they’d made that uncommon provide to fulfill her on the firing vary.
“We even advised her, ‘it may be at your comfort,'” mentioned McCarthy.
They weren’t shocked once they did not hear again from her and a number of other months later they stopped by the Duffey’s home and noticed a “For Sale” signal. Her sons had been residence.
“And so they mentioned … ‘She’s on her honeymoon in Italy,'” mentioned McCarthy.
Two years after the taking pictures, Linda Duffey was Linda Gwozdz — newly married to Lawrence Gwozdz, a world class saxophone participant.
“Once we Googled him, he was enjoying in Carnegie Corridor,” mentioned McCarthy.
And as soon as once more when marriage ceremony bells rang, so did Julie Prendergast’s telephone.
“She requested me would I sing in that marriage ceremony. And I mentioned, ‘What?'” Prendergast mentioned. “‘Linda, I am not coming to your marriage ceremony. …one thing’s not proper, surrounding the loss of life of Patrick.'”
Prendergast mentioned she was uneasy with how Linda simply moved on.
“She dyed her hair blonde. She was sporting completely different type of garments. She gave the impression to be strolling on air, on clouds, like oh, simply as joyful as may be,” she mentioned.
A yr after taking pictures her first husband, Linda met Gwozdz on-line. She moved to Mississippi the place her new husband was a music professor. She was out of sight, however for detectives Shannon Laren and Shaun McCarthy, she was not out of thoughts.
“Did you neglect about this case? Was there a time frame the place -” Schlesinger requested the detectives.
“Oh, no. Completely not,” Lt. McCarthy replied.
When their workload with their new companions permitted, McCarthy and Laren every turned their consideration again to Linda. They needed to take a brand new take a look at the blood proof with a brand new professional, Paul Delhauer. He studied the pictures and police reviews and concluded Linda needed to be mendacity. Primarily based on her statements, police believed Linda was claiming that she had fired rapidly and from the identical spot.
“She moved and the — the relative place of the gun to the top modified,” mentioned Delhauer.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. 
Standing subsequent to the sofa the place Duffey died, Delhauer mentioned the blood proof advised him rather a lot — particularly the tiny stains on Linda’s clothes and the partitions, referred to as spatter, which he says got here from the primary shot.
“The barrel must be inside about three inches of the top with a purpose to produce the spatter,” he defined.
Delhauer mentioned the second shot created a big pool of blood on the ground — within the precise spot the place Linda mentioned she was standing.
“…she would’ve been getting jets of blood hitting her,” Delhauer identified.
Requested if Linda had any blood on her, Laren mentioned, “Little or no. Very, little or no.”
Police thought they now had proof that Linda was mendacity — she did not have sufficient blood on her after the taking pictures to help her story. Laren and McCarthy thought they knew what actually occurred.
“She took intention, fired one spherical whereas he was sleeping … realized he wasn’t lifeless … comes again on track, fires the second spherical, and that is why they’re inside two inches of one another,” mentioned McCarthy.
They imagine Patrick’s loss of life wasn’t an accident; it was an execution. By 2012, the brand new prosecutor assigned to the case was keen to maneuver forward. And police started speaking to Linda’s co-workers.
“Boy, that was very revealing,” McCarthy mentioned. “They constantly talked about how … she was so charming. However then as time went on, they began discovering out that she was this compulsive liar.”
And Julie Prendergast had just a few tales to inform about her one-time pal’s report when it got here to telling the reality.
“All of us have one gallbladder. Linda had hers eliminated 3 times,” Prendergast mentioned. “Linda simply all the time wanted — appeared to need to have consideration.”
It was sufficient for McCarthy. “I turned completely satisfied that we have to prosecute her,” he mentioned.
Lastly in Could 2012, 5 years after Patrick Duffey’s loss of life, Lt. McCarthy flew to Mississippi the place Linda and her new husband had been dwelling in a snug residence and he or she had gotten a job on the college.
“You knock on the door,” Schlesinger mentioned to McCarthy. “What’s her response?”
“Her response was … ‘I believed the investigation was throughout,'” he replied.
The investigation wasn’t over. McCarthy arrested Linda Duffey Gwozdz for homicide. And everybody was in for some surprises.
LINDA DUFFEY GWOZDZ GOES ON TRIAL
Six years after Linda Duffey shot her husband to loss of life, she thought she was occurring together with her life with a brand new husband, a brand new home, a brand new look, and a brand new city. However now, she was occurring trial for homicide.
“Sadly, on this explicit day, she was going to play with the gun once more like she’d executed so many occasions earlier than and he or she fast fired it into the highest of his head. It was an entire accident,” mentioned her legal professional, Joseph Low.
Low argued that, based mostly partly on the phrases of Elmer Fudd — “No extra buwwets” — Linda thought the .38 revolver was empty.
“Did you ever contemplate the likelihood that this — what we’ll name a Bugs Bunny protection, for lack of a greater time period, may very well be true?” Schlesinger requested Prosecutor Legal professional Robert Villa.
“Zero p.c likelihood it is true,” he replied.
Robert Villa mentioned in 27 years on the job, he is by no means seen a protection rely even partly on a cartoon.
Watching a prosecutor parrot a bunny was a primary for “48 Hours” too, however an official transcript of the cartoon needed to be made.
“Bugs is having a dialog with Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd,” Villa defined earlier than studying the transcript. “‘What are you aware, no extra buwwets.’ After which Bugs Bunny says ‘No extra buwwets?’
“As they’re having this dialog, simply as she was about to fan fireplace the gun, he laid down and put his personal head proper in entrance of the gun,” Villa mentioned of Linda’s account. “It is so ridiculous.”
“You realize and I do know, unusual issues do occur,” Schlesinger famous.
“Unusual issues occur. This wasn’t certainly one of them,” Villa replied. “He was asleep. She shot him within the head twice.”
“It was that easy, open and shut?” Schlesinger requested.
“For me, it was,” mentioned Villa.
But it surely wasn’t so easy for the jury. Over two weeks they heard three recordings of Linda’s statements to authorities about cartoon rabbits and cowboy fan firing. In addition they heard days of testimony from dueling forensics consultants about whether or not Linda’s rationalization made any sense in any respect. It was rather a lot for the jury to contemplate.
“It was tough,” juror Brandie Jones mentioned. “For each professional there’s one other one who can inform you a special story.”
The protection questioned whether or not prosecution professional witness Paul Delhauer was actually an professional in any respect. The jurors deliberated for a day, however couldn’t attain a verdict.
“Only a few of us thought the intent was there,” Jones mentioned. “So how do you convict anyone when it might have occurred precisely the way in which she defined it?”
With a deadlocked jury, the choose had no selection and needed to declare a mistrial.
“It sends a transparent message that the jury wasn’t prepared to convict on homicide,” mentioned protection legal professional Joseph Low.
“Have been you disillusioned?” Schlesinger requested Prosecutor Villa.
“I am all the time disillusioned when there is no verdict, as a result of which means I’ve to do it once more,” he replied.
And roughly one yr later, with Linda having remained in jail, Villa was doing it once more. This time his case could be very completely different – streamlined and easy.
“He laid down on the sofa,” Villa addressed the courtroom in his opening. “His spouse got here as much as him, put a gun between one and 7 inches from his head, and pulled the set off. …A while glided by. She pulled the set off once more.”
He mentioned the Duffey’s marriage was strained and Linda thought she may need to deal with her ailing husband.
“She’s like, ‘I am not gonna wait on this man for the remainder of his life,'” Villa advised Schlesinger.
“This was a premeditated and deliberate homicide,” he advised the courtroom.
For his opening arguments, protection legal professional Joseph Low introduced his personal couch to the courtroom to current this as a easy case.
“No motive, no intent, no crime,” he advised the courtroom. “Pat was her finest pal, and he or she was his. … One of many issues they beloved to do is to observe cartoons collectively… They had been kinda goofy.”
However there are various elements to this trial which can be, if you’ll, offbeat.
Choose John Torribio has a fame for lightening the ambiance for the jury.
“One among you requested the clerk about how the cameras work. Properly, they’re solely on me,” Choose Torribio joked to the jurors, who laughed in response. “I am the star, so don’t fret.”
However issues rapidly bought severe when the district legal professional took jurors again to the second proper after Linda Duffey shot her husband:
Linda Duffey to 911: My husband was going to go taking pictures and he was exhibiting me tips on how to use a gun and I shot him. … He mentioned there have been no bullets within the gun! …I believed that is what he advised me.
“It is laborious to make out among the phrases ‘trigger she will be able to’t even speak,” Low advised jurors about Lind;a 911 name to police.
“She sounds terrified and frantic to me. What does she sound wish to you?” Schlesinger requested Villa.
“She feels like somebody who’s performing,” he replied.
Utilizing the firearm to reveal, Tracy Peck advised the jury Linda needed to pull the set off on the gun twice to get two bullets to fireplace.
“If I don’t launch the set off, the cylinder won’t advance,” she testified.
The massive shock on this trial is what prosecutor Robert Villa leaves out.
“I ask that folks’s displays 1 by way of 35 be admitted into proof, and with that I relaxation,” he advised the courtroom.
“I rested my case after mainly two-and-a-half days,” he advised Schlesinger.
Not like the primary trial, there was little or no dense forensic testimony about blood stains and, most crucially, he didn’t introduce Linda’s taped interviews with police, the place she first mentioned Bugs Bunny.
“There was no want for Bugs Bunny,” Schlesinger famous to Villa.
“No want, except she took the stand,” he mentioned.
Villa has thrown protection legal professional Joseph Low a curve ball. For the reason that protection is not allowed to introduce the police interrogations except the State does first, the one manner jurors will hear Linda’s aspect of the story is that if she takes the stand and exposes herself to cross examination.
“Have been you hoping she would take the stand?” Schlesinger requested.
“Completely,” Villa replied.
“Have been you prepared?”
“Completely.”
Low started his protection with offense. His first witness was the detective who at first didn’t suppose Linda was a murderess:
Joseph Low: While you’re executed asking her questions, you allowed Mrs. Duffey to go residence.
Lt. Shaun McCarthy: Appropriate.
“Speaking to her … was very convincing to me,” McCarthy advised Schlesinger. “She was eccentric and, how might she hurt anyone?”
Joseph Low: You wouldn’t let anyone who you thought had simply dedicated a homicide return out on the road … Is not that right, sir?
Robert Villa: Objection, relevance.
Choose Torribio: Sustained.
“That night time I preferred her. Because the investigation went on, I preferred her rather a lot much less,” mentioned McCarthy.
Low tried to color a sympathetic image of Linda by calling her sons to the stand.
“She’s a really emotional, caring particular person,” Thomas Duffey testified.
“We had been all the time actually joyful,” Sean Duffey advised the courtroom. “They preferred cartoons rather a lot. They had been all the time making humorous jokes to one another … all the time poked enjoyable at one another and stuff.”
The protection has a really massive resolution to make: will Linda take the stand herself?
“And if she took the stand, we had been gonna hear all about Bugs Bunny,” mentioned Villa.
Linda determined to not take the stand. Nervous that the jury will hear nothing about fan firing, her lawyer comes up with an concept.
“I would wish to refer the courtroom and counsel to web page 5 of the 911 transcript,” Low addressed the courtroom.
He discovered a reference to it within the 911 tape prosecutors have already launched.
“A very long time in the past he confirmed me tips on how to pull the factor again on the highest of the gun and pull the set off it quick,” the Choose Torribio learn aloud.
So Low is allowed to name firearms professional Lance Martini, who mentioned fan firing a double-action gun like Linda claims she did is not so far-fetched in any case.
Lance Martini: This may be executed. It isn’t overly frequent, but it surely definitely may be executed.
Joseph Low: Is it humanly doable to shoot multiple spherical in lower than a second? Double-action mode?
Lance Marini: Sure it’s.
“There is not any manner, completely no manner that it occurred that manner,” Villa advised Schlesinger.
In his closing, Villa advised jurors, “This was an execution.”
The jurors in Linda’s second trial by no means bought to see any cartoons, however they did see an animation produced by the prosecutor. It’s no laughing matter; it makes an attempt to reply a lethal severe query: what occurred to Patrick Duffey?
The video animation of a girl taking pictures her husband within the head twice does not depart a lot to creativeness, though the protection, in closing arguments, mentioned it and the remainder of the State’s case are all a fantasy.
“She by accident shot her husband,” Low advised the courtroom. “It ain’t proper, it isn’t truthful to guess anyone right into a conviction, guess anyone right into a concrete tomb.”
“All of it comes down as to if it is one phrase or two phrases from the jury,” Schlesinger commented to Villa. “Responsible or not responsible.”
“Appropriate,” he replied.
A TALE OF TWO JURIES
It has been an extended street – now almost seven years since Patrick Duffey died and one yr after a jury deadlocked in his spouse’s first homicide trial. This time, the jury got here again in simply over 24 hours:
“We the jury above and titled motion discover the defendant Linda Doreen Gwozdz responsible of the crime of second-degree homicide…”
The responsible verdict floored Linda, who collapsed whereas leaving the courtroom. It hit her lawyer laborious, too; he waved off the digicam. For his half, the prosecutor is extra relieved than the rest.
“I am happy that I haven’t got to attempt it a 3rd time,” Villa mentioned.
“You noticed how she reacted,” Schlesinger commented to Villa.
“Sure,” he mentioned. “I’ve all the time thought she was an actress, so, that was her second.”
Patrick Duffey’s sister, Katherine Hunt, has waited years for today.
“That is the primary time I noticed her actually cry,” she mentioned following the decision. “She did not get away with murdering my brother.”
When it got here time to condemn Linda three months later, it was her final likelihood to deal with the courtroom:
“I needed to let all of you understand how grieved I really feel. Most of all to Patrick and — my stunning sons, Sean and Thomas, since you misplaced such a loving fantastic father,” she mentioned.
Her sons attempt their finest to ask for leniency.
“If there’s something you are able to do to assist out with my household,” Sean Duffey mentioned in courtroom, “that is all I can ask.”
“I imagine she’s harmless, and I’ll till the day I die,” Thomas Duffey advised the choose.
Linda’s second husband, Larry Gwozdz, additionally appealed to the choose.
“To say that this was a premeditated purposeful act, I am sorry. It is unacceptable to me,” he mentioned.
“Take a look at these two individuals, superbly in love,” Gwozdz continued, shakily holding up a photograph of himself and Linda. “Why? As a result of she’s an exquisite human being … who does not deserve this.”
However the choose does not have a lot leeway.
“On this explicit occasion the legislation mandates 40 to life, and my oath requires that I impose that,” he mentioned.
“48 Hours” discovered it curious that one jury couldn’t agree on a verdict in any respect and a second jury convicted Linda in a day. It’s ironic, however in these two trials it is apparently true, that, within the case towards Linda Duffey Gwozdz, much less was extra.
“48 Hours” sat down with jurors from each trials to see why one jury rapidly reached a verdict, whereas the opposite by no means did.
Bear in mind, the jury that convicted Linda solely heard the naked bones prosecution — little or no about fan firing or cartoons.
“They heard much more than you heard,” Schlesinger commented to the jurors from the second trial.
“And we are able to solely make the choice based mostly off of the proof that we heard,” mentioned juror Danielle Wong.
The jurors from each trials — those who heard the lengthy story and those who heard it made quick — sat round our desk and contemplated: whereas much less could also be extra, is it sufficient?
“You are placing a girl away for the remainder of her life, so current every thing,” mentioned Brandie Jones, a juror within the first trial, who voted not responsible.
“I feel I actually need to agree with Brandie. Possibly all of the proof ought to be introduced,” mentioned Wong.
“Do you know she gave an interview to police?” Schlesinger requested.
“Uh-uh,” Wong replied, shaking her head “no.”
“Would you’ve preferred to?” Schlesinger requested.
“I’d have beloved to listen to what she needed to say. Would which have modified my resolution? Do not know. Probably,” Wong replied.
“In the event you had heard every thing … do you suppose it could have affected the deliberations?” Schlesinger requested.
“Completely,” mentioned Wong.
And although they made their resolution, among the jurors who convicted Linda nonetheless have questions.
“Did it hassle you that they by no means mentioned precisely why she did it?” Schlesinger requested.
“Um, yeah, it did,” mentioned Wong.
“How’d you recover from that?”
“I am not over it. I nonetheless wanna know!” she replied.
“After I heard the responsible verdict, I mentioned, ‘Yay, justice is lastly served,” mentioned Julie Prendergast.
Prendergast has little doubt the second jury did the precise factor by discovering her former pal responsible. And he or she wonders how Linda’s life, which was as soon as so joyful, turned so unhappy.
“I am unhappy for everybody concerned … These two boys misplaced their father. And now, they’re shedding their mom,” she mentioned. “It is a tragic story … in each manner you possibly can give it some thought.”
