Jury considers whether woman intended to kill

Published 9:00 pm Friday, May 21, 2004

Maryann Scales went to get a spoon for her pudding and opened the utensil drawer.

She was shocked to find a .38-caliber pistol there, one that her friend J. Darwin Owenby had promised to keep locked in a case and hidden away, she told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury Friday.

Her teenage son, years before, had been killed by an accidental gunshot, and she was enraged by the sight of a weapon so close at hand, she testified.

Scales, 46, of Marysville told the jury that she took some steps toward Owenby seeking an explanation and waving the gun back and forth.

“The next thing that happened is, I heard a big noise,” she testified. “I don’t remember pulling the trigger. I just know it went off.”

She is accused of second-degree murder in Owenby’s death. Her testimony is being considered by the jury, which got the case late Friday. The panel will resume deliberations Monday morning.

Besides acquittal and the murder, the jury could decide that she was reckless or negligent in handling the gun and convict her of manslaughter.

Defense lawyer Pete Mazzone of Everett argued that she certainly should not be found guilty of murder. She loved Owenby, and the shooting was an accident, Scales told jurors.

Although they sometimes had a stormy relationship, “in her mind J.D. Owenby was her Romeo,” Mazzone said

According to testimony, Scales lived with Owenby for about three years, but their dream of building a machinist’s shop on property outside Marysville stalled. She claimed he beat her up a week before the Aug. 16 shooting, and she left.

She returned to the motor home vowing to either leave him for good, or they would both seek treatment for alcoholism.

Both of them had drunk a substantial amount of beer by the time Scales found the pistol in the drawer.

After the shooting, she drove to a friend’s house, testifying that she was looking for the Snohomish County sheriff’s precinct but missed the turn.

She later rang the buzzer at a fire station, and police were summoned. She testified that she never checked to see how badly Owenby was injured.

Scales told police and firefighters a variety of stories, including that she thought the gun’s safety was on and that she pulled the trigger because Owenby was starting to beat her again.

Deputy prosecutor John Stansell told jurors they were there to judge Scales because she committed a crime, not because of an accident or something unavoidable.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.