By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
COUPEVILLE — The trial for a Camano Island woman accused of killing her benefactor boyfriend almost four years ago will get under way today at the Island County Law and Justice Center.
Jury selection is expected to start Wednesday.
Linda H. Miley faces charges of first-degree murder and first-degree theft in Island County Superior Court. Prosecutors say Miley, 58, shot her boyfriend, Jack J. Pearson, five times with a .38-caliber pistol in the early morning hours of Dec. 19, 1997.
Miley originally told investigators that she saw Pearson struggling with a masked man in the kitchen of their Camano Island home, and she ran to a neighbor’s house after shots rang out.
She changed her story about a month later, prosecutors say, and claimed she shot Pearson in self-defense because she was afraid Pearson was going to rape her.
During a re-enactment of the evening of the murder, Miley told detectives she had taken $19,500 from Pearson’s safe in his Victorian-style home on Vesper Way so she could hide it from the masked burglar. The money was found hidden in the bottom of a make-up kit in a bedroom closet.
According to court papers, Miley also told detectives that she had been arguing with Pearson, who had told her he would no longer support her and added, in writing, that she needed "a job and a change of residence."
Pearson, who was 68 at the time of his death, was the founder of J.J. Pearson Construction, a successful business that concentrated on public works contracts. He retired in his early 50s.
Prosecutors say Miley’s self-defense claim runs counter to the evidence found in the home; specifically, that Pearson must have been on the floor or close to it when one of the bullets went through a bar stool before hitting him.
Beyond self-defense, Tom Pacher, Miley’s attorney, is also expected to argue that Miley had a "diminished capacity" at the time of Pearson’s death and could not have had the intent necessary for first-degree murder.
You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.
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