Battered North Carolina wife refuses to be a victim
December 3, 2004
Associated Press
Woman Will Not Be Charged For Shooting Husband
Husband Had Cut Phone Line, Parked Far Away
WADESBORO, N.C. -- A woman won't face charges after she shot and killed her
husband, who had cut her telephone line and used a shovel to break open her
door following weeks of domestic violence.
Joy Burgess, 26, shot Brian Lee Gathings, 29, with a handgun about 5:30 a.m.
Wednesday. Seconds earlier, he used a short-handle shovel to pry open her back
door, Anson County Sheriff Tommy W. Allen Jr. said Thursday.
The couple's 6-year-old daughter was asleep in the house at the time.
Gathings was pronounced dead at the scene with a single bullet wound to the
chest. Gathings had cut Burgess' telephone line outside the house and parked
his pickup truck about a mile away, Allen said.
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Burgess had taken out a domestic violence protective order against Gathings
after a series of abusive acts, including a break-in last month. The couple was
due in court Thursday for a hearing.
Records show Gathings had been jailed five times since July 22, including
charges of assault by pointing a gun, assault on a female, domestic criminal
trespass, and telephone harassment.
Each time Gathings was jailed, his bond was increased. But after a Nov. 22
domestic trespass charge, Gathings was denied bond until his required 48-hour
hearing where District Court Judge Joe Williams set bond at $15,000. Gathings
parents bailed him out of jail.
"The restraining order was not worth the paper it was wrote on," said Angela
Burgess, Joy's mother.
"The last time he broke in, my husband nailed the windows down, which I didn't
like in case of a fire. And he still broke in. I'm sorry that it came to this,
but she did everything she could."
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Right to self-defense coming too late for some domestic violence victims
Akron: Yet another attack after ''restraining'' order fails to restrain
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