Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401200032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium
Connie James' statement and the testimony of John Bobbitt's relatives on the sixth day of Lorena Bobbitt's malicious wounding trial painted a picture of a jealous woman with a mean streak who sometimes hit her husband.
Bobbitt, meantime, took the stand for a third time and said he never forced his wife to have an abortion or to have anal sex, as she claimed.
Lorena Bobbitt, 24, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. A native of South America, she could be deported.
Defense attorneys are trying to prove she is innocent by arguing she was temporarily insane because of what she tearfully described as years of physical and sexual abuse. She said she mutilated him early on June 23, 1993, after he came home from a night of drinking and raped her.
James said that in 1990 she and Lorena Bobbitt had a general discussion about infidelity one day at work and what they would do if their husbands cheated.
James said she jokingly suggested that she would kill her husband.
"I asked Lorena what she'd do. Lorena stated, `I would cut his [penis] off. That would hurt him more than just killing him,' " she said.
Bobbitt testified last week that she never made such a statement.
James said she saw a television program on the Bobbitts shortly after the attack. "I said, `Oh my God, that's the couple with the penis, and we know them. I can't believe she went through with it.' "
Prosecutor Paul Ebert asked James what Bobbitt's mood was when they had the conversation.
"She appeared to be serious. She wasn't joking. She didn't say anything after that," James said.
But Blair Howard, Bobbitt's attorney, suggested that James' joking remark showed the conversation wasn't meant to be serious.
He also questioned James about the names of the other women who worked at the nail salon where she and Bobbitt were employed. When she could not be specific, Howard asked: "So things that happened back in 1990 are a little unclear to you?"
James insisted she remembered the conversation.
On Tuesday, Lorena Bobbitt's psychiatrist testified that the couple's two separations were caused by John Bobbitt's infidelity. He claims he left his wife because he found out that she was stealing money from her employer.
Bobbitt's aunt, who raised him, gave emotional testimony Wednesday about how Lorena Bobbitt kept up a telephone campaign to persuade her husband to return during the couple's nearly yearlong separation in 1991 and 1992.
Todd Biro, a cousin of John Bobbitt who lived with the couple shortly after they married, said he once saw Lorena Bobbitt attack her husband when they couldn't get into a nightclub because he was wearing running shoes.
by CNB