Man charged with murder testifies

LA MARQUE — A defendant accused of fatally shooting his fiancee took the witness stand Tuesday and admitted “tussling” with her over control of a loaded handgun before the weapon fired, hitting her in the chest.

Kenneth Joel Loftis, 26, was charged with murder in the June 15, 2010, shooting death of Monique Powell, 26, in their La Marque apartment. Loftis pleaded not guilty in the case.

Prosecutors Xochitl Vandiver-Gaskin and Jared Robinson said the shooting was no accident, as defense attorneys Dena Fisher and Neal Tripp Davis III claim.

Vandiver-Gaskin re-enacted with Loftis the last moments of Powell’s life and the struggle over the gun. Loftis claims he put the gun in his pants and Powell reached in his pocket for the weapon.

“She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds,” Vandiver-Gaskin told the jury in her closing statement. “Is it safer for him to take that gun out of his pocket? No. That’s not what happened. Monique was desperately fighting to keep this gun from being pointed at her chest.”

Fisher asked Loftis if Monique pulled the trigger.

“I don’t know,” Loftis said. “We were tussling over it.”

Gave Gun To Friend

Prosecutors asked the jury to convict Loftis of murder and tampering with physical evidence, saying he went outside and gave the gun to a friend as his fiancee was on the apartment floor, dying.

The struggle over control of the gun spawned from an argument over money missing from the apartment. The couple had a tumultuous relationship that twice had police called to their apartment to investigate allegations of assaults and injuries, testimony revealed.

“Monique’s final words were, ‘you shot me,’” Robinson said. “It was a love story with a tragic ending ... I cannot blame Ms. Powell for fighting back, for not putting up with verbal abuse.”

Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, the county’s chief medical examiner, testified last week to Powell injuries suffered the day she died.

“She’s got defensive wounds to her hands,” Robinson said. “She was struck in the face. She was struck in the stomach. She was struck in the thigh ... and by the way, she was shot in the chest, and all he ends up with is a busted lip.”

After the gun was given to police, a state forensic scientist found Loftis’ DNA on it but not Powell’s, Robinson said.

Other DNA Found

Davis claimed testimony revealed there was other DNA on the weapon that belonged to someone other than Loftis. That DNA, however, wasn’t suitable for comparison, Davis said.

“I bet you that’s hers,” Davis said.

Davis criticized the police investigation, saying authorities didn’t test Loftis’ shoes or his shorts, which were found and photographed in his apartment. Authorities also didn’t test the shirt the gun was wrapped in when it was handed to police, Davis said.

Davis also claimed when Loftis handed the gun to a friend, it wasn’t an effort to conceal it permanently. When police arrived and asked for the gun, he immediately began trying to retrieve it, Davis said.

The defense rested its case Tuesday after Loftis left the stand, and the jury deliberated for less than an hour before retiring for the day. The jury of six men and six women were expected to return this morning to Judge Wayne J. Mallia’s 405th District Court in Galveston to resume deliberation.

If the panel doesn’t acquit Loftis, it has three charges to consider, murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.