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Former Navy midshipman takes the stand in her defense
February 10, 1998
Zamora
Web posted at: 2:52 p.m. EST (1952 GMT)FORT WORTH, Texas (CNN) -- Former Navy midshipman Diane Zamora took the stand in her own defense Tuesday in her trial for murdering a 16-year-old romantic rival.
In an occasionally quaking voice, at times halting and uncertain, Zamora testified she came from a troubled family that was filled with fighting and sometimes physically violent.
She said at one point she used her mother's nursing instruments in a suicide attempt.
"I took her scalpels and tried to slash my wrists," she said. "I used her hypodermic needles to try to hurt myself. I felt like it was my fault."
Zamora and her ex-fiancé David Graham, a former Air Force cadet, are accused of killing 16-year-old Adrianne Jones in December 1995. Graham, who is accused of shooting Jones, will be tried at a later date.
Under initial questioning from her attorney, John Linebarger, Zamora described a childhood and adolescence in a relatively poor family, the college scholarships she won and her career goal of one day becoming an astronaut. She also testified that she was upset by her father's affairs with other women.
She answered a series of questions about an automobile accident and Graham's growing influence in her life and her first sexual experience with him. She said her first time with Graham was not voluntary and that she had been influenced at the time by pain medication.
Zamora said she was very depressed, had low self-esteem and inflicted shallow wounds to her wrist at one time when her parents argued. She worried that she would not be accepted into the military academies because of injuries to her hand in an automobile accident, she said.
Zamora also testified that Graham owned or co-owned with friends a large number of guns. She said Graham generally carried a weapon when they went out together.
The primary strategy of Zamora's defense has been to attack a confession she gave police after her 1996 arrest, saying the statement was given under duress.
Forensic expert Edward Hueske testified Monday that splattered blood on Miss Jones' thighs could suggest that she was carried to the field where her body was found.
"It is possible that she was carried. ... The blood on her legs is consistent with quite a bit of handling of the body," Hueske said.
According to Zamora's confession, the victim escaped the car in which she was being attacked through a passenger window and fled to a nearby field, where she ran into a barbed-wire fence and collapsed. There was no mention of the victim being carried.
Hueske conceded under cross-examination that the blood on Jones' legs also could have come from her hands, which were covered in blood.
Related stories:
- Ex-friend testifies cadet accused of murder admitted guilt - February 3, 1998
- Judge rules ex-midshipman's alleged confession admissible - January 30, 1998
- Jury selection begins in midshipman murder trial - January 20, 1998
- Teen murder case goes on TV before it goes to court - February 6, 1997
Related sites:
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- Texas v. Zamora: "The Diane Zamora Trial" - Court TV Online
- The Trial of Diane Zamora - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Sealed In Blood - People Magazine
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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