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Leslie "Lester" Smith Claims 'Suicide By Boyfriend' Defense in Murder of Jaquelyn Gore

By Pete Kotz in homicide
Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Leslie-Smith_opt.jpg
​Relatives admit that 48-year-old Jaquelyn Larue Gore could get a mean mouth when she got drunk, which was often. And that venom was largely directed at her boyfriend, 63-year-old Leslie "Lester" Smith. He'd already moved out of his house in Wake Forest, North Carolina...

That was on the recommendation of police following an argument. But he returned home on July 26 of last year to get his medication. He also went next door to get a gun he'd left with the neighbors. Bad idea.

When he returned to the house, he says he found that Jaquelyn was trying to sell his guitars. At the time, Lester had been laid off from his job just two days before. He was also undergoing tests for cancer. And to top it all off, he claims his live-in sweetheart had a history of heavy drinking and violence, depression, suicidal episodes and promiscuity. This does not make a stable relationship.

According to Lester, he lost it. He pulled the gun after becoming pissed about the guitars. But Jaquelyn continued to taunt him, telling him to pull the trigger. So that's just what he did, shooting her point blank in the chest and killing her.

Lester is now on trial, and his lawyer has come up with a novel defense: Suicide by Boyfriend. It's similar to suicide by cop, where a guy decides to shoot it out with police so they'll kill him, since he's too chickenshit to do it on his own. Lawyer Karl Knudsen is essentially implying that Jaquelyn wanted to get whacked -- or at least egged Lester on -- and he merely obliged her.

But the record doesn't quite back up that thesis. When he called 911 after the shooting, the dispatched asked him if he'd performed CPR. The transcript:

"I don't wanna help her," he told the operator.

"You don't want to help her?" the dispatcher responds.

"She's dead."

"She's dead?"

"Sure looks like it."

Then there's Lester's interview with detectives following the shooting. He told police that "I can't justify this. I mean, it's stupid. Like you said, I could have just beat the shit out of her."

For those of you scoring at home, it sounds like a man down on his luck who just lost it, rather than an innocent boyfriend forced to shoot the woman he loved.

See our last tale of murder: Teacher Kathleen Dorsett and Her Father Charged With Murdering Ex-Hubby Stephen Moore.

Tags: Gooberville, North Carolina

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