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Danehy A jury's strange decision may let a murderer back on the streets in a decade
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DanehyA jury's strange decision may let a murderer back on the streets in a decadeby Tom DahenyDawn Wear is going to prison; of that much, we're sure. What is left to decide is for how long, and that is a point of great contention. It's been one year, almost to the day, since Wear walked into her husband's place of business on Nogales Highway and fired a shotgun into the back of Annette Lucas, killing the 36-year-old married mother of two. Dawn Wear was convinced that her husband of 20 years, Ron, was having an affair with Lucas and, well, she certainly took care of that, didn't she? After fatally wounding Lucas, Dawn Wear calmly walked out of the office, still holding the gun, and answered her husband's frantic questions of "Why?! Why?!" with "You know why." It should be noted that Ron Wear has never admitted to having an affair with Lucas, and no evidence was presented at the trial to back up that allegation. All we have on that point are Dawn Wear's suspicions and hearsay accounts of conversations she may or may not have had with her husband the weekend before the murder. This didn't stop local media outlets from running with the prurient angle. An Arizona Daily Star article printed during the trial in January of this year began, "The day after she learned that her husband of 20 years was having an affair with a co-worker ..." Certainly, the possibility exists that Ron Wear and Annette Lucas were treading outside the bounds of their respective marriages. It could have been anywhere from flirting to fondling to fornicating. Or it could have been nothing at all, simply the idle thoughts of small-minded people who have little better to do than imagine the worst in others. Whatever the case, last I checked (in this particular desert region of the world, anyway), adultery isn't punishable by death. According to the convicted murderer's testimony, she and her husband had been on a dune-buggy getaway in Yuma the weekend before the killing, when he allegedly told her about his relationship with Lucas. Then she and her husband had sex a couple of times (which certainly would have been my reaction to such news), and then they returned home. He was called into work the next morning, leaving her alone in the house. Now, if we are to believe her account (and, give her credit, because a majority of the jury obviously did): · She looked around the house for some rope with which to hang herself, but found a shotgun in a closet instead. · Thought about killing herself at home, but decided on Madera Canyon instead. She got in her car with the loaded shotgun and eight or nine extra shells. What, in case she sorta missed? It would be a bitch to reload under those circumstances. · Drove to Desert Valley Landscaping, where both her husband and Lucas worked, thinking that it would be cool to blow her brains out in front of one or both of them. · Walked into the office where the victim worked and shot Lucas in the back. The shot came from so close to Lucas' back that virtually nothing else in the office was hit by the blast — not the phone, not the computer, not pictures on the wall. · Almost a year later, she tells a jury that it was all an accident, a suicide attempt gone awry, and would swear under oath that she didn't even see the victim sitting there when she pulled the trigger. What's not to believe? The jury deliberated less than three hours and came back with a guilty verdict. However, it was inexplicably for second-degree murder, which carries with it a sentence of anywhere from 10 to 22 years, depending on the discretion of the judge (the Honorable John Leonardo, in this particular case). While it's a myth that women never use guns for suicide, they do so at a rate roughly one-fifth that of men. And for those who do go that route, the weapon of choice is, in almost all cases, a small-caliber handgun. That 4-foot-9 Dawn Wear would use a 30-inch shotgun to commit suicide is, at best, a long shot. (Pun unavoidable.) The law being what it is — an ass — the jury was allowed to freelance, despite the fact that her story had more holes in it than Harry Whittington's face. It's bizarre that someone could attempt to rob a convenience store with a screwdriver, and if a customer happens to have a heart attack during the robbery, the thief could get life in prison. But if someone walks into a place of business with a loaded shotgun and kills a woman with whom she is furious, the murderer could be back on the street in a decade. There is speculation that some or all of the women on the jury somehow sympathized with Wear's situation. For that matter, maybe some of the jury's men were glad she didn't shoot her husband. Whatever the case, the jury fumbled the ball. Here's hoping that Judge Leonardo, who has a football background, picks it up and throws it the maximum distance. #
The UA showed a lack of heart when it revoked Sarah Low's music scholarshipby Tom DahenySarah Low knows pain almost as well as she knows her Rachmaninoff. The UA student is at a crossroads in her career and her life, and as she prepares to make decisions on options that range from lousy to horrible, the big, bad university is poised to dump serious insult atop her chronic injury. Things were great for Sarah not that long ago. She was a top student and a volleyball player at Ironwood Ridge High School. The volleyball team at the newly opened school was making quite a name for itself and would explode into the state championship game her senior year. Meanwhile, Sarah, as an individual, was making a run at a state title as well. A classically trained pianist since age 4, Sarah was a finalist in a Rachmaninoff competition and was drawing raves for her virtuoso performances of the difficult works of the Russian composer. But then the pain started. It really wasn't much at first, but she definitely felt something in her hands. Because of her relatively diminutive stature, she had always played back row in volleyball, diving and digging the spikes that the opposing team sent her way. But her incongruous hands have long fingers that almost appear to have an extra set of knuckles on them. The fingers helped her play Rachmaninoff, considered by some to be the most challenging of all classical composers. According to KUAT-FM's James Reel, Tucson's Casey Kasem of classical (and the Weekly's arts editor), Rachmaninoff's work requires an almost awkward spreading of the fingers. Reel says that the average pianist's hand, spread wide from the end of the thumb to the tip of the pinky, can cover about an octave on a piano keyboard. "But Rachmaninoff's hands could cover an octave-and-a-half," explains Reel, "from middle C to high G." Sarah was so good that she received a full scholarship to study piano at the UA. She wanted to delve into theory and composition, but most of all, to continue to work on her playing. She had been branching off into Chopin and was working on some compositions of her own. But the pain began to spread, first into her wrists, then up her arms, into her shoulders and then to her neck and back. Being something of a fitness junkie, she tried different forms of exercise, yoga and relaxation techniques — anything to keep from having to go the pharmaceutical route, which she felt would have a dulling effect on her playing. She did give up volleyball before her senior year of high school and had to watch as her former teammates made it all the way to the Class 4A state championship game. When that didn't work, she began seeing doctors. There was some concern because rheumatoid arthritis has shown up in her extended family; one relative has had to endure five hip replacement surgeries. But the doctors couldn't find anything physical to explain the pain. And when that happens, half the doctors start thinking "shrink," while the other half reach for their prescription pads. "This one doctor started writing me a prescription before I was halfway through my explanation," she explains in frustration. "I don't want to take medicine; I really don't." She can still play the piano for short stretches, but nowhere near long enough to approach what she used to be able to do. She continues to study music, but has now been informed by the university that her scholarship is being revoked because she is unable to perform musically at a high level. I tried to ask somebody at the UA about this, but everybody these days hides behind the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which probably sounded like a good idea at first, but is used to cover all sorts of ills. She'll be leaving town in a couple weeks to attend a summer program at UC-Berkeley. After that, she's not sure what she'll do. "I might take a semester off to just work. If they do take away my scholarship, I'll have to find a way to pay my way through school. Plus, if I'm not in the music department any more, I'm going to have to start all over again in another major." She realizes that there are people far less fortunate than she, but she's still seriously bummed. "The other night, I was watching ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ and there's this part about halfway through where they're playing the piano, and I just started crying. It was so sad." Oddly enough, when I was watching it with my wife, I had the exact same experience, but with me, it was because I realized that we were still only halfway through the movie. She's holding on to the small hope that taking some time off will make things better. But even if she can't play, she can still study and compose. "I have a lot of music in me," she says. Let's hope that the university finds its heart and helps her bring that music out. #
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