SALEM, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts woman repeatedly proclaimed her innocence in a recorded interview with police that was played for the jurors at her murder trial on Tuesday.
Judy Church sits in court during her murder trial. (Court TV)
Judy Church, 67, is accused of killing her live-in boyfriend, Leroy Fowler, with antifreeze. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a police interview played for the jury on Tuesday, Church admitted that she was overwhelmed and unsure what to do when she was read her Miranda rights. “I did nothing wrong,” she said as they began. “I feel like I’m going to be behind bars and I’m scared,” she continued. “Can I refuse to sign this?”
Church eventually signed the form and walked officers through her relationship with Fowler, who was pronounced dead on Nov. 13, 2022, the day before the interview took place and two days after he was taken to the hospital. She told officers that Fowler had a second girlfriend, Barbara Randall, who Church claimed provided Fowler with Percocet. The defendant told officers she had been dating Fowler for approximately 10 years and that Fowler had also been dating Randall for the past six years.
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On Nov. 11, 2022, Fowler’s birthday, Church said the day began normally: she found him at midnight watching pornography on his phone on the porch. She asked if he wanted to open his presents, but he said he wanted to do it later, “which never came,” she said.
Judy Church is seen speaking to police in a recorded interview played in court. (Court TV)
At 6:30 a.m., Church said that she was awoken by Fowler when he came into the bedroom and said, “My legs won’t work. I just fell three times.” She got up and helped him to go to the bathroom. She managed to get him back to the bedroom, and then the two had intercourse. After, she said, he turned to her and said, “I’m gonna die, you know that, don’t you?” she testified. “He’d actually said those words to me before, and usually after sex, he says, ‘You’re killing me.’ This time it was different.”
When Church’s attorney asked whether he seemed “physically and mentally coherent” when they had sex, she replied, “Well, he was lying down.”
Church said she dozed off and then at 7:15 a.m., Fowler reached for her and then fell out of bed. “I put a pillow under his head thinking, oh, he’ll just, you know, whatever it is, sleep it off on the floor. But he just continued to try to get up and try to get up and I tried to help him.”
Prosecutors previously showed the jury videos saved on Church’s cellphone that showed Fowler unable to speak intelligibly and falling over on the floor.
One comment Church made to police appeared to bolster the prosecution’s case: she told police that Fowler’s preferred drink was orange soda. Randall and other witnesses who previously testified in Church’s trial have said that Fowler’s drink of choice was red Powerade. A red Powerade bottle was found at the home with orange residue similar to the residue seen in an empty bottle of RainX de-icer found at the home.
