WOODLAND — Susan Hoskins’ ultimate fate hinges upon which of her stories the jury believes.
Was it her initial account, that she shot her husband in their Woodland condo “because he’s an a—— and he kept calling me a whore,” as she calmly told a 911 dispatcher on the night of Aug. 3, 2014?
Or was it her later claim of self-defense against Bryan Hoskins Sr.’s drunken rage, that she feared for her safety after years of suffering physical, emotional and psychological abuse?
Attorneys presented those conflicting scenarios during closing arguments this week in the monthlong trial, which reached the jury-deliberation stage Thursday afternoon.
Now, the nine-woman, three-man jury must decide whether Hoskins is guilty of first-degree murder or a lesser offense, or if her actions were sufficiently justified to warrant an acquittal.
“I’m not asking you to like Bryan Hoskins,” said Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Palumbo, who along with prosecutor Jay Linden conceded the victim wasn’t the most endearing of people. “But I’m asking you to remember that he’s a human being, and that as he lay dying, Susan Hoskins, a nurse, stood over his body and didn’t give him any assistance.”
Defense attorney J. Tony Serra, meanwhile, referred to his client as the true victim in the case, thrust into a state of depression and anxiety after years of abuse that Serra compared to water torture inflicted upon prisoners of war.
“Each drop permeates the psyche. … Ultimately, you become mad, and that’s what happened to her,” Serra told the jury. “She was in imminent, reasonable threat of great bodily injury, and what she did was a reasonable act of self-defense.”
Bryan Hoskins, 60, died of a gunshot wound to his chest that pierced both his aorta and his lung.
Palumbo reminded the jury there was no mention of either fear or abuse when Susan Hoskins called 911 to report the shooting. Nor did it come up during her 45-minute interview with a Woodland police detective, who upon asking the defendant’s intent that night was told, “I just wanted him to shut up.”
Seeking a first-degree murder verdict, prosecutors say Susan Hoskins acted with malice aforethought, well aware that shooting a .22-caliber pistol from 11 feet away was dangerous to human life.
“She escalated the violence” by grabbing the gun just seconds after arriving home after a day of motorcycle-riding and bar-hopping, Palumbo said. “You can’t pull out a gun and escalate the violence, then get to claim self-defense.”
As for the domestic violence claims, Palumbo urged jurors to consider Susan Hoskins’ actions while awaiting trial at the Yolo County Jail, where along with a cellmate she conspired to purchase fabricated medical records indicating a prior sexual assault. The alleged plot grew to include several other people, including the defendant’s own son.
Two mental-health experts who backed Susan Hoskins’ abuse claims did so relying upon the defendant’s own words as well as witness statements provided by the defense, the prosecutor added.
“This isn’t ‘The Burning Bed,’ ladies and gentlemen, and this isn’t ‘Sleeping with the Enemy,’ ” Palumbo said. “She was frustrated. She was not afraid. This isn’t manslaughter — this is murder, and the defendant is guilty.”
Serra focused much of his closing remarks on the character witnesses he and co-counsel Shannan Dugan called during the trial, many of them former neighbors and Yolo County Probation Department co-workers of Bryan Hoskins who spoke of his threatening, intimidating and controlling personality — one that Susan Hoskins said only worsened when alcohol was involved.
Like most domestic-violence victims, Susan Hoskins kept the shameful secret to herself, Serra said, her memories of the abuse “hijacked” in the wake of the shooting, which is why she initially failed to disclose it to authorities.
Her participation in the jailhouse conspiracy reflected not guilt but rather her desperation and naivete, he added.
Turning to the day of the shooting, Serra said his client was hopeful for the relationship that August day. Bryan Hoskins was in a period of sobriety, and the couple planned to bond during a day of motorcycle-riding.
That hope diminished, however, as the ride became a bar-hop and Bryan Hoskins began to drink. Serra said that’s when the name-calling began, and escalated at home as they walked through the condo’s front door.
“He came at her. She got the gun. He’s walking toward her, and he says, ‘Shoot me, shoot me,’ ” Serra said. “Was he going to grab her with the gun? Shoot her with it?”
Distressed and provoked, Susan Hoskins pulled the trigger to ward off what she believed was an imminent attack — “a classic case of self-defense,” Serra said. “It’s all supported by the evidence. That, in a nutshell, would be fair and true justice.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene