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Thursday, May 19, 1994 |
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LEASURE `SNAPPED,' DEFENSE
CONTENDS LINDA SATTER,
Democrat-Gazette Courthouse Reporter
Image: Photo by Steve Keesee, Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette LEASURE TRIAL BEGINS -- Pulaski
County Circuit Court bailiff Bill Johnson directs
Bruce Leasure toward the courtroom where the former
Little Rock pharmacist's trial for burglary and attempted
arson began Wednesday. LEASURE
`SNAPPED,' DEFENSE CONTENDS Days after his pharmacy
was inspected by the state Board of Pharmacy in response to
complaints, pharmacist Bruce Leasure broke in and tried to set fire
to a pharmacy co-owned by the board's director, prosecutors charged
Wednesday. Leasure, 39, went on trial Wednesday in
Pulaski County Circuit Court on burglary and attempted arson charges
in the July 5, 1993, incident at City Pharmacy, 18th Street and
Broadway. Leasure's attorney, Morgan "Chip" Welch,
didn't dispute the charges leveled by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
W.A. McCormick, but said his client wasn't motivated by
revenge. Instead, Welch told a jury of seven women
and five men, his client had "finally snapped" after a series of
events beginning a year earlier when Leasure shot and killed a man
he said had just robbed his pharmacy. Prosecuting
Attorney Mark Stodola determined the shooting was justified. But
Welch cited a civil suit and alleged threats from the man's family
after the incident as the beginning of a downward spiral that ended
with Leasure suffering a nervous breakdown. A civil suit by the
family of Stephen Cole, 40, is pending in another
court. "Bruce realized that killing a human being is
one of the most traumatic things that could happen to anybody,"
Welch said. In the year after the April 27, 1992,
shooting, Welch said, Leasure lost his wife and daughter in a
divorce; began having business troubles when a partner backed out
and demanded $100,000, leaving him broke; began seeing a
psychiatrist and taking anti-depressants, which confused him;
suffered a concussion in a car accident, which also left him without
a car; and got out of debt only to get back in.
Welch said that in the days before the incident, a repairman
broke the pharmacy's computer, causing problems that prompted the
Pharmacy Board audit. He said Leasure was visited by a member of
Cole's family, and on the Fourth of
July had an argument with his wife, during which she forbade him to
see his daughter that night. Later that night is
when the crime occurred, Welch said. He said that
the next day, Leasure offered to pay for the damage -- which
amounted to $300 -- but board Director Lester Hosto refused the
money. Hosto agreed with that Wednesday when he took the stand as
the state's first witness. The trial, presided over
by Special Judge Bill McArthur, is expected to last through Friday
or Monday. Leasure pleaded innocent by reason of
mental disease or defect. Welch said psychiatrists for the defense
will refute state psychiatrists' contention that Leasure was
mentally competent. As further proof of Leasure's
mental illness, Welch cited Leasure's highly publicized foray to
Nevada in October 1993, which ended in his bond being revoked.
Authorities there said they found him looking for a Marine Corps
recruiter after he wandered, confused, in the desert.
Leasure sat at the defense table Wednesday in an orange
jumpsuit from the Pulaski County Jail. Defendants usually attend
their trials in street clothes, but Welch said his client is
penniless and has no other clothes, adding that Leasure also no
longer has a home. McCormick said Leasure may have
had "personal problems," but told jurors to consider Leasure's
educational background and his familiarity with the effects
anti-depressants have when considering his defense.
He said the Pharmacy Board was "scheduled to have
investigators come to his business after July Fourth."
Hosto testified that an inspector found improper record
keeping and Leasure seemed "relieved" during a July 1 conversation
that "we decided we would have an inspector help him get everything
straightened out."
This story was published
Thursday, May 19, 1994
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