An Avenues man charged with shooting a woman six times has been ordered to stand trial for murder.
Defense attorneys said Russell Thompson should only be bound over on a manslaughter charge, arguing that he killed in self-defense after a woman high on drugs threatened to kill him while tearing the house apart with "zombie-like strength.""She had super-human strength. She was very much a threat to people in the house," said attorney David Mack.
But prosecutor Richard Blaylock said Thompson knew that Trika Ballard was unarmed, yet shot her six times. "Shooting a gun at somebody with fairly close range . . . That was intentional conduct. He intended to kill her."
Thompson, 35, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge Thursday and was ordered to appear before 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis on Aug. 19.
Witnesses during three days of the preliminary hearing painted a bizarre picture of April 23 when Ballard, 26, was killed and her nude body dumped under a viaduct.
Thompson and his girlfriend, Lisa Edwards, brought Ballard to their home at 166 E. Fourth Ave. that day after the three of them had been drinking and taking drugs. Edwards said that following a sexual encounter with her and Ballard, Ballard began "going crazy." She began pulling plants from pots, and threw clothes and other items all over the house.
During the mayhem, Edwards said she found a rifle and went to put it back on the gun rack when it discharged. Thompson then began looking for his .44-caliber handgun but could not find it and believed Ballard had taken it.
"She kept asking where the gun was," Edwards said. "She told him that she would shoot him with his own gun."
Thompson hit Ballard with the butt of a .22-caliber rifle and Edwards said she jumped on Thompson "to get things mellowed out." Moments later, Thompson shot Ballard.
"Some shots were fired. All I could do was hear. I couldn't see anything happening," Edwards testified. "I was screaming and he told me, `Don't lose it!' "
"I said that she was dead and Russ said, `Maybe not.' "
Salt Lake police detective Jill Candland said Thompson admitted days later that he had shot Ballard but said he did so only after she pointed a gun at him. Candland said, however, that his explanation was not consistent with the evidence at the scene.
Nile Thornley testified that Thompson called him that evening asking for his help and told him, "I just blew this b---- away."
Thornley said Thompson said Ballard had pointed at him with both of her hands together as if she had a weapon. "And that's when he let her have it," he said.
"It wasn't really definite if she had a gun in her hands" but Thompson said it turned out that Ballard did not have a gun, Thornley said.
Edwards said there was "a possibility" that Ballard had a gun when she was shot but later said she could visualize Ballard's hands and remembers she had no gun.
But Mack argued that her level of intoxication could explain why Edwards did not see a pistol.
Thompson dragged Ballard's body into the bedroom, wrapped it in a blanket, put it in the back of his pickup truck and "kicked her out" somewhere downtown, according to Thornley.
Edwards said she poured milk and laundry soap over the blood in the house and tried to clean it up. Thompson was arrested four days later in Seattle, and Edwards, 31, was arrested several days later in Spokane. She faces a charge of tampering with evidence.