Aaron Foster Indicted Grand Jury-Acquitted St.Paul Jury ?

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_9975790


Print Email
Foster not guilty in girlfriend's shooting death 27 years ago
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 07/23/2008 11:15:06 PM CDT


The case was 27 years old, the evidence was gone and two medical examiners said they could not rule out suicide or accident in the death of Barbara Winn.

Late Wednesday, after seven hours of deliberation, a Ramsey County jury ruled out homicide.

In a verdict that shocked a packed courtroom, Aaron Walter Foster, 56, was acquitted in the shooting death of his girlfriend, who died just after midnight May 8, 1981, after a struggle in her Maplewood town home.

"Oh!" yelled Winn's youngest son, Tyrone Winn, standing up as he heard the verdict. Other family members cried out and shouted obscenities.

"He's going to go murder another woman!" yelled one, as Foster was led out through the judge's chamber by his attorney, Earl Gray.

Several members of the jury also cried. One asked if they could be escorted out of the courthouse.

The case drew national attention and became a political issue during the 2006 election for Ramsey County sheriff.

The night she died, Winn, 35, had told Foster to pack his things; she was kicking him out. She told friends and family at the Tipsy Tiger bar that she was finished with him, they testified.

After she left the bar and went back tolast words: "Oh, Bubbie, that hurt." Bubbie was Foster's nickname.
The jury was not allowed to hear certain evidence — mostly because Gray objected on the grounds that police had obtained it through improper means, like warrantless searches.

Among that evidence: Foster's history of domestic violence against other women and a "Dear John" letter that Winn wrote Foster, saying she would "not be abused."

"The jurors did not have all the information," said Patty Bruce, Winn's sister-in-law.

The prosecution said in its closing arguments Wednesday morning that Aaron Foster may not have tried to shoot Winn to death. But he did commit aggravated assault, and as a result, Winn died, Johnson argued.

"He's already angry with her," said prosecutor Andrew Johnson. "She kicked him out of the house. He beats her up in the bedroom. He points the gun at her chest. There was a struggle, and it went off."
the house in the 300 block of Dorland Road, Foster went there, too.
There was a struggle, and it went off."

The evidence — including the signs of a struggle, the fresh injuries on Winn's body and her children's testimony — supports that contention, Johnson said.

But Gray blasted police who handled the case in 1981 and said his side had proved "beyond all doubt" that Winn shot herself.

He also emphasized that the physical evidence from the case has disappeared. To convict his client under those circumstances is unacceptable, he said.

"Is that the kind of justice and fairness you want?" Gray asked the jury. "Lose the evidence or throw it away and 27 years later go after the guy?"

Foster was on trial for third-degree murder, as defined in 1981, unintentionally causing the death of another person by committing a felony, aggravated assault, upon that person.

The jury got the case shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday after 3 1/2 days of testimony.

Johnson said there was no evidence Winn had committed suicide — though there was plenty of evidence in the autopsy photos of injuries. Her family and friends didn't notice signs of depression, and she was the one who ended things with Foster, Johnson said.

"She wanted this guy gone," Johnson said. "This is not a situation where a woman is distraught over the breakup of a relationship."

Gray, on the other hand, said she could very well have killed herself, if only accidentally, especially since her blood-alcohol level was 0.13, according to tests.

Gray said Foster's behavior was not that of a guilty man.

After Winn was shot, he ran downstairs to call for an ambulance, and when he couldn't get through right away, drove to the nearby 7-Eleven for help, tossing the gun out the window on his way.

The prosecution said Foster was clearly someone acting out of "consciousness of guilt." Gray said it was rather "consciousness of a little responsibility to get the gun out of the house."

Gray drilled in on inconsistencies among statements from people who were at the Tipsy Tiger bar with Winn in the hours before she died.

Winn's sister, her brother, a friend and the bar's owner all said they saw different things. One said Foster punched Winn in the stomach. One said he slapped her. One said he saw her pressing her palm against her face. One saw no confrontation.

The testimony included minute details such as the time Winn arrived at the bar, how many drinks she had and where she was sitting.

"How do you remember something like that that happened 27 years ago?" Gray asked the jury. "They lied. They lied to help the Winn family."

Gray also criticized law enforcement who worked on the case.

Maplewood investigators said they dropped the case in July 1981, less than 11 weeks after the shooting. Former Maplewood police Sgt. Kenneth Collins testified that he could not remember signing out the evidence, which included Foster's shirt and jacket, from the St. Paul Crime Lab, even though his signature is on the log. No log shows the evidence was ever signed back in to the Maplewood property room.

Largely kept from the jurors was the political backdrop to the Foster case.

Sheriff Bob Fletcher, running for re-election in 2006, reopened the Winn case, saying rediscovered autopsy photos and other evidence would help convict Foster.

Fletcher was running against former St. Paul Police Chief Bill Finney. Finney was a friend of Foster's and hired him to work as a civilian in the police department.

Finney charged that Fletcher used the Winn case to his political advantage. Fletcher denied that his pursuit of charges against Foster had anything to do with politics.

Winn's relatives, meanwhile, raised concerns about Finney's presence at Winn's autopsy, when it was Maplewood's case.

Finney, who was a police sergeant at the time, testified he went to the autopsy while off duty because he was a friend of Winn's, too, and could not believe she was dead.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.

Return to Top

Yahoo! BuzzLike this story?
Buzz it up on
Sharon Anderson
AOL Reply »
|Report Abuse |Judge it! |#21 8 hrs ago
WOW another St. Paul Travesty, Hopefully the Prosecutor will appeal pending 1. Jury Instructions from the Judge 2.Poll of the Jury
3. Errors, Omissions etc.
Wrath of God, Turbulence of Nature
Its Bizzare that a 22 person Grand Jury Indicts with probable cause, and the 6 or 12 man Jury Acquits
Something smells rotten in our System of Justice,
http://www.google.com/search...