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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 9, 2005 Peters’ defense says murder victim asked to die By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Lea Borth threatened to kill herself many times during their roller-coaster relationship, her boyfriend Joshua Peters told psychiatrists after her murder. When Borth started wishing on Sept. 19, 2003, that someone would "take her out," Peters took her at her word. He grabbed her by the hair, held a handgun to the back of her head and asked if she wanted to die. When Borth said "yes," Peters fired two rounds into her brain. "Where did it go wrong, or has it been wrong this whole time?" Peters asked his family in a letter he penned after slaying Borth. "Did she force my hand, or did I agree?" Standing trial in Jackson County Circuit Court this week, Peters, 33, admits to shooting his on-again, off-again girlfriend. But his attorneys claim he was suffering at the time from an "extreme emotional disturbance." If they prove the defense, Peters will be convicted of first-degree manslaughter instead of murder. His punishment for manslaughter would be 10 years in prison instead of murder’s 25-year minimum sentence before he could be paroled. Witnesses today are set to testify about the victim’s alcoholism and drug use, her controlling and irrational behavior, her inability to hold a job and her belief that she was a psychic. Living with Borth for about two years in the Rogue Valley, Peters dropped deeper into depression leading up to Borth’s death, defense attorney Lisa Greif said in her opening arguments Tuesday. Advertisement "(Borth) isolated Mr. Peters," Greif said. "She wanted him all to herself." On the night of her death, Borth, 52, "freaked out" for the final time. She purposely cut her finger in an attempt to keep Peters from leaving their home on Medford’s North Orange Street and started flicking blood everywhere, Greif said. It wasn’t the first time Borth had spattered her blood around the house in one of her fits, Peters told Medford psychiatrist Michael Sasser. On her last day alive, Peters threw Borth to the ground and held her by the hair. Kneeling on the bedroom floor, Borth didn’t move when Peters took his hand off her head and grabbed a silver, semi-automatic handgun from a shelf in the closet, Sasser testified. She didn’t move even when Peters cocked the gun and then fired. He shot Borth twice to make sure she was dead. He didn’t want her to suffer, Greif said. Convinced someone must have heard the fatal gunshots, Peters waited hours in the house for police to arrive, according to Tuesday’s testimony and opening arguments. When no one came, he carried the bloody body to the bathtub and turned on the shower. Peters placed Borth in a fetal position and wrapped her in a tarp with clear packing tape. He stowed the bundle in the bed of his Toyota pickup along with a shovel and ax and drove to a spot where the couple once liked to camp. The ground at the old campsite was too hard for digging a grave, so Peters found a better place, about 30 miles from Medford off Highway 140 via a warren of remote forest roads. He untied the tarp, placed Borth in a hollow and covered her with several inches of forest detritus. Rolling a rotting log over the spot further concealed Borth — so well, in fact, that she likely never would have been found if Peters hadn’t left police detailed directions, Detective Terry Newell told the court. Peters spent the next week cleaning his house and growing more and more upset, Sasser testified. He burned bloody towels with a gasoline-fed fire in a wooded area, which almost spread to nearby forest land, Greif said. Peters burned his hands when his shovel fell into the flames. A week after killing Borth, Peters called his mother in Spokane, Wash., to confess. She contacted Spokane police, who notified Medford officers that Peters had admitted to a murder and was suicidal. Investigators recovered Borth’s body a day after Peters’ Sept. 27 arrest. "She’s not buried deep," Peters wrote in a letter to police. "So use caution and care as I did not." Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Debt Consolidation Generic Viagra Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Advertisement s Advertisement