DENVER, COLORADO - The mother of a man accused of first-degree murder testified against her son Wednesday, telling the jury that she telephoned police after he confessed to her.
Susan Strong gave an emotionally charged account of how her son, 28-year-old Timothy Boham, came to her in November 2006 and told her of shooting to death his former boss, Denver businessman J.P. Kelso.
Boham is being tried in Denver District Court on charges of first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder and aggravated assault. He told police he had tried to rob Kelso of $100,000 — which he believed to be in Kelso's home safe — but accidentally shot him during a struggle.
Breaking into tears twice while on the witness stand, Strong said her son called her the day after the shooting, drove over to her house and said he had shot someone to death.
Asked by Chief Deputy DA Bonnie Benedetti what she did next, Strong said: "I was in a lot of pain from back surgery, so I went to sleep. The next day, I called in my husband, my daughter and my brother, who was a retired Aurora police officer."
After talking with them, she said, she asked her son to turn himself in, then telephoned police and told them.
Boham had fled to Arizona, but he phoned Denver police, then waited for officers to arrest him a few days later and return him to Denver.
Strong said she and her daughter have visited Boham in jail every weekend and she has spoken with him more than 100 times on the phone.
Benedetti played a recorded phone call from Boham in Denver County Jail to his mother, during which he talked about his "craziness" in making up stories about the shooting. He said he was conflicted about lying to police but reasoned that he might avoid the mandatory life sentence without parole by lying in order to get a hung jury.
"I feel I might have a fighting chance if I just lie," he said in the recording, which was played for the jury and Judge Will Hood Jr. "If I get one juror to hold out, I will get a hung jury. Two or three hung juries, and I may get a deal for six to 10 years."
Defense attorney Amber St. Clair immediately challenged the recording, saying the telephone call lasted 30 minutes but the recording lasted only a few minutes. She said the DA's office didn't tell Strong or her that 28 minutes had been cut out. She said she would file a motion today for a mistrial.
Stepping out of the witness stand at the end of the day, Strong tearfully mouthed "I love you" to Boham as she walked past where he was sitting.
from The Denver Post
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