James Moulton and Anne Durand

Questions re. Moulton and Durand:

a) Where are these two today?

b) Where was James Arthur Moulton from?


Excerpt from the 2000 book Rough Trade by Steve Jackson:

 

Most inmates portray themselves as `battered' victims                                                                       Ginny McKibben, Denver Post, 12 Sep 1993

 

CANON CITY - Nowhere is the struggle for identity more desperately waged than among women in prison.

Still, many inmates quickly and willingly embrace one wide description: They portray themselves as victims of incessant battering who fought back and are being punished for it.

Psychologist Lenore Walker claims inmates like Anne Durand, Lori McLuckie and Donna Avery are classic examples of the "battered woman syndrome."

Walker, an author and highly paid expert witness in criminal cases where women are on trial, has built a national reputation through her theories about relationships, abuse and what causes some women to snap.

"The women I am talking about are women who have, in a broader context, killed in order to stay alive themselves," Walker said.

Since the mid-1980s, Walker's "battered woman syndrome" has been used successfully to win acquittals or reduced charges in numerous trials. Juries also have rejected it in some cases, such as the murder trial of Jennifer Reali. She shot and killed her lover's wife in a darkened Colorado Springs parking lot, then tried to claim abuse by her own husband as a defense at her trial.

Durand, 37, is one of the women whom Walker portrays as a victim of horrible domestic circumstances. Durand says she was under the sway of an evil boyfriend, Jim Moulton, when she helped him rob and murder a man at an Interstate 25 rest stop north of Pueblo. Durand says Moulton attacked the victim in the bathroom. The man ran into the parking lot with his pants below his knees and blood on his face. Durand then picked up her boyfriend's gun and shot the stranger.

"I don't know how many times I shot him. I was in fear for my life," she says.

In a 1986 plea bargain that reduced the charges against her from first-degree murder to conspiracy to commit murder, Durand was sentenced to 48 years in prison.

She later pleaded guilty to charges that she conspired in the murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Deara Whalen. She blames Moulton for killing the child as the three walked in the mountains of Gilpin County on May 10, 1985, Walker said.

Moulton is serving two life sentences for first-degree murder in the killings.

Asked why she didn't quickly implicate him in her daughter's death, Durand replied: "I have learned over the years that I am a woman who loves too much."

Walker maintains that Durand feared for her life and was in shock when the crimes were committed. 

By the time police arrested her, Durand was too immersed in grief to summon a defense, Walker said.
Then, like many battered women, Durand caved in on advice from her defense attorney that she should plead guilty to reduced charges, Walker said.

Prison social worker Henry Ybarra sees danger in explanations that allow inmates to absolve themselves of responsibility.

By attributing their crimes to abusive relationships, inmates are hampering themselves by not dealing realistically with their problems and their own behavior, Ybarra said.

"We try to redirect that kind of thinking and focus on how they can become productive citizens and change their self-concept. We teach them to care (more) about themselves before going into relationships," Ybarra said...