A Houston woman accused of participating in a "Bonnie and Clyde" crime spree that left four people dead in 2014 told jurors on Monday that she was a victim, not an accomplice.
Kimberly Nicole Cormier, 42, said she was held at gunpoint for days after she accidentally witnessed her boyfriend shoot his cocaine dealer, then the dealer's neighbor on Sept. 2, 2014.
"He told me he would kill me," Cormier testified in her trial on charges of capital murder. "I believed him. I just saw him put a bullet into two people's heads."
Cormier's defense team said Monday that Cormier was not responsible for the crimes committed by her boyfriend, 48-year-old James Earl Nicholas, because she was under duress. Nicholas was killed in a shoot-out with police.
The prosecution, which is expected to cross-examine Cormier Tuesday, will likely argue that her story is not credible, that she could have walked away or even that she put herself into the situation by doing drugs with Nicholas as his cocaine-fueled episodes became more violent in the months they dated before the crime spree.
Cormier is facing life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder in the death of Jose Bonilla, the final shooting, on Sept. 9, 2014.
The trial, in state District Judge Maria Jackson's court, began earlier this month and is expected to finish this week.
brian.rogers@chron.com