Eugene murder trial begins with grisly details

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – A prosecutor told jurors in Eugene that a local woman who was slain in her home nearly two years ago suffered 55 stab and slash wounds in the fatal encounter with a tenant on trial for the killing.

Lane County Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said in his opening statement that 59-year-old Kathy Braun suffered injuries from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, calling it an “unimaginably brutal murder.”

The Register-Guard reports (https://is.gd/3r2GuL ) that defendant Howard Stull plans to testify in his own defense. Defense lawyer Marc Friedman told the jury that his client acted in self-defense, and the state will rely on conjecture, speculation and assumptions in trying to prove the murder charge.

Now 80, Stull was arrested in July 2015 after his landlady was found dead inside the garage of her home.