Woman Testifies She Killed Out of Fear for Her Daughter : Crime: The defendant said she blamed the slain man for her daughter’s drug use. She confronted him even though her daughter wasn’t with him, because ‘I knew she would go back.’

A Lancaster mother on trial for murder Friday defended her claim that she was protecting her teen-age daughter when she shot to death a construction worker she blamed for her daughter’s drug use.

In a second day of emotional testimony in Lancaster Superior Court, Belita Fox said that although she knew that on the night of the shooting her daughter was not at the victim’s house, where witnesses have testified the girl used drugs on several occasions, she still believed that the girl was in danger.

Fox, 41, described as “hell” the weeks preceding the death of 23-year-old Kevin Furman, who she admits shooting four times in his bed on Aug. 30. The midnight confrontation at Furman’s house culminated a year in which her 17-year-old daughter, Cheryl, ran away from home frequently and resisted her mother’s efforts to prevent her from using methamphetamine and marijuana, Fox testified.

“You don’t know what I went through with that child,” a tearful Fox told Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Foltz Jr. during cross-examination. “You don’t know anything. . . . I went there to protect my daughter, and, if necessary, myself.”

Foltz asked how Fox could fear Cheryl was in “imminent peril” if she knew Cheryl had been picked up by her stepfather days earlier at Furman’s house after running away from home and becoming ill. Fox blamed the illness on drug use and said she feared the effects of drugs on the girl’s heart murmur.

“I knew she would go back” to Furman’s house, Fox responded. “In my mind I had to protect Cheryl. . . . I wanted to tell Kevin not to let Cheryl go there anymore.”

Fox said she called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department several times to report that drugs were used at Furman’s house but was told that she would have to provide more information. Fox has also described finding a bag of marijuana in her daughter’s purse and being told by friends that Cheryl snorted methamphetamine at the house.

Fox’s testimony Friday concluded a defense based on her assertion that she wanted to protect Cheryl and that she shot Furman in self-defense when he knelt upright in bed and advanced toward her threateningly. In addition, Fox said she was drunk at the time--she testified earlier she had consumed 10 beers and two or three shots of liquor-- and did not know the gun was loaded.

Foltz repeated that examination of the bullet paths in Furman’s body established that he was shot while prone in bed.

Foltz attempted to undercut the potentially sympathetic appeal to the jury of her portrayal of herself as an anguished mother fighting to save her daughter from drugs.

Foltz questioned Fox about her statement during a hysterical call to a 911 operator from Furman’s bedroom that she had “begged” Furman to leave her daughter alone. He cited Fox’s testimony that she did not talk to Furman or go to his house looking for Cheryl during the month before the shooting.

Foltz also asked Fox why she remained near Furman’s bed for about half an hour without calling for help and then called her daughter before calling sheriff’s deputies.

“You’re standing over him watching him die, you didn’t call for help?” Foltz asked.

“I thought his friends would call for help,” said Fox, referring to Furman’s two roommates, who fled the house after the first shots.

“I was talking to him. I was crying.”

Closing arguments in the case are expected Monday.