Broderick’s Actions After Slayings Described

Lee Broderick, the 20-year-old daughter of Elisabeth (Betty) Broderick, who is being tried for murder of her former husband and his new wife, told a jury Thursday about her mother’s actions several hours after the slayings.

Repeating much of what she said in her mother’s first trial a year ago, Lee Broderick described to the San Diego Superior Court jury what her mother told her about the Nov. 5, 1989, slayings. She is scheduled to resume her testimony on Monday.

“All right, you shot me, I’m dead,” Daniel Broderick said moments after being shot in his home, according to what Elisabeth Broderick told her daughter. Lee Broderick said her mother told her Daniel Broderick fell off the bed after his final statement.

Before leaving the couple’s bedroom, her mother said, she pulled the phone out of the wall, Lee Broderick testified.

Lee Broderick testified about previous threats her mother made to Daniel and Linda Broderick and about her leaving obscene and vulgar messages on his answering machine.

Several recordings of calls were played in court.

“Everybody knew that my dad was afraid of my mom,” Lee Broderick said.

She said she knew before the slayings that her mother kept a gun in her bedroom and had once invited her to a shooting range.

The jury gets the day off today, but attorneys in the case will be working with Judge Thomas Whelan on court exhibits.

Whelan told the jury that the prosecution will rest late next week.

Elisabeth Broderick, 43, a former La Jolla socialite, has admitted shooting and killing Daniel Broderick, 44, a prominent medical malpractice attorney, and his new wife, Linda, 28.

The defense contends she did not plan the killings and intended to commit suicide in front of the couple instead of killing them.