HUNTINGTON BEACH : Man Testifies He Was ‘Angry’ at Girlfriend

Brian Framstead, on trial for murdering his girlfriend because she jilted him, testified Tuesday that she hurt and angered him by lying about her activities and whereabouts in the weeks before her death.

Addressing jurors in Santa Ana Superior Court for the first time, Framstead recounted the ups and downs of his stormy love affair with Tammy Davis, 19. When he takes the stand again today, he is expected to describe how he fatally shot Davis in a quiet Huntington Beach neighborhood on Jan. 5, 1990.

Framstead, 30, formerly an Inglewood cabinetmaker, contends that he carried a gun that night to make Davis listen to him and then to commit suicide in front of her, but that the gun accidentally went off. Prosecutors, who have charged him with first-degree murder, argue that Framstead stalked and killed Davis because she had rejected him.

After he shot Davis, Framstead fled to the Victorville area. The next day, after a high-speed chase with law enforcement officers, he poured gasoline over his head and set himself on fire.

Tuesday, Framstead recalled the early days of his relationship with Davis, when she was still in high school, sending him love letters and flowers. They were both happy when she became pregnant, and she gave birth to their daughter in March, 1988, Framstead said.

But a year later, their relationship had soured and Davis moved out of their mobile home with the baby. In April, 1989, Framstead testified, he grabbed her and displayed a gun to force her to discuss their relationship. If the talk did not go well, he said, he planned to kill himself.

After Davis agreed to seek counseling, Framstead thought they would give the relationship another try, he said. But hours later, when she summoned police, he put the gun in his mouth, but was unable to fire it because he could not disengage the safety mechanism, Framstead testified.

Framstead later pleaded guilty to brandishing a weapon and was set to begin serving a 6-month jail term on Jan. 7, 1990. But by late November, he and Davis had gotten back together. Things seemed to be going well until the holidays, Framstead testified.

On Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s Eve, Davis evaded Framstead’s requests to spend time with her, and he testified that he repeatedly went looking for her. When he found her in a motel room with a girlfriend and two men on New Year’s Eve, after she said she planned to stay home, he was furious.

“I was hurt and I was angry as well,” he testified.