Murder trial begins for 79-year-old woman

<p>Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned _ even an old woman, prosecutors told a jury Tuesday in the case of a 79-year-old woman charged with shooting to death her 85-year-old ex-boyfriend after their yearlong romance ended.</p><p>"It's a simple case," Fulton County Senior Assistant District Attorney Fani Willis told jurors in an opening statement.</p><p>"She had been dismissed. She didn't appreciate it. And her revenge was four to the head," Willis said of the four gunshots Lena Sims Driskell is accused of firing at Herman Winslow. The defense will make its opening statement Thursday.</p><p>Driskell is charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony for Winslow's death on June 10, 2005. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.</p><p>Driskell has pleaded not guilty.</p><p>During opening statements, Willis described a woman in a jealous rage _ hardly resembling the mild-mannered grandmother wearing brown curls and costume jewelry, who used a cane to walk to her seat in the courtroom Tuesday.</p><p>Willis reminded the jurors Driskell and Winslow's relationship was no different from any other, outside of their ages, and warned them not to excuse her actions out of sympathy.</p><p>"Do not let her off the hook because she reached the age of 78," Willis said.</p><p>According to prosecutors, Driskell had a key to Winslow's apartment at Hightower Manor, the assisted living home where they both lived. At approximately 11 p.m. on the night of his death, she let herself into her ex-beau's apartment, but he did not want her company, Willis said.</p><p>Winslow called a security guard, and waited on a couch in the lobby of the building while the guard argued with Driskell. Thinking she had finally calmed Driskell down, the guard attempted to lead Driskell back to her upstairs apartment, Willis told jurors.</p><p>Prosecutors said that's when Driskell drew the .22-caliber pistol she had hidden behind her back, came within inches of Winslow, who was wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt, and fired, killing him.</p><p>When police arrived on the scene, Driskell was brandishing the antique handgun, wildly proclaiming, "I did it and I'd do it again!" Police said she waved the weapon at the officers before she was arrested.</p><p>Lawyers took nearly two days to settle on the jury, consisting of three blacks, nine whites and one Asian. There are eight women and five men on the panel, with one alternate.</p><p>A breakdown of the ages of the 50 potential jurors remaining in the pool Tuesday morning that was provided to The Associated Press showed six potential jurors between the ages of 18 and 20, 18 between 21 and 30, 14 between 31 and 40, seven between 41 and 50, five between 51 and 60 and none over 60 _ putting only a handful of jurors within shouting distance of Driskell's age, and most at nearly half her age.</p><p>Defense attorneys have argued that Driskell could not take advantage of her constitutional right to be tried by a jury of her peers because of the young jury pool and the legal age for exemption as a juror in Georgia is 70.</p>

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