Trial is ordered in Hope slaying

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County woman was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for murdering her allegedly abusive boyfriend at their home in the Cabinet Mountains this fall.

Linda Carol Provo-Buxton remains held at the Bonner County Jail with her bail set at $250,000. She is scheduled to be arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder in 1st District Court on Dec. 12.

Provo-Buxton, 54, is accused of killing Jeffrey Lester Newton in their mobile home in the 1400 block of West Spring Creek Road near Hope on Oct. 15. Provo-Buxton murdered Newton with malice aforethought, but without premeditation, a criminal complaint alleges.

Newton, 57, died of blunt force trauma to the head and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, Bonner County Deputy Coroner Phyllis Jay testified on Wednesday.

Provo-Buxton’s daughter, 25, told the court that Newton had a history of mentally and physically abusing her mother during the course of the 17-year relationship.

Newton was arrested for allegedly attacking Provo-Buxton on Labor Day and was awaiting trial on a domestic violence charge when he was slain.

Lacey Christensen testified that she received a somewhat frantic voicemail from her mother, who asked to be picked up at the Holiday Shores filling station on Highway 200 in Hope.

“She said, ‘I did something horrible. I need to call the police,’” Christensen testified.

However, Christensen testified that her mother refused to elaborate. Christensen said after meandering around the Clark Fork and Greater Sandpoint area and making various intermittent stops, she took her mother to the jail.

Christensen said she and her mother were repeatedly told that they needed to report the incident to Bonner Dispatch and there were no deputies at the facility who could assist her.

Provo-Buxton remained outside the facility for up to an hour, where she made small talk with Stuart White, who was there to deal with a driving without privileges offense.

“You’re not in trouble like I am,” White recalled Provo-Buxton saying. She, however, did not elaborate but said he would likely hear about it in the news, White testified.

Provo-Buxton ultimately left in the vehicle of a woman who was departing the facility while her daughter spoke with dispatchers over the phone. Court records indicate she was apprehended by Sheriff Daryl Wheeler while exiting an outbuilding near the Schweitzer Sand Creek Conoco station on U.S. Highway 95.

Sheriff’s Det. Kurt Lehman testified that Newton’s partially clothed body was discovered beneath an unzipped sleeping bag, but it remains unclear what was used to fatally brain him. A laundry list of items that could serve as makeshift weapons — including rocks, hand tools and other items — were recovered from the home but testing is pending to determine if they were used in the killing.

“There was a medley of items that could have been used,” testified Det. Sgt. Gary Johnston.

Robert Harp, who lived in a recreational vehicle on the property, told the court he heard the couple arguing on the night of Oct. 14. Harp testified that Provo-Buxton emerged from the trailer that night upset and stated that Newtown ordered her to leave but she nowhere else to go.

Harp said he was not allowed into the home to use the bathroom the following day and Provo-Buxton warned him that Newton was in a foul mood and should not be awakened.

Harp said he experienced Newton’s violent side and that Newton would grow angry while under the influence of alcohol.

Chief Public Defender Janet Whitney asked Christensen what she recalled about her mother’s relationship with Newton.

“Never anything good,” Christensen replied.

Despite the alleged abuse at the hands of Newton, Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall argued Provo-Buxton’s apparent act of vengeance was unjustified. Newton still had the presumption of innocence in the domestic battery case and may have been killed in response to Newton kicking her out of the home, Marshall added.

“She did this without legal justification,” Marshall said of the killing.

Detectives testified that they found no evidence in the home which indicated that a prior struggle had taken place. Photos entered into evidence showed a mortally wounded Newton laying in a supine position as if asleep at the time of the attack.

But Whitney countered there was no direct evidence linking to Provo-Buxton to the killing and said Harp being denied entry to the home didn’t necessarily mean she was trying to cover up a crime.

Judge Justin Julian found there was enough circumstantial evidence to justify trying Provo-Buxton, such as the incriminating remarks to her daughter and White, which suggested consciousness of guilt. The position of Newton’s body, partial state of undress and lack of evidence of a prior clash in the home also worked against the possibility that Provo-Buxton was acting in self-defense when Newton was killed, Julian said.

After court recessed, another of Provo-Buxton’s daughters told her mother from the gallery that she loved her and cursed Newton as “disgusting.