Montclair, NJ: Man accused of fatally shooting girlfriend at Montclair YMCA was passion-driven, lawyer says

MONTCLAIR — An attorney for the man accused of fatally shooting his former girlfriend at a Montclair YMCA said it was the victim’s words that sent his client into a mad rage.
Giving his opening statement at the murder trial of Kenneth Duckett this morning, defense attorney Thomas Ashley acknowledged that his client opened fire on Monica Paul on June 26, 2008, while she watched their 4-year-old son, Noah, take a swim class.
But Ashley said Duckett, who is charged with murder, never intended to shoot Paul, 31, when he walked into the Glenridge Avenue facility. “People do not do these things unless they are totally deranged or unless something impassions them,” he told the jury in Superior Court.
After a brief argument inside the Y’s observation room that evening, Paul, who had a restraining order against Duckett for two previous domestic violence incidents, lowered a bombshell, Ashley said.
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“Noah is not your son anyway,” she allegedly told Duckett, his attorney told the jury. “Then he spun and shot,” Ashley said, firing six bullets from his .357 handgun before walking out. The couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Essence, was standing only a few feet away, as were more than a dozen parents who watched in horror.
“Mr. Duckett became impassioned,” Ashley said, adding, “this was an impulsive, emotional response.”
With numerous witnesses set to testify they saw Duckett shoot Paul, the case will hinge on whether the jury believes Ashley’s argument that his client never went into the facility with the intention to kill.
Ashley is arguing Duckett is guilty of manslaughter not murder. Manslaughter carries up to 20 in prison, while murder can mean a life sentence.
But in her opening remarks, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Rachel Gran said Duckett hatched a plan to kill Paul after getting into an argument with her earlier in the day, when he dropped off Noah at her home. Gran said Duckett calmly walked into the Y around 6:15 p.m., went to the observation area and after a brief exchange of words, opened fire on Paul.
“Duckett came to the Y and killed her in what was in essence, a brutal public execution,” Gran told the jury, as about half-dozen family members on both sides listened in the gallery.
Duckett then walked out of the facility and down the street, dropping the gun where it was difficult to find, along with a mask he tossed in the bushes. He then was driven a short time later to Brooklyn, where authorities found him 12 days later.
A vice president of the Montclair YMCA, Dawn McFadden, was first on the witness stand, and described a frantic few minutes of parents gathering their children and running outside following the gunshots.