Macon woman on trial for boyfriend’s murder gives testimony after waiting 7 years

Donna Jackson, who has waited seven years to testify in a case that could decide whether she serves a life sentence, took the stand Thursday in her trial on a murder charge.

The 52-year-old Macon woman was charged after shooting her boyfriend Ricky Smith during an altercation on Sept. 5, 2015. Jackson maintains she shot him in self-defense.

Her long-awaited trial, which began this week, resumed Thursday with a full day of testimony from the defense.

The defense called three witnesses.

The first was Marley Pruyn, a GBI toxicologist who performed blood alcohol testing in the case.

Pruyn said she measured Smith’s blood alcohol level at 0.141% after the shooting. She did not perform blood alcohol testing on Jackson.

The defense then called Jackson’s son, Irving Boards, Jr., to the stand.

Boards, who lives in New Jersey, said he stayed with his mother in Macon for a couple months during summer 2015 and moved back to New Jersey less than a week before the shooting.

He said he witnessed Jackson and Smith argue almost every day during that time.

Boards said Jackson called him a few times the night of the shooting.

They spoke once around 11:38 pm on Sept. 4, 2015 while Jackson and Smith were on the way back from a lounge. Boards said the couple was arguing and Jackson said she did not feel safe . She asked Boards to continue calling her that night.

They spoke again when Jackson called around 12:56 am. Boards testified that Jackson told him Smith had two knives and she felt unsafe and Boards recommended she shoot Smith first if he attacked her.

Jackson made two 911 calls about five minutes later, which were played for the jury on Tuesday. During one of the calls, Jackson is seemingly heard shooting Smith.

Jackson took the stand around 11 a.m. Thursday morning.

She testified for around two and a half hours, recounting the night of the shooting and discussing her relationship with Smith.

Jackson said she believed she spoke with 911 for a full hour and suggested that the brief 911 calls played for the jury were cut short.

Jackson said she didn’t intend to shoot Smith, but the gun went off when it “bumped into him” as he lunged at her with a knife.

She testified that Smith, who was shot at close range in the chest, hitting his larynx and trachea, leaned up and spoke to police at the scene.

Jackson also suggested that she helped police carry Smith’s body at one point.

Prosecutors allege the two knives found under Smith’s arms may have been placed there by Jackson to stage the scene. They questioned Jackson about this.

“If I planned a murder, I would plan a better murder than this,” Jackson said at one point.

The defense finished the day playing video footage of Jackson’s interrogation by investigators the morning of Sept. 5, 2015.

The defense is expected to continue showing evidence when the trial resumes Friday morning.