Husband is guilty of killing his wife

An Augusta man who chased down his estranged wife and shot her six times in the back was convicted of murder Thursday.

Calvin W. Foster, 38, admitted in Richmond County Superior Court this week that he killed 34-year-old Daphne Jenkins Foster, but he claimed temporary insanity.

At the conclusion of a four-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty to all counts.

"Getting really, really mad ... isn't enough, in this courtroom, to make you insane. It's enough to make you guilty," Assistant District Attorney Adam King said in his closing argument.

But Mr. Foster's attorney, Larkin M. Lee, argued in closing that a lapse in sanity is the only explanation for Mr. Foster's actions the morning of Sept. 27, 2005.

No witnesses ever saw or heard Mr. Foster being abusive to his wife during their 14-year relationship, Mr. Lee said.

He was a good, hard-working man who supported his family, even when the couple's problems led them to live apart, Mr. Lee said.

The couple were living apart in September 2005. On the morning she died, Mrs. Foster was at the Kohosh Court home the family had once shared. The neighbors' peaceful morning was shattered when Mrs. Foster ran from the home with Mr. Foster in pursuit, neighbors testified.

She made it to a neighbor's front door, although wounded several times.

The jury heard from two mental health experts -- one who testified for the state that Mr. Foster suffered no mental defects and one who testified for the defense that Mr. Foster suffered temporary insanity.

The prosecutor attacked the credibility of the defense expert. His written report did not include any diagnosis of mental illness or defect, but on the witness stand he changed his opinion, Mr. King argued.

Mr. Foster's trial this week was his second. A conviction in 2006 was reversed by the Georgia Supreme Court because the jury wasn't given the option of finding Mr. Foster guilty but mentally ill.

Mr. Foster faces a mandatory life sentence plus five years for murder and a weapon charge.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.