02/17/2000
By GARY McELROY
Staff Reporter

A Mobile County jury Wednesday acquitted Tina Marie Temple of murder in the stabbing death of her common-law husband.

During the Circuit Court trial that began Monday, Temple admitted stabbing Carlton Bosarge with a 14-inch butcher knife, but claimed it was self-defense after years of enduring his physical abuse.

"It was courageous on the part of the jury to cut her loose, and it was the right thing to do," Temple's attorney, Dom Soto, said following the verdict.

According to Soto and Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Edmond Naman, who prosecuted Temple, 40, the couple had been with one another off and on since Temple's late teens.

Much of their history together did not come to light during the trial, the prosecutor and defense lawyer said after Wednesday's verdict.

Naman said they both spent time in a Cuban prison after being caught illegally shrimping in Cuban waters.

Soto said Bosarge was also jailed for assaulting Temple's son by another marriage more than 20 years ago. Following that incident, Soto said, the child's biological father shot Bosarge, was later convicted for the crime and then sent to prison.

According to testimony, over several years both Temple and Bosarge, 47, drank heavily, abused drugs and fought constantly.

During closing arguments, Soto held up a picture of his client taken after one of the couples' domestic battles.

The question of whether she was a battered woman - which was the crux of the defense Soto laid out during the trial - is clearly answered in the image of Temple's battered face, the attorney told jurors.

"I can understand how a jury not knowing all the facts would possibly come up with 'not guilty,'" Naman said following the verdict. "But I think she did it on purpose and was not provoked."

During the trial, Naman noted that after Temple stabbed Bosarge, she left him lying on the carpet of their home, and went out drinking at two local bars before calling 911.

Soto called their affinity for fighting when they were drunk - which, according to witnesses, was frequently - "trash doings."

When Bosarge was alive, Soto told jurors, he was known to have a mean temperament.

"And he's even meaner when he's drunk," Soto said. "Do you have a right to defend yourself from a thug? That's what it's all about."

The February 1999 day Bosarge was killed in his Hillcrest Road apartment, Naman said, "there was no indication (Temple) was injured in any way. Was it 'either him or me?' She easily could have run outside."

Naman suggested Temple maintained her relationship with Bosarge because, despite his drinking and drug problems, he provided for her financially.

"He gave her money to buy drugs and alcohol to be high," Naman said.

"It was smart on the part of the jury not to be diverted," Soto said outside court. He said jurors were able to understand the "history of battering and its effects ... and what made it reasonable to her to be in fear for her life."