Testimony underway in Greene trial

CONCORD - Daniel Macemore, 10, died while reaching for the door trying to escape the flames that had engulfed his room, while his sister, Addison Macemore, 8, curled up with her knees to her chest and died in a corner, a first-responder witness testified Tuesday in the Lisa Louise Greene capital murder case.

In opening statements, defense attorneys said the children kicked so hard they put a hole in the Midland mobile home’s wall, fighting to escape the fire that prosecutors say their mother, Greene, started.

Both children died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation, officials said. Prosecutors told jurors this information in opening statements in the double murder and arson case against Greene that began Tuesday. Opening statements followed more than a month of jury selection and pretrial hearings. Greene could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Assistant Attorney General David Adinolfi spoke forcefully, and painted Greene as a mother who disliked her children and wanted out of the responsibilities of parenthood, which led to the events on January 10, 2006.

Adinolfi said that Greene had made previous statements to friends that she “hated her children” and that she “hoped they were dead.”

Greene sobbed into her hands, and many of her family members cried loudly, as prosecutors meticulously retold the details from the night of the fire through a Powerpoint presentation. Adinolfi said that Greene was able to retrieve from the home her purse, all of her jewelry and a cell phone, which she didn’t use to contact 911, but not her children.

Lisa Dubs, Greene’s attorney, spoke of Greene’s innocence and painted Greene as a childhood victim of a tyrannical stepfather who “wanted to toughen the kids up,” and someone who was teased as an overweight teenager with a learning disability. But Dubs said that Greene overcame her troubled upbringing and grew to be a “successful” woman and loving mother.

“Her life was pretty much the way she wanted up until that night,” Dubs said.

Dubs also said that police overlooked other possible suspects in the case because they rushed to judge Greene.

“When someone doesn’t burn up in a fire to save their loved ones they become the suspect,” she said. “That’s not science.”

Dubs said that arson experts will prove that the fire was accidental, and that Greene’s initial explanation to firefighters - that a candle in the children’s room started the blaze - was true.

Prosecutors pointed to a statement they call a confession, which they say Greene made to investigators two days after the fire, as the true timetable of events.

Three first responder witnesses - two Cabarrus County EMS paramedics and a firefighter - testified that Greene was acting “theatrically” and was “putting on a show” for paramedics and family members the night of the fire, but said that she continually asked for her children and wanted firefighters to retrieve them from the home.

Investigators and other firefighters are scheduled to testify Wednesday.

Court officials expect the trial to last four weeks, but could extend two more if Greene is found guilty.