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Woman Acquitted In Boyfriend's Slaying

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By TODD LESKANIC

tleskanic@tampatrib.com

Published: February 20, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Jurors deliberated for less than two hours Thursday before finding Linda Callam not guilty of second-degree murder in the March 29, 2007, stabbing death of her longtime boyfriend, Paul Pullins.

Callam, 58, stabbed Pullins in the chest after a day of heavy drinking, drug use and arguing at the couple's Windel Street mobile home. Assistant Public Defenders Dean Livermore and Tom Persely staked their case on the contention that Callam stabbed Pullins to end his brutal attack on her.

Callam could have faced life in prison had the jury found her guilty of murder. The jury also rejected a manslaughter charge.

According to testimony, the attack began after Pullins and the couple's part-time tenant, Corey Burleigh, argued outside the house about a drug deal gone bad. Callam testified that Pullins came into the mobile home angry and told her to leave. She refused and Pullins pushed her out the door, down the steps and onto a concrete walkway.

Callam said she got up and went back inside and Pullins hit her under her left eye. He then slung her into the kitchen and pinned her against the cabinets. Callam said she saw a look in Pullins' eyes that she had rarely seen in their 23 years as a couple.

"I saw him, and he looked through me," she said. "It was terrifying. The way he looked, I didn't even know who he was. He looked like a wild man, evil."

As Pullins approached, Callam grabbed a steak knife off the counter and plunged it into his chest.

"I didn't want to kill him," she said from the stand. "I just wanted him to stop."

Callam was taken to a hospital after the stabbing. Investigators took pictures of injuries to her body. She also had surgery to repair a serious injury to the fingers of her left hand and spent 70 days in a cast.

Several witnesses testified that they had seen cuts, scrapes and bruises on Callam's body in the years leading up to the incident. Callam also testified that a few weeks before Pullins' death, he grabbed her and choked her during an argument. When she fell to the floor, he kicked her in the chest.
Burleigh testified for the prosecution and gave a decidedly different account of what happened on the day of the stabbing.

Although he agreed there had been lots of alcohol, drugs and arguing, Burleigh said Callam disappeared for about an hour before the stabbing. He said he thought she had gone to sleep in a bedroom. Burleigh said he and Pullins were arguing over a bad cocaine deal when Callam ran into the kitchen with a knife and stabbed Pullins.

Pullins removed the knife, then stumbled outside and collapsed in a plastic chair in the front yard.
Burleigh testified that he knew Callam and Pullins for six years and had seen violence between them on only one other occasion. Otherwise, he said, they generally got along well.

But Burleigh's account may have been discredited when Levada Gist, a neighbor, took the stand and said he came to her house a few days after the stabbing and told her two different stories about what led to the stabbing.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084.

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