Posted: 11/26/2003 11:45:19 AM EDT
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2250269 Nov. 26, 2003, 6:09AM
Love-triangle killing was self-defense, jury says Man says he shot lover to save teen By ANDREW TILGHMAN Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
A love triangle involving two gay men and a troubled teenager they had taken into their home ended early this year when one of the men shot his longtime lover to death.
But the killing, in southeast Houston's Riverside Terrace, was not murder, a jury decided Tuesday.
Mark Swaim, a 43-year-old lawyer, wiped tears from his eyes after jurors found that he acted in self-defense when he killed Keith Hodgson on Feb. 7.
"I'm very happy to have this very tragic thing behind me," Swaim said as he was surrounded by more than a dozen friends and relatives who attended the four-day trial.
Swaim and Hodgson, the owner of a southwest Houston hair salon, had been together for about 10 years when they met an 18-year-old Lamar High School student in a downtown bar last winter, said Swaim's attorney, Christopher Flood.
They invited the student to live with them while he recovered from a drug problem, Flood said, and the three began a sexual relationship.
It was not uncommon for Hodgson and Swaim to offer help to teens who had been evicted by their parents after revealing they were homosexuals, according to a friend of the couple who asked that he not be identified.
Swaim told jurors he was horrified to walk into the living room on Feb. 7 and find Hodgson, 37, brutally beating the teen for refusing to have sex.
Fearing for his own life, Swaim said, he ran upstairs, returned with a 9mm pistol and shot Hodgson once in the head.
Swaim said he was afraid of his lover because Hodgson was taking steroids to improve his physique and had experienced violent outbursts.
"Mark had no choice," Flood said. "He didn't do what he wanted to do; he did what he felt he had to do."
Swaim called police and reported the shooting moments later. Investigators reported that the teen had several cuts and scratches, but there were few signs of a life-or-death struggle.
Assistant District Attorney Hans Nielsen urged jurors to convict Swaim, saying he was not in imminent danger and the scuffle was no excuse for murder.
"Walking outside was an easy option," Nielsen said. "Why did he have to aim in such a way that it was very clearly going to be a fatal shot?"
Prosecutors also offered evidence that Swaim had a $500,000 life insurance policy on Hodgson.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours before reaching their not-guilty verdict in the court of state District Judge Mary Lou Keel.
Swaim, who practiced civil law from a downtown office, said he plans to move on with his life and begin teaching business law at the University of Phoenix's Houston campus.
"Having to go through this legal process was difficult, but it pales in comparison to the loss of someone I loved," he said.
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