Burousas found guilty of voluntary manslaughter

The murder trial of Teresa Burousas was completed Tuesday in Pike superior court with Judge Quillian Baldwin on the bench. He found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm in commission of a crime. Burousas was sentenced to 20 years with 10 years to serve in prison and 10 years on probation with credit for the two years she has already served.She was originally charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony in connection with the July 1, 2009 shooting death of her husband, Buzz Burousas, at their home at 560 Caldwell Bridge Road outside Concord.Assistant district attorney Heath English said in his opening statement that Teresa Burousas deposited a forged $30,000 postal credit union check the morning of the murder and put $20,000 in her account and left the bank with $10,000 in cash. English said Buzz Burousas left for work at 5:30 a.m., called home at 3:30 p.m. to say he was on his way home and urged his wife to get ready to go to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.English said Teresa Burousas admitted meeting her husband at the end of their driveway. She concealed a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver behind her back and told her husband to open the door to his 2006 Chevy Cobalt, saying she had a surprise for him. She then shot him twice.GBI crime scene analyst Lanny Cox testified Buzz Burousas was shot once in the chest and then suffered a second wound to the side of his head that was fired from “inches away”.Defense attorney Ricky Morris did not refute this testimony nor did he refute testimony that Burousas fabricated a tale of a home invasion in which she claimed a black male and a white male attacked her as she worked in a flower bed, drug her across her yard, hit her in the head with a hammer, cut her with a knife and killed her husband.Both English and Morris said the couple had a unique relationship. They met in 1981 at Gordon College, dated nearly every Friday night but did not marry until January 2006. After the marriage they lived separately with their respective parents until their home was completed and they moved there in September 2006.Morris said he will prove Buzz Burousas “liked his beer” on weekends and began abusing his wife. That abuse escalated and culminated in the killing, Morris said.”She did the only thing she thought she could do in her mind and that was kill him before he killed her,” Morris said of his client.There was no jury empaneled for the trial. Judge Baldwin adjudicated the case at the request of the defense.