Shooting trial gets under way

SANDPOINT — A former Upper Pack River resident testified on Monday that she expected to die as her former boyfriend strangled her with one hand while holding a pistol to her face with the other.

Lora Adams testified that she averted Richard Allen Larson’s gaze.

“I didn’t want his face to be the last thing that I saw,” Adams told a Bonner County jury.

The alleged assault was interrupted by Adam’s current boyfriend, touching off a brief gun battle between him and Larson. Larson was struck in the chest, but survived the shooting and was charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

Larson, 60, pleaded not guilty to the felony charges and it remained unclear Monday if he would testify in his own defense.

Adams told jurors her relationship with Larson ended in 2010, but they remained neighbors on Maker’s Way and stayed in contact with one another. Over time, however, Adams testified that Larson became increasingly angry and confrontational.

Adams testified that Larson installed cable gates across the road leading to her home, a move sheriff’s investigators theorized was meant to create opportunities where Larson could confront Adams because she had to get out of her vehicle to open them.

Larson, Adams told the jury, became further agitated when she began dating John Chester Bilsky, a retired schoolteacher from Pennsylvania.

The tension boiled over in February of last year, when Larson allegedly attacked her at one of the gates, striking her half a dozen times in the face with his fist and pinning her to the ground, Adams told the jury.

“He drew his gun and put it into my face, and said that he was going to kill me,” Adams testified.

When Adams did not return home, Bilsky went to investigate and encountered the two. Adams testified that Larson warned Bilsky he would be killed if he did not leave.

Adams told the jury that Bilsky put his hands up in a placating manner and began backing away, but Larson opened fire on him. Both men apparently used Adams’ sport utility vehicle as cover, with Bilsky at the front and Larson at the back.

Adams testified that Bilsky called out to her to see if she was OK. Adams replied that she was and Larson replied that she was not. Adams said she heard several more gunshots and Larson reported that he had been hit.

During her cross-examination, Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson questioned Adams how she could see Bilsky approach through the tinted windows of her Toyota 4-Runner when she was laying on the ground. Robertson also questioned why Adams did not take an alternate route home if she was in fear of Larson.

“I didn’t see a reason (to) at that time,” Adams said.

Larson’s trial resumes today in 1st District Court. A jury of 10 women and three men are hearing the case. An alternate will be selected at random after closing arguments.