Prayed to God’
Home-invade survivor, 101, relives murder of hubby
PROSECUTORS have recorded the testimony of a 101-year-old woman whose husband was murdered in a heartless home invasion last year in case she’s not around to speak at the trial.
Gutsy Ethlin Thompson survived the brutal break-in that killed her 91-year-old husband, Waldiman Thompson (inset), when thieves pushed their way into their Bedford-Stuyvesant home Oct. 11, tied her up and made off with $5,000 in cash.
But Thompson is waging a tougher battle against kidney disease and hypertension, and prosecutors preparing for trial against three people charged in the break-in want to get her testimony while she can still give it.
“I felt someone grab me from the back and threw me back ways and squeeze, told me ‘Shut up! ! I’ll kill you,’ ’ ” Ethli Ethlin said id i in testimony recorded Wednesday at Brooklyn Supreme Court.
She said the intruder covered her face, and tied her feet and hands.
“I could hardly breathe, could hardly speak. It was a heavy hand choking me. . . . I prayed to God, I prayed to God,” said Thompson, a retired teacher.
She testified that she could not see who was in her home, but said it sounded like a man with a heavy voice that made the house shake.
Thompson told the prosecutor that it was a divine intervention that led her to a pair of scissors next to her bed.
“I down. cut I stand up and walked to thhe the door. I saw a man at t th the d door passing i by and I said, ‘Sir! Call 911! Call 911!’ and he did me that favor,” Thompson said. A few feet away, her husband’s body was on the ground with a sheet and cord over his head, prosecutors said. He suffered a heart attack during the break-in and died, authorities said. The ambulance took Ethlin Thompson to the hospital for pain to her right shoulder. “It still hurts,” explained Thompson, who wasn’t allowed back in her Decatur St. home for 13 days. When Thompson returned, she noticed three “vaults” that were hidden in various parts of the house were raided. Three suspects were arrested, in- cluding home health aide S Suzette tt T Troutman, t 45 45, who h was accused of masterminding the crime and driving the robbers to the home.
She was charged with seconddegree murder and assault and burglary.
Troutman had helped the couple with odd jobs, as well as shopping and housekeeping.
Howard Morris, 44, and Dwayne Blackwood, 27, were also arrested.
Morris and Blackwood, Troutman’s nephew, were hit with the same charges.
Morris was captured on video leaving the scene carrying a lockbox, cops said.
Relatives said Thompson has forgiven the burglars.
If convicted, they all face 25 years to life in prison.