This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Brenda Christine White knows what happened.
She has seen the security camera footage of her Ford Explorer crashing through glass in a Salt Lake County office building one day in April 2006, striking her ex-husband and sending him flying over the SUV.
But the 36-year-old woman says she doesn't remember doing it.
As she took the witness stand Thursday in her own defense, White told a 3rd District jury that she drove to the Woodland Towers office building, near 4000 South and 700 East, late in the afternoon on April 26 to get her ex-husband to sign a quit claim deed to the couple's house. Brenda White said had taken a handful of Xanax on the drive there and when she heard Jon White in the parking garage, talking on his cellphone and telling another woman he loved her, she blacked out.
"At that point do you recall exactly what happened?" defense attorney Jason Schatz asked.
"I don't," Brenda White said, in tears. "It's the last thing I remember. The next thing I remember, I was inside a building."
"It was not me," she added. "Jon was my husband. He was my best friend, my lover. I would not want to hurt him."
Earlier this week, Jon White recalled hearing the sound of screeching tires, seeing his ex-wife and running for safety. Jon White made it through two sets of glass doors before first being hit by his ex-wife's SUV. Jon White was able to get up and run, but Brenda White followed him, driving through a hallway and hitting him again in a lobby on the other side of the building.
"Did you go there with the intent ... to ambush Jon as he walked to his car and kill him?" the defense attorney asked the woman Thursday.
"No," she said.
Brenda White apologized on the stand before being cut off by the judge.
"For a long time — six years and four months — I have wanted to apologize to Jon," she said. "I'm so sorry. Our two beautiful girls. I have ruined so many lives."
But while Brenda White claimed to have blacked out, prosecutor Alicia Cook questioned the woman about an interview with police immediately after the attack. During the interview, Brenda White was able to recall how much Xanax she had taken and describe parts of the crash, including saying she tried to step on the brakes but that the SUV slid across the marble floors.
Prosecutors have asked the jury to convict White of attempted murder, saying she intended to kill Jon White in the crash. The trial is expected to conclude Friday before Judge William Barrett.
Jon White said his ex-wife had threatened him earlier in that day, when she showed up at his work around noon to first confront him about the quit claim paperwork.
Jon White said his ex-wife played the Poe song "Angry Johnny" on loop as they talked. When the chorus played — "I want to kill you. I want to blow you away." — Jon White said the woman locked her hands together like a gun and mocked shooting him.
As Jon White walked away from the argument, Brenda White said, "You are a parasite and I'm going to wipe you off the face of the earth," Jon White testified.
Brenda White admitted to playing the song and calling her ex-husband a parasite, but said she never threatened his life.
Twitter: @aaronfalk