CUMBERLAND — A Garrett County family doesn’t believe its loved one was killed in self-defense, and family members say they weren’t notified when a murder charge was reduced from first to second degree. They also say authorities won’t answer questions about the morning Norris Rush fatally shot 29-year-old David Lancaster one year ago.

The case, which authorities first reported as an act of self-defense in December 2006 after Rush, then 52, claimed Lancaster stabbed him in the hand with a butcher knife, has received media attention because Rush’s sister is married to Sheriff Gary Berkebile. And it took another turn recently, after Lancaster’s mom, Bertha Hale-Cooper, began demanding answers of both Berkebile and State’s Attorney Lisa Thayer Welch.

On Dec. 3, 2006, a 911 call by Billie Jo Zimmerman alerted authorities to a shooting at 2:18 a.m. Rush later admitted he shot Lancaster three times, while the two men and Zimmerman, Lancaster’s former girlfriend, were drinking at Rush’s home in Friendsville. Berkebile went to Rush’s house, which is located on the same property as the sheriff’s. Garrett County sheriff’s deputies and Maryland State Police responded, as did emergency medical crews, who had to wait to enter the home several minutes until it was secure.

Court documents show that Lt. J.D. Murphy of the Garrett Bureau of Investigation obtained a statement from Rush at 7:21 a.m. That interview was completed by 7:34 a.m. and Rush was allowed to return to his residence.

After months of asking questions and receiving few answers, Hale-Cooper went public in October, airing her concerns in a letter published in the Cumberland Times-News. She filed a notification of intent with Garrett County Circuit Court to sue the sheriff and state’s attorney for violation of civil rights and wrongful conduct in her son’s death.

Her letter prompted a response from Berkebile, who said it was Welch’s responsibility to act, if the facts merited action. “If the state’s attorney makes a determination that criminal charges against Mr. Rush will be prosecuted, he will be arrested as soon as possible,” Berkebile wrote.

On Oct. 11, Welch filed first-degree murder charges in district court against Rush — which were amended to second degree on Nov. 29, when the case was moved from district to circuit court.

“As soon as they realized nobody was going to buy this story that it was self-defense, they had to do a quick retreat and change their course,” Tom Dabney, Hale-Cooper’s attorney said. “That’s my theory.”

In a Dec. 19 interview, Welch said it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to comment on specific details. When asked if the case could be placed on an inactive docket, she said she didn’t believe that would happen.

“That’s not something that usually happens in a case of that magnitude,” Welch said.

Murphy blames the state’s attorney for not taking action sooner. “I did not like the length of time it took for her to file. During that time, the sheriff and I took an incredible amount of heat for this case. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact (of Hale-Cooper’s) letter, asking for the sheriff to ... do something ... I’m not sure charges would have been filed,” Murphy said.

Hale-Cooper and Lauren Wilson, who was Lancaster’s fiancee at the time of his death, question the dirt and debris found by medical personnel in his hair and clothing. They say the question is natural, given that Lancaster was found in Rush’s kitchen, where police say he was shot.

In the official Electronic Maryland Ambulance Information System incident report, medical personnel said when they arrived, Lancaster “was supine on floor at back doorway ... rumpled dirty, mud, blood, food, may have had other wounds.”

Lancaster’s family also wants to know where his shoes are — since he wasn’t wearing them when medical personnel arrived, and because Murphy said they weren’t found at the scene. Given that Lancaster suffered from “horrible foot odor” and “never took off his shoes,” Wilson said there is no way he would have been without them the day he died.

“He had a foot odor and he would not take his shoes off around anyone. His shoes were never found,” Hale-Cooper said. “Where are his shoes?”

“I don’t know that he had shoes in the house,” Murphy, the lead investigator, said in a Dec. 21 interview with the Times-News. “It wouldn’t have been something we would have picked up as evidence.”

Since firearms records show Rush was not licensed to carry a .22-caliber handgun, the type of weapon that killed Lancaster, family members want to know how he obtained it, or whose gun was used. Because authorities refuse to tell them whose weapon it is, they speculate it could belong to the sheriff.

According to the Maryland Automated Firearms Services System, Berkebile bought a .22-caliber handgun in October 1999 from Backbone Mountain Sport Shop.

The family also wants to know why Rush or Zimmerman was not tested for gunshot residue. “We were told ... it was because Norris washed his hands,” Hale-Cooper said.

In an Oct. 31 preliminary hearing in Garrett County District Court, Murphy testified that while the autopsy report said Lancaster died from “multiple gunshot wounds,” only “one small-caliber projectile was recovered.”

“What about the bullets that went through David?” Hale-Cooper asked.

“(Welch) said the kitchen was too dirty to find them, so they stopped looking,” Lancaster’s stepfather, Michael Hale-Cooper, said they were told by the state’s attorney.

Family members also want to know the status of crime scene evidence. The night of the shooting, MSP crime lab technicians took it to Pikesville to be analyzed, Murphy said. Some items, such as Lancaster’s clothing, were not taken that night. Murphy said that’s because Lancaster was taken to the hospital, and his clothes ended up at the sheriff’s office.

“We packaged it so it can be taken to the crime lab for analysis,” he added.

The family claims Murphy has not taken official statements from witnesses who have offered other information leading up to Lancaster’s death. Wilson said Murphy refused to take her seriously when she told him she heard Zimmerman threatened to kill Lancaster for leaving her. “I’m with Lauren now,” Wilson said Lancaster replied, prompting Zimmerman to then threaten Wilson. She said the exchange occurred during an hour-long phone call to Rush’s residence about 3:30 p.m. the day before Lancaster was shot.

“She threatened to kill me,” Wilson said, adding that it was the second or third time Zimmerman had made such threats.

Wilson’s cellular telephone records reflect she made two phone calls to the Rush residence that afternoon. The first one occurred at 3:26 p.m. and lasted eight minutes. The second one was at 3:34 p.m. and lasted 58 minutes.

The threat Wilson heard is in line with a pattern of abuse Zimmerman subjected David to, according to his brother Jamie Lancaster. David moved in with Jamie in November 2006 after he and Zimmerman split — and he and Wilson got back together.

A regular pattern occurred each time they visited, Jamie said, with Zimmerman wanting to leave, and Lancaster wanting to stay. “She would throw things at him, slap him, (be) cussing him out,” he said. Then, sometime in summer 2006, Lancaster told her he would “go find another woman,” he added.

Lancaster left Zimmerman after she threw him through a picture window, something mutual friends John and Janet Gay spoke of in a March 21 interview with Dabney. They said Zimmerman repeatedly abused Lancaster verbally and physically. “Pretty much every day Billie would be smacking him and hitting him around,” John said.

The couple both said Lancaster’s reactions to this violence were to “just sit there” and tell Zimmerman to leave him alone. But in July 2006, they heard something else. “Norris said, ‘Well I got a ... shotgun out in the truck, it’s loaded, I’ll shoot every ... damn one of you!’” John said.

Janet said she heard Rush threaten to kill Lancaster “on several occasions” while they were all having dinner at Rush’s house. Then, about two weeks before Lancaster was killed, “Norris threatened to shoot David,” she added.

A database for the Maryland Judiciary Case Search shows Zimmerman’s former husband filed a domestic violence complaint against her March 31, 2005, while they were married. They were living in Hagerstown at the time, and she was then known as Billie Jo Swope. He filed for divorce April 1, 2005, in an action that was final Oct. 19, 2005. Swope pleaded no contest to an April 18, 2005, second-degree assault charge in Washington County.

According to the MJCS, Rush pleaded no contest to two counts of failure to comply with a peace order in May 2007; pleaded guilty to hunting deer while intoxicated in December 2003, and at the same time, pleaded no contest to both hunting without a license and having a loaded weapon in the vehicle.

Authorities attached his wages in 2001 after Rush was found to be $13,757 behind in child support payments. In March 1998, he pleaded guilty to failing to have any personal flotation devices on board, and was charged with operating a motorboat while intoxicated. That charge was not prosecuted.

While family and friends say Rush and Zimmerman were both prone to violence, just the opposite was said of Lancaster. “David was a very passive person. There is no way David could have done this,” Hale-Cooper said.

Wilson believes Lancaster wasn’t capable of threatening anyone, let alone Rush or Zimmerman, as they have claimed. “He would feel horrible if he even yelled at one of the animals for doing something wrong,” she said.

At the preliminary hearing, Murphy testified that three interviews were conducted with Zimmerman, in addition to her appearance before a grand jury. In one interview, Murphy said she told investigators that Lancaster pushed Rush and called her names. But in another interview, according to a court transcript, she said Rush cut his thumb when he tried to take the 8-inch knife from Lancaster. Zimmerman also told police that Lancaster “may have put the knife to his own throat,” Murphy said.

Family members believe that is more the truth than anything, given Lancaster’s demeanor, which they describe as “depressed.”

According to Rush’s attorney, Stephan Moylan, his client will plead not guilty to the pending murder charge at a Jan. 8 plea hearing in Garrett County Circuit Court. In connection with this case, Rush also faces charges of reckless endangerment and using a handgun to commit a felony.

Zimmerman declined to comment when reached at her Ohio home.

Berkebile also declined to comment.

Contact Daleen Berry at dberry@times-news.com.