ROCKLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The ex-wife of Charles Black faced off in court Wednesday against the man she says tried to kill her. Black is on trial in Rockland for attempted murder, accused of hitting his wife and then pushing her off Maiden's Cliff in Camden.
Lisa Zahn changed her name when she divorced Black, shortly after the April, 2011 incident. Zahn told the court her then- husband who goes by his middle name of Reed wanted them to hike up Maidens Cliff that day. The couple's marriage was in trouble, she said, because Reed was having an online affair. But Zahn said she went because, "I didn't want to give it up. I still cared for him, and wanted to make it work."
She said they had a picnic lunch at the top of the cliff, and that she stayed well back from the edge because she doesn't like the kind of drop-off that exists at the top of the cliff. She said he was picking up some small rocks, something he would occasionally do at the seashore. But she said one of the rocks seemed larger than those he usually chose. Zahn then said it was just after the lunch when things suddenly went bad, "I remember a blow to the back of my head, several blows and blood coming down my face."
Zahn said she was stunned by the blows, and then, "Reed grabbed me by the wrists and started to drag me up. I pleaded for him not to take me from my children."
She then told the court, "I thought I had only ten seconds left on this earth."
Zahn said Black pushed her over the edge of the cliff. By chance she landed on a ledge a short distance down the cliff face. She was bleeding, but awake and alive, and wanting to escape.
"I was thinking of playing dead," said Zahn, "but something in my gut told me to go."
Zahn said she was afraid her husband would pursue her down the cliff, so she started climbing down, grabbing tree roots and branches, at one point sliding down the rock for some distance. And then, for an unknown reason, Reed Black fell himself. Zahn testified that she saw Black rolling and tumbling down and then land at the bottom. She testified that she went towards him and spoke briefly, asked for the cell phone, which he could not provide. She said she then made her way down the rest of the slope to Route 52, flagged down a car and got help.
Prosecutors claim that, in addition to the online affair, Black tried to kill his wife to get her money. Lisa Zahn testified that after her father died in 2010, she had inherited a trust fund worth about $4 million. She also received a $1 million payment from her father's life insurance. Zahn says she would receive a $7,000 monthly payment from the trust, but that Reed Black at one point tried to get additional money from it without her knowledge.
Defense attorney Walter McKee has said the events on the mountain did not happen the way Lisa Zahn says. He also told the jury in opening arguments that Black knew he could not have access to his wife's inheritance, and that her death would not provide him with money. McKee is scheduled to cross-examine Zahn on Thursday, and to try to cast doubt on her explanation of the crime.
