Volume III, Number 10

  (Out in the Moan

 

) VERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS AND GAY MEN

in iris

DEC 29 1988

  
     

' ‘.1
VA

January 1 989

Brenner Talks About Her Ordeal

§ Reprinted from the Ithaca Journal

‘ Tuesday, November 1 , I 988
6 Brenner Credits Wight with saving her life
, Gettysburg, Pa. (AP)- Ithacan Claudia
Brenner, the victim of a May ambush in
western Adams County, credits her slain
‘ companion, Rebecca Wight, with saving
her life.
‘ Brenner, who had to walk four miles
through rugged mountain terrain after
i being shot four times by Stephen Roy Carr,
 29, described the circumstances surround-
.‘ ing the incident to the Gettysburg Times.
r Carr was convicted of first-degree
murder Thursday in Adams County for the
death of Wight, 29, of Blacksburg, Va.,
who had been hiking and camping with
.. Brenner. Sentencing for Carr has been
{ deferred.

Brenner, who did not testify in court,
said the two women went to Michaux State
Forest on May 12 for a camping weekend.

On the morning of May 13, the women

by Sue Brown
‘ Musician, songwriter, Jaimé Morton
has been in Vermont for the past two years.
’ Originally from Long Island, her journey

has taken her through North Carolina and
eventually to Goddard College where she
)‘ studied music.Jaimé mostly performs her

Own music, usually alone, sometimes with
friends. When asked to describe her style of
music J aimé says, “It’s difficult to come up
With a category. The style is acoustic guitar
and vocals- original music. It’s sometimes
Called Women’s Music, New Folk or New
Acoustic music. Although I don’t really
feel a kinship with any of these categories,
:0m6lllIl6S I call it New Acoustic music.”
' SI1_Burlington she has performed at the 5
[ P106 Cafe, the Lesbian Gala and the Mav-
I Wk Book Store.

ll . Q1 For How long have you been play-
I
I

‘"3 guitar and writing songs?

10 BA‘ 1"’? Played guitar since I was 9 or
- utl didn’treally think much of it then,
L

¥——___m

briefly encountered Carr twice. In the after-
noon, the couple set up camp near a stream.
They were lying on a tentfly when the
shooting started.

The first shot hit Brenner in the arm.
“My arm exploded and I didn’t understand
what had happened,” she said.

Slugs form Carr’s .22-caliber rifle then
struck her in the face, head and neck. Wight
told her to get down, she said, then told her
to hide behind a nearby tree.

“I was completely disoriented,
stunned and shocked,” Brenner said. But
Wight asked her where she was shot “and
that put me back in the present.”

At that point, Wight was shot in the
back and the head. Even after being shot,
“she had the presence of mind to tell me to
stop the bleeding,” Brenner said.

The women could not see who was
firing at them through the tangle of moun-
tain laurel and underbrush. Police would
later say that Carr fired his rifle from 82 feet

just sort of banged away. I’ve been writing
songs since I was little, just playing around
and singing in my head. It gradually devel-
oped into more.

Q: Who has influenced you musically?

A: When I was young I used to sing
along to records.... James Taylor, Joni
Mitchell, my teacher at the summer camp
that I went to, Dave Wilcox. He’s got his
own album now. I ’m sort of trotting behind
him. John Martin, an English folk musician
was a big influence, and Joan Armatrading.
Those are my heroes.

Q: How long have you actually been
performing?

A: I first performed when I was in the '
I seventh grade. I started out on a red electric

guitar playing songs‘ like “Dust in the
Wind”.

Q: How does it feel to be up there
performing?

A: I used to get very nervous. Itused to
be I couldn’twait for it to be over. Although

away.

After waiting for their attacker to
leave, Brenner said she began to prepare to
go for help.

“I was saying, ‘Oh my God, Oh my
God, what are we going to do? How are we
going to get out of here?” she said.

Brenner said she could not carry her
mortally wounded friend.

“I didn’t know she was fatally
wounded,” she said. “I tried everything I
could think of to have the two of us leave
together, including picking her up a bunch
of times and she kept collapsing.

I kept trying whatever resuscitation
techniques I could think of, not knowing
exactly what her injuries were...At some
point, it just became horribly clear that she
could not stand up and the only chance was
to go for help myself.”

Brenner said she made Wight as com-
fortable as possible before leaving. She

(Continued on page 8)

Jaimé Morton: Offering a Connection

I would still get a good response, I was very
disconnected. Now, from doing it a lot, I
still get nervous but it’s changed into a
nervousness that comes back around and
regenerates into energy that gets put out
with the words in the song. The response
from people is a lot better.

Q: For you, what’s the process of writ-
ing songs like?

A: It’s still a mystery to me. There’s
times when I struggle and struggle to write
and finally a song will come out. Then
there’s other times when I’m writing song
after song and can't even keep track. That
doesn’t happen very often.

Q: How does it feel to perform your
own songs for other people?

A: Usually it’s‘just a wonderful shar-
ing. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable. I ’ve
had times where I’ve written new songs
that were about something that I felt very

strongly about and was very resent. I’ve
(Continue on page 3)