More trial observations

Reporter Donna Swicegood observed the entire Witherspoon trial. Here are some of her observations:

Witnesses

• Gerald Childress
• Leslie Burgess, a former friend of Misty Witherspoon.
• Jeannine Sargent, human resources director for the City of Concord
• Lawanda Dean-Jones, district manager for the Statesville office of the Social Security Administration
• Pam Hartsell, Municipal Thrift Club Credit Union manager
• Scott Dennis, forensic impression analyst for the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation
• Russell Holley, forensic serologist for the SBI
• Amanda Fox, forensic biologist for the SBI
• Carmen Feaster, account services representative from Duke Energy
• Dr. Donald Jason, forensic pathologist, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
  Defense
• Dr. Page Hudson, retired state medical examiner and consultant
• Bob Witherspoon, father of Quinn Witherspoon
• Mike Drake, Concord police officer
• Pat Merritt, Concord police officer
• Brandon Ferguson, Concord police officer
• Melanie O’Connell Underwood, acquaintance of Misty Witherspoon.
• Matt Lund, former sales representative at a camping supply store
• Rob Green, retired captain with the Concord Police Department
• Frances Witherspoon, mother of Quinn Witherspoon
• Brandi Oliver, friend of Misty Witherspoon
• Ronnie Keller, father of Misty Witherspoon
• Melanie Keller, sister of Misty Witherspoon
• April Garden, legal assistant for Andrew Jennings
• Sandra Keller, Misty Witherspoon’s mother
• Dr. Jerry Noble, psychologist who interviewed Misty Witherspoon
  

The state rested its case on Tuesday, presenting 17 witnesses and more than 100 pieces of evidence. The closing for the state’s case included a representative from Duke Energy.

Testimony from both sides have painted a conversation with a Duke Power representative as the pivotal moment on Sept. 13, 2005.

Carmen Feaster told jurors that the customer service center received a call from the Witherspoon residence on 1:36 p.m. on Sept.13, less than 30 minutes before the 911 call reporting the shooting.

Feaster said the couple had been sent a disconnect notice, and their power bill had reached nearly $900, a large majority of which was past due. Duke records indicated the call came from a woman.

In statements to police, Misty Witherspoon said that conversation sent her into a state of depression, knowing that she would have to tell her husband when he awoke from a nap, and that it might postpone a planned camping trip the next day. She said when she knocked her husband’s service weapon off a bathroom shelf, she began to consider suicide.

The prosecution has presented evidence that the power disconnect was the latest in a series of financial mishaps for the Witherspoons.

Three Concord police officers testified on afternoon. Mike Drake said he knew Quinn Witherspoon was in dire financial straits. He testified he knew Witherspoon had borrowed money from a captain to get his house payment up-to-date.

Pat Merritt saw Quinn Witherspoon on Sept. 12 at a weekly canine training session. He said Witherspoon left early to testify in a case before the Cabarrus County Grand Jury.

Brandon Ferguson, another canine officer, also testified to seeing Quinn Witherspoon on Sept. 12. He said he asked Witherspoon to serve as the on-call canine officer for him Sept. 13 through 15. He said agreed, saying he was planning to leave to go camping later in the week, and would take the on-call schedule until he left.

The state, in cross-examination of two of the officers, asked about Witherspoon’s safety habits concerning his weapon. Merritt and Ferguson both described him as safety conscious. "He was the most safety conscious police officer I ever knew, Merritt said.

Retired captain Ron Green, a firearms instructor, also testified to Witherspoon’s safety habits. In addition, Green was asked to use Witherspoon’s 40-cailber Beretta service weapon and duty belt to demonstrate the holster’s safety features. Green said it took at least two motions to retrieve the weapon from the holster, including moving a shield over the weapon and pulling it in a certain direction to get it out of the holster.

Brandi Oliver, a friend of Misty Witherspoon’s, testified to a conversation she had with Misty approximately one hour before Quinn was killed. She said Misty returned an earlier phone call she had placed about 1 p.m., and they talked between 15 minutes to 30 minutes about a painting project and their children. She said Misty sounded like she always had, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She did testify that Misty had lost weight in recent months.

One of Misty’s two younger sisters, Melanie Keller, testified that she was concerned about her sister in the weeks prior to the shooting. Like Oliver, she said, Misty had lost weight. At one family gathering when Misty sat in a chair, wrapped in a blanket. "She was very quiet, which is unusual," she testified. Also, she said, a phone call came in and her sister went to another room to talk. Usually, she said, her sister took phone calls in front of everyone.

One state’s witness, Leslie Burgess, a friend of Misty’s, said she used her caller ID to screen calls from creditors, and that she turned the ringer off in order for her husband not to know about the increasing credit crisis.

Closing arguments began on Friday morning, two weeks and one day after the opening statements were presented to the eight-man, four-woman jury.

As defense attorney Andrew Jennings and Assistant District Attorneys Alan Martin and Greg Brown argued their cases before the jury, all three utilized many of the exhibits shown to the jury during the trial.

Brown used a PowerPoint presentation, titled "A Story, A Story," based on the title of the child’s book found lying on the floor in the Witherspoon’s living room on the day Quinn Witherspoon died.

Jennings spent most of his 100-minute argument in front of the jury, showing photos and documents to back up his case – that Misty Witherspoon accidentally killed her husband in a failed suicide attempt.

He did use the love seat that matched the sofa on which Quinn Witherspoon died to demonstrate how his client contended the shooting occurred.

Jennings stressed she didn’t know anything about weapons.

He also said the Witherspoons had no history of marital problems, no separations, no reports of any type of domestic violence.

Jennings admitted Misty Witherspoon lied in her initial statements to police, but it was not in an attempt to cover up a crime but to disguise her suicidal thoughts. "You will find this was nothing but an accident," he said.

Martin told the jury Misty Witherspoon shot her husband on purpose after talking with Duke Power Co. about the disconnect notice. He said Quinn Witherspoon had stood by his wife after she embezzled funds from their church and had borrowed $12,000 to pay back some of that money.

A few months later, when he learned their house payment was behind, he approached a supervisor at the Concord Police Department to borrow $2,000.

"That goes right to the core of his being," Martin told the jury.

By Sept. 13, he said, she had again placed the family in financial peril. "She knows she’s got a problem coming up with Duke Power," he said.

Martin said Misty Witherspoon expected to clear up the problem as she had before with a promise to pay. Duke Power told her no, she had to come up with $457 in cash that day.

"Now, she’s got a problem. She’s out of time, out of chances and out of strikes," he said.

That prompted her to put a plan into action to kill her husband.

The jury went out to deliberate at 3:45 p.m. Friday, returning to the courtroom at 4:30 to listen to the 911 tape. They returned to the jury room a few minutes later to review several pieces of evidence they had asked to see. Those items included pictures from the scene and the autopsy and some financial documents.

They were sent home around 5:05 p.m., and returned Monday to resume deliberations.

The jury returned at 9 a.m. Monday, and asked to see transcripts of Misty Witherspoon’s last two interviews with police, one on Oct. 3 and the other on Oct. 5, 2005.

After deliberating for 2 hours and 45 minutes, the jury returned to the courtroom with the guilty verdict.