Judge lets trial locale change in '05 killing
RUSSELLVILLE - A judge on Monday granted a defense motion to move the trial of a Dover man charged in the 2005 death of Arkansas Tech University student Nona Dirksmeyer from Pope County to Johnson County.
Gary Dunn's capital-murder trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 28, will be in Clarksville before Circuit Judge Bill Pearson. The prosecution did not object to moving the trial, which could last two weeks.
Pearson denied defense efforts to prevent the prosecution from seeking the death penalty if Dunn, 29, is convicted. Under Arkansas law, a person convicted of capital murder can be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.
Defense attorneys Jeff Rosenzweig and William O. James Jr. also sought to suppress any evidence the prosecution has obtained from Dunn's wife, Jennifer Dunn. The defense cited marital privilege, but special prosecuting attorney Jack McQuary said there were legal exceptions to such privilege.
Pearson said he would wait until the issue comes up at trial to decide that issue. "If marital privilege is invoked, we'd go into recess [away from jurors] and see what that [evidence] is," Pearson said. "I can't rule on it until I know what it is."
In April, the prosecution filed a court document saying Dunn killed Dirksmeyer, 19, on Dec. 15, 2005, in hopes of avoiding arrest in her rape or attempted rape.
Dunn is the second person charged in Dirksmeyer's death. A jury acquitted her boyfriend, Kevin Jones, in July 2007, and a special prosecutor later said Jones was, in fact, innocent. Jones' mother, Janice Jones, sat near the back of the courtroom during the pretrial hearing Monday.
Dirksmeyer's nude body was found in a pool of blood on the living-room floor of her Russellville apartment. Authorities said she was choked, beaten, and stabbed and slashed with a knife on her face, shoulders and throat.
Police found a condom wrapper, but no condom, in her apartment after her death. Jones' defense attorneys continued working to exonerate him after his acquittal and said DNA on the wrapper eventu- ally led them to Dunn.
The judge said Monday that he will rule in 10 days on a defense motion to suppress statements Dunn made to law enforcement authorities as far back as Dec. 29, 2005 - four days after Dirksmeyer's death.
Bill Glover, senior special agent for the Arkansas State Police, testified that Dunn voluntarily agreed to a videotaped interview and took a polygraph, or lie-detector, test that day at the Russellville Police Department.
Neither attorneys nor witnesses divulged the results of that test.
Deputy Todd Steffy of the Dover Marshal's Office testified that he first met Dunn on Sept. 11, 2007 after Dunn's stepfather reported a burglary. The two did not discuss the Dirksmeyer case then, Steffy said. But the next day, Steffy said he asked Dunn if he would give him fingerprints and a DNA sample. Steffy said Dunn agreed.
Steffy said one of Jones' attorneys, Michael Robbins, asked him to look over the case and help out.
James sought to discredit Steffy during the hearing by getting Steffy to acknowledge Robbins eventually paid him some money for his expenses, though Steffy never said how much.
On Aug. 14, 2008, just over a week before police arrested Dunn in Dirksmeyer's death, Dunn gave another interview, this time to Steffy, Arkansas State Police criminal investigator Stacie Rhoads and another law-enforcement officer. Steffy said he also talked with Dunn alone on the day of the arrest for another interview.
The judge said he expects to call another hearing before the trial.
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