Motions heard, jury selection starts in Pettey trial - Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, Sports

Motions heard, jury selection starts in Pettey trial

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Calvin Duane Pettey Calvin Duane Pettey

By RODNEY HART
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

MEXICO, Mo. -- Judge Keith Sutherland began the Calvin Duane Pettey murder trial Monday morning by approving several defense motions before attorneys began picking a jury.

Pettey is accused of murdering his fiancee, Sandy Fugate, in Hannibal in April 2010 just two days before they were supposed to get married. Charged with first-degree murder, Pettey sat calmly in a white dress shirt and tie inside the Audrain County Courthouse courtroom as attorneys prepared at the last minute to pick the jury.

Pettey's trial is expected to last three or four days. It was moved from Marion County on a change of venue.

Defense attorney Todd Schulze filed 11 motions, including requests to bar four witnesses from testifying, prohibiting emotional outbursts during the trial, prohibiting visible attire or display of memorials by Fugate's family in the presence of the jury, and a request to redact Pettey's recorded interview with police after Fugate was found dead.

Suthlerand approved all 11 motions, and Marion County Prosecutor Tom Redington did not object, saying he wasn't going to call the four witnesses anyway.

Redington has about 25 witnesses he could call. There are about 70 prospective jurors.

Testimony could begin as early as Monday afternoon. One of the key witnesses for the state is expected to be a woman who was romantically linked with Pettey and said he admitted to killing Fugate.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370

 

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