Prosecutor: Pettey didn't want to marry fiancee, so 'he decided to murder her'
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By RODNEY HART Herald-Whig Staff Writer
MEXICO, Mo. – Marion County Prosecutor Tom Redington opened the Calvin Duane Pettey murder trial Monday afternoon by saying Pettey didn't want to marry fiancée Sandra Fugate, so "he decided to murder her."
Pettey's murder trial inside the Audrain County Courthouse began with six men and six women being selected for the jury, and with Redington's opening statements. Pettey is accused of shooting Fugate to death inside her Hannibal residence in April 2010, just two days before they were to be married.
Redington said he would put Rebecca Kirk on the stand and have her testify that she and Pettey were having an affair in the two months leading up to Fugate's death. Pettey told Kirk he killed Fugate, Redington told jurors.
Redington said Kirk will say Pettey wanted her to help him kill Fugate, since it was the only way out of marrying her.
On one occasion, Kirk held up a rifle since Pettey wanted her to shoot him to make the murder scene look like a robbery, but her hand shook so bad she couldn't hold the rifle steady, Redington said.
After the murder, Kirk was asked by Pettey to throw a gun and bullets in a river, Redington said, and police later recovered the items. She also composed five different threatening letters to Fugate to try and scare her off and postpone the wedding, Redington said. Those letters were later found by family, he said.
Defense attorney Todd Schulze told jurors the murder trial was a case of "plausible deniability," and told jurors to pay careful attention to the evidence and that Kirk had motive.
"All the evidence flows toward somebody named Becky Kirk," Schulze said.
Redington sailed through the first six witnesses in about 80 minutes before the first afternoon break was called. Most were police who first responded, and one was Fugate's mother, Mary Patterson, who emotionally described finding her daughter facedown on the floor.
Patterson said Pettey called her shortly before and asked her to check on Fugate since she wasn't answering his phone.
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