Motions for a continuance and a mistrial were denied Monday in the murder case against Christoval Dimas, 26, of Ligonier. But Mother Nature's snow blanket overnight led to the suspension of the trial for today. Proceedings will resume Wednesday.

Michael Miner, the court-appointed attorney for Dimas, first asked for a continuance until today because his client was "emotionally upset" as a result of two attempted hangings by his cellmates during the weekend. During a break in testimony, in fact, Dimas told a security officer that he didn't sleep the previous night.

"I'm not here," Dimas said. "My mind's not here ... I'm nervous. I'm scared - not because of this trial. I'm gonna beat this trial."

All of those comments were made outside the presence of the six-man, six-woman jury with two female alternates.

Dimas is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of Crystal Gayle Homister, 22, of Elkhart.

Homister's burned remains - a partial skeleton - were found in April 2000 in a wooded area off CR 1050N on the east side of Lake Wawasee. Homister was reported missing Jan. 7, 2000, by family members who were concerned with her disappearance. Dimas was indicted in the case by a grand jury in September 2000.

Miner later asked for a mistrial because he felt some of the testimony of former detective Sgt. Tom Brindle of the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department was "highly prejudicial" and implied Dimas is connected with a totally different crime. During Brindle's testimony, he described the course of the investigation and said Dimas told him during an interview in April 2000 that he knew about a killing in Goshen.

Reed ruled that the statement taken by Brindle in the April 24, 2000, interview of Dimas was inadmissible because it was not noted on the exhibit list required in pretrial discovery.

Miner argued in his motion that the purpose of the exhibit list is to give the other side an idea of what items of the evidence to focus on. "The state must believe it comes under the heading of a police report," Miner said. "I don't view it as such."

Reed concurred, saying that while a statement of a party is admissible as evidence, a police report is not. "There's lots of paper" in this case, Reed said (several large binders hold the evidence being referred to) and "the purpose of pretrial hearings is to narrow down what will be used." Because it was not listed on the outline as direct evidence, Reed said, "I will not allow the statement to be admitted into evidence."

Much attention was focused on a milk jug located at the scene. Tests indicate the plastic jug contained a gasoline/kerosene mixture that police believe was used to burn Homister's body. Brindle said the milk jug evidence was "kept secret" because investigators believed that the only person who would know about it was the person who put it there.

In addition to the skeletal remains and milk jug found at the scene, investigators located clumps of hair and tape, a necklace and a ring and collected soil and insect samples in the vicinity of the discovery.

Brindle also testified that he interviewed two women who hosted a late-February/early-May cookout and they told him that Dimas attended the event. While there, according to Brindle, the women said Dimas told them he killed a woman for "narcing him out over a drug deal." This was after Homister was reported missing but prior to the time her remains were found. After the skeleton was found, Brindle said the women told him Dimas commented about a televised account of the find, "that was the girl."

Additionally, Brindle told the court, he spoke with a co-worker of Dimas' girlfriend, Stacy Weiand, who told him that Weiand told her about Dimas "burning the body of the girl that was found." He also talked, on May 11, 2000, with Tammy Johnson, who later taped a conversation between herself and Dimas. Johnson was working at Dollar General in Ligonier at the time and Dimas came there to seek employment. Johnson told Brindle that Dimas told her he was under investigation in the death of Homister and that she had been beaten and burned. Brindle said the evidence was inconclusive at that time as to the cause of death and it wasn't until after that time that a ruling was made that Homister died as the result of a blunt force trauma to the head.

Several of the people Brindle referred to will testify during the trial, expected to last until Friday.

It was also revealed during Brindle's testimony that Dimas referred to Homister in an interview as "a crack whore" when Brindle asked Dimas about his familiarity with Homister.

During cross-examination, Brindle told the court there was no physical evidence in the case that links Dimas to the disappearance and/or murder of Homister and there were no witnesses to the crime. Brindle also never learned whether Homister ever "narced" on Dimas.

A prior witness for the state didn't remember telling Brindle that he wasn't surprised that Homister ended up a murder victim because of the crowd she ran with. Brindle, however, said he did recall retired Elkhart Police Department investigator Stephen Rezutko making such a statement.

Rezutko also told the court that his investigation into the missing person case never led to the identity of the Hispanic male named Raul with whom Homister was seen leaving a party on Jan. 6, 2000 - the last time she was seen alive. Rezutko did say he learned from others who attended the party that the unknown man was allegedly responsible for supplying drugs (mainly cocaine) at the party that night.

Also "testifying" was Indiana State Police Crime Scene Technician Dan Vermillion, who is out of state and unavailable to make a court appearance.

His deposition, taken Jan. 30, was read into evidence, with Brindle reading Vermillion's answers to questions posed by Kosciusko County Prosecutor Charles Waggoner and by Miner, who each read their respective parts of the transcript. The deposition was admitted into evidence by stipulation Miner made at the time it was taken that it could be used as Vermillion's testimony. Vermillion collected the evidence and many samples at the scene and the text from his interview included descriptions of many pictures - ground and aerial - he took of the scene.

Homister was the mother of three children, including a son fathered by Dimas' brother, Jesses Dimas. A picture of Homister with her eldest child was admitted as evidence and later set up facing the jurors. During a break, Reed asked that the picture be turned down. [[In-content Ad]]