Investigating Officer Testifies on Third Day of Kidnapping Trial
Posted
Craig Brosman-
The third day of the Bill E. Warren trial was dominated by testimony from investigating officers and a video interview of Warren.
Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel H. Hampton asked Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department detective Josh Spangle how he became involved in the investigation of the case. Spangle explained that he was present at the first interview of the victim, Kassondra Weathers.
“My involvement began after detective Johnson received the call, because there sounded like there was evidence that needed to be collected,” Spangle said. “I was in charge of taking data off of the cell phone. Mrs. Weathers had described to us that there were text messages back and forth between her and Warren. We were trying to retrieve those messages.”
Spangle described the task of retrieving the messages, saying he had a machine that he would hook the phone up to and then hook the machine up to a computer and it would automatically run a report on the information on the phone.
Hampton entered into evidence part of the report that Spangle had made from the information on the phone, a log of text messages from Aug. 28, 29 and 30.
Spangle then said that after detective Johnson and he took Weathers’ initial interview, he and Weathers’ went to the crime scene just over the Kosciusko County line in Wabash County.
At the abandoned railroad right of way Spangle found evidence consistent with the story that Weathers had told him and Johnson at KCSD. Spangle said he found a burnt sweatshirt, a dirty diaper, a tissue she used when urinating, rubber gloves, an empty pop bottle, black denim jeans and rub marks on a tree all consistent with her account.
Spangle said that after collecting evidence, “We got in the vehicle, went back out the lane. At that time I heard Mrs. weathers shouting at me ‘There he goes, there he goes.’ I noticed a car heading northbound on 400 East. That’s Warren. I noticed that was the car we had put the attempt to locate on.”
Spangle testified that he followed Warren to a game preserve, parked and attempted to identify him when he tried to exit. Warren then sped past Spangle and a pursuit ensued.
“He turned southbound at 90 to 100 miles per hour. He ramped 114 and hit hard. Something had broke and he slowed down greatly,” Spangle said. “My initial reaction was when he goes to bail I wanted to be close enough to taze him.”
Spangle testified that he would not get a chance to taze Warren, since Warren parked his car near a corn field and fled. After nearly an hour of waiting and attempting to contact Warren, officers apprehended him near the Kosciusko-Huntington County lines in Wabash County.
After describing the pursuit and capture, Hampton played the video interview of Warren with Spangle at KCSD after the pursuit.
Warren said in the interview that he had seen Weathers earlier in the day on Aug. 29 at her mother’s home a few blocks from his house, and that she needed to talk about something.
Throughout the interview Warren stated that he never touched Weathers and that there was an omission that he could not talk about because he was “no snitch.”
“I didn’t make her take her clothes off,” Warren said.
“Did you ask her to,” Spangle asked.
“She didn’t have to do it,” Warren said.
Warren continued to argue that he never touched Weathers sexually and that Weathers got naked on her own without being forced. When Spangle told Warren that Weathers said Warren forced her to get naked and he fondled her with blue gloves on he reacted angrily.
Zimmerman later criticized the video, saying it had been sanitized in order to be shown to the jury.
“He (Spangle) refers to a registration. That refers to the sex offender registration,” Zimmerman said. “I am afraid that jurors might find that out. It has not been admitted to evidence. I am struggling with what to do about it.”
The judge asked Zimmerman if he wanted him to admonish the jurors to the comments in the video, but he declined, saying he was afraid if the judge admonished the jury it would bring too much attention to the subject. Zimmerman also admitted that he and Hampton both missed the comments when they watched the video prior to the trial.
Hampton had also played the second interview of Weathers from the day after the event. Zimmerman questioned Spangle and Weathers based on the video.
“During the video did she look high to you? Laughing at inopportune times, head in hands, fidgeting, and forgetting the sequence of events,” Zimmerman asked. Spangle said no.
“She had admitted to you that she had done methamphetamine, it’s illegal in Indiana, 2010, and 2012,” Zimmerman said, to which Spangle said yes.
Spangle had shown the courtroom a picture of a shirt with a stain on the back of it that Weathers had worn. Spangle zoomed in on the stain and noted that there was what seemed to him to be a white powdery substance that was consistent with limestone gravel, that would have been found at the parking lot where she was allegedly abducted.
Zimmerman disagreed with the assessment, asking Spangle, “Throughout this case did you ever write down that the white limestone powder was that from the parking lot?”
Spangle replied, “No I did not.”
Zimmerman responded, “That’s pretty important.”
Spangle said “yes.”
Later in the courtroom Spangle testified that he did not notice the white powder on the shirt until the day before the trial when he was refreshing himself on the photos and zoomed in on the stain.
Further in cross examination of Spangle, Zimmerman asked if he ever checked the parking lot where Weathers allegedly “peeled out” for marks in the gravel to corroborate that testimony. Spangle said that he briefly stopped there on the way back from the alleged crime scene and could not find any evidence to support that claim.
Zimmerman later withdrew a question to Spangle about how he identified Warren while at the game preserve, because the system Spangle used was the sex offender registry. If Zimmerman had allowed Spangle to answer the question then the state prosecutor would have been able to bring in Warren’s prior criminal acts, including criminal confinement.
Spangle asked Zimmerman if he would like him to answer the question, but Zimmerman said no.
Once Zimmerman and Hampton dismissed Spangle, Hampton called Weathers to the stand to speak about the text messages that were sent and received on Aug. 28, 29, and 30, and to answer questions about what was found in Warren’s vehicle.
Weathers told the jury that Warren had her phone and had texted her friends on the night she was abducted. From a little past midnight on Aug. 30 until nearly noon she did not have control of her phone and any text message sent in that time was from Warren.
Hampton then asked her if she had ever seen a picture of her sleeping that was found in the glovebox of Warrens’ vehicle. She stated “no” and “that it really freaked her out.” Hampton asked her if she gave him permission to have a photo of her sleeping and she said, “no.”
The trial is expected to finish sometime today with a verdict likely expected late in the afternoon.
