{"id":242511,"date":"2010-01-28T08:45:31","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T13:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/28\/the-scott-roeder-trial-day-four"},"modified":"2010-01-28T08:43:43","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T13:43:43","slug":"the-scott-roeder-trial-day-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/242511","title":{"rendered":"The Scott Roeder Trial: Day Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tCarolyn Marie Fugit is on assignment for RH Reality Check <\/em>covering the trial of Scott Roeder.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nFor several months, we have heard stories about Scott
\nRoeder’s assassination of Dr. George Tiller. We have heard many stories through
\nthe media from people near the case but not part of it. In July, we got the
\nfirst taste of what we would expect to hear in the trial: two ushers near Dr.
\nTiller chased Roeder who threatened them; a late-comer to church saw the
\nlicense plate; and Dr. Tiller died of from a single shot, the gun pressed right
\nagainst his head. During last week’s opening statement, the prosecution said
\nthey would introduce evidence that Roeder stayed in Wichita overnight after
\ngoing to his brother’s in Topeka for target practice. When he was arrested, he
\nwas wearing shoes that contained Dr. Tiller’s blood. The gun has still not been
\nfound. We’ve heard stories from eyewitnesses, seen photographs of important
\nitems, and heard law enforcement retracing evidence. And today, we put the
\nfinal pieces together.\n<\/p>\n

\nFriday, we heard the 911 call Kathy Wegner made after she
\nheard a gunshot, turned around, and saw Dr. Tiller lying on the ground. Dr.
\nPaul Ryding heard the gunshot, went into the foyer, and tried to help Dr.
\nTiller though he figured it was too late. Two Wichita police officers describe
\nanswering the call to help, their arrival at the church, and described the
\npictures of the scene and Dr. Tiller.\n<\/p>\n

\nAfter the weekend, Gary Hoepner told us that as he was
\ntalking to Dr. Tiller, he saw Roeder walking out of the sanctuary. He looked at
\nthe table and, in the corner of his eye, saw Roeder shoot Dr. Tiller. He chased
\nafter, hearing Roeder shout back that he had a gun. Keith Martin, on the other
\nside of the foyer, heard the shot, saw someone running out, and gave chase a
\ndifferent way. He stood in front of Roeder’s car. Roeder told him to move, but
\nhe didn’t. Roeder pointed his gun at him, told him again to move, and he did.
\nAs Roeder drove off, he threw the coffee he still had into the open window.
\nPastor Kristin Neitzel saw Roeder at the special Pentecostal service Saturday,
\nMay 31st. She thought it was odd that he left very early in the service. She
\nsat down where he had sat and found an envelope with an odd message. On that
\nSunday, she led the service, telling the congregants of the shooting before
\nleading them in prayer.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, we heard a great deal of evidence. Roeder
\nstayed in a hotel near the church, chatting with the clerk before he left.
\nShortly after he reached Gardner in Johnson County, sheriff deputies pulled him
\nover and arrested him. When his car arrived in Wichita, unspent ammunition was
\nfound inside along with the shirt he was wearing in the church. There were
\ncoffee spots on the car that were consistent with Martin tossing the cup at
\nhim. We learned Roeder had bought the gun in Lawrence approximately two weeks
\nbefore, picked it up the week before, and ammunition for it the day before. He
\nwent to Topeka for target practice at his brother’s house. The gun had some
\nproblems so they took it to a gun shop in Topeka, bought some more ammo and
\nsome gun oil.\n<\/p>\n

\nToday began with Gary Miller, the firearm and tool mark
\nexaminer for Sedgwick County. He examined bullet fragments and shell casings
\nfrom both the church and Roeder’s brother’s in Topeka. He said he could not
\npositively say the bullets were fired from the same gun. He could say, however,
\nthat all the casings found in Topeka matched the one found in the church: they
\nwere fired from the same gun.\n<\/p>\n

\nShelly Steadman is the DNA lab manager at Sedgwick
\nCounty’s Forensic Science Center. She examined blood on the pants Roeder was
\nwearing at his arrest. She said what she was able to examine was Roeder’s
\nblood. The blood on one of the shoes he was wearing, however, matched Dr.
\nTiller’s.\n<\/p>\n

\nDr. Jaime Oeberst is the District Coroner and chief
\nmedical examiner for Sedgwick County. An x-ray showed fragments near an entry
\nwound and a larger fragment at the back of Dr. Tiller’s head. She said soot
\ndeposits, among other evidence, showed the gun was placed on Dr. Tiller’s head,
\nas he was looking down, when he was shot.\n<\/p>\n

\nWith this, the jury left. Before the prosecution will
\nrest Thursday morning, there were a couple of legal matters that needed to be
\nhandled. The defense had subpoenaed Jeanne Tiller for Dr. Tiller’s appointment
\nrecords. The defense withdrew this subpoena: Dr. Tiller’s patients will remain
\nconfidential. The judge also squashed a subpoena for Deputy Attorney General
\nBarry Disney. The defense said they wanted him to testify that he tried Dr.
\nTiller last March "in good faith". Judge Wilbert ruled this was unnecessary
\nand was irrelevant. The defense wanted to make sure the record reflected their
\nobjections and reasons for the subpoena for the Court of Appeals.\n<\/p>\n

\nFrom now on, the defense will have to proffer \u2013 meaning
\noutside the presence of the jury \u2013 what evidence any witness will testify about
\nbefore they will be allowed to testify. Tomorrow will start with the defense
\nproffer of former Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline. It is at this time that
\nRoeder will try to say he held the "honest but unreasonable belief"
\nrequired for voluntary manslaughter. But before the jury will deliberate, the
\ndefense must satisfy the judge that they have proved Dr. Tiller provided an
\nimminent threat. Only the next couple of days will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolyn Marie Fugit is on assignment for RH Reality Check covering the trial of Scott Roeder. For several months, we have heard stories about Scott Roeder’s assassination of Dr. George Tiller. We have heard many stories through the media from people near the case but not part of it. In July, we got the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}