Dunn defense: Admit TV show

LITTLE ROCK — Attorneys for Gary Dunn, who is charged in the 2005 death of Nona Dirksmeyer, have asked a judge to let them present evidence that her boyfriend’s favorite television program was Forensic Files, which aired an episode with “striking similarities” to the Dirksmeyer killing.

Dunn, whose trial in May ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury, is scheduled for retrial starting Jan. 10 on a capital-murder charge in the Arkansas Tech University student’s slaying.

Three people - Dirksmeyer’s boyfriend, Kevin Jones; his mother; and a friend, Ryan Whiteside - found the 19-year-old beauty queen bludgeoned to death in her Russellville apartment Dec. 15, 2005. Jones was charged with first-degree murder but acquitted in July 2007. Later, after charging Dunn, a special prosecutor, Jack McQuary, said he believed Jones was innocent.

In motions filed this month in Johnson County CircuitCourt in Clarksville, defense attorneys Jeff Rosenzweig and William O. James Jr. of Little Rock wrote that they will show at trial that Jones’ favorite TV program was Forensic Files, a series about crimes. They asked that evidence of Jones’ “likely” viewing of the episode, “Dinner and a Movie,” be admitted into evidence.

“Evidence will further demonstrate that an episode of this series had such striking similarities to Jones’s activities surrounding the death of Nona Dirksmeyer that presentation of this parallel is necessary, relevant and appropriate,” the defense wrote.

It is unclear whether Jones ever watched the episode at issue. The defense said the court could order the jury to consider a video of the program as evidence “only if the jury believes [Jones] viewed the episode.”

Defense attorneys pointed suspicion at Jones during Dunn’s first trial and made it clear that’s their plan again.

“Dunn’s defense is substantially based on demonstrating the third party guilt of Kevin Jones,” the motion said.

McQuary had not filed a response as of Monday afternoon. Jones, other potential witnesses and attorneys are under a gag order and forbidden from discussing the case.

A brief filed by Rosenzweig says the TV episode details the real-life 1985 killing of Ellen Sherman in her Connecticut home. In 1992, her husband, Edward Sherman, was convicted of strangling her.

“It was later determined that the air conditioner was turned on in an attempt to conceal the actual time of death, and make it appear that the murder occurred after Ed left for his boat trip,” Rosenzweig wrote.

In a chart comparing the two cases, Rosenzweig contended Jones turned off the heat in Dirksmeyer’s apartment because Jones was concerned about the time of death.

Rosenzweig quoted Jones as saying during a police interview, “If I know one thing, it’s that the autopsy can tell time of death. When was the time of death?”

Further, Rosenzweig wrote that Sherman, a former college professor, faked a phone call to his wife after she was dead. Likewise, Jones made phone calls to Dirksmeyer for an alibi, Rosenzweig said.

Sherman got the idea for his cover-up from the movie Blackout, while Jones got it from the TV program, Rosenzweig argued. Just as Jones had his friend Whiteside try to check on Dirksmeyer while Jones was with his mother, Sherman had a friend enter his home. Later, Jones, Whiteside and Jones’ mother found Dirksmeyer’s body.

Also, Dirksmeyer appeared to have been sexually assaulted, Rosenzweig wrote, just as Sherman’s wife had appeared. Both victims’ clothes were on the floor when they were found, the attorney wrote. Both women were strangled. Both were found nude, and no valuables were missing from either home, he added.

There were indications Dirksmeyer was strangled, but testimony indicated that did not kill her. Nor did a stab wound in her neck.

Evidence in the Jones trial “pointed to [a] staged crime scene,” Rosenzweig wrote. Likewise, authorities determined the Sherman crime scene had been staged, he wrote.

In an unrelated motion, Rosenzweig asked the court for access to the medical records - both physical and mental - of Jennifer Dunn, who testified against her estranged husband in his first trial.

Dirksmeyer was a music major who competed in beauty pageants and was the reigning Miss Petit Jean Valley when she died. Dunn was a parolee who worked sporadic construction jobs and lived in the same apartment complex as Dirksmeyer.