BENTON — Capital-murder defendant Marissa Wright showed a fondness for dropping coy hints, blurting out confessions and bantering with law enforcement officers — from detectives to a jailer to a transport officer — witnesses testified Wednesday in a pre-trial hearing.
She also participated in a 41/2-hour interview with investigators after her arrests in two separate murder cases.
Her defense team is now fighting to suppress those statements. A gag order remains in place in the case. Wright was charged last fall in the slayings of two men, both of whom were buried in the backyard of her Traskwood home.
Investigators found the remains of Randal Anderson underneath a koi pond. Joe Lee Richards Jr. had been buried just a few feet away, under some stones.
If convicted, Wright faces the death penalty. Still, she appeared cheery during Wednesday’s six-hour hearing, smiling and laughing through much of the testimony.
The purpose of the hearing, which will continue Friday, is to determine whether any of the evidence, including a purported suicide note that included a confession, and Wright’s numerous verbal statements to law enforcement officers should be suppressed at trial.
On Friday, Circuit Judge Gary Arnold will hear audio of Wright’s lengthy interview with Saline County detectives who were investigating Anderson’s death.
On Wednesday, the judge heard testimony from several witnesses who claimed that Wright implicated herself in Richards’ death, as well.
Saline County transport officer Ambrose Marvel told the court that when he took Wright to the emergency room after she toppled out of her bunk at the jail, she spent 45 minutes in the waiting room sporadically sharing her thoughts.
“Joe Lee Richards got what he deserved after he beat me time after time,” Marvel recalled her saying.
Minutes later, he testified, she continued what appeared to be a one-sided stream-ofconsciousness conversation.
“I didn’t mean to kill Joe Lee,” Marvel said she confided. “I was trying to shoot him in the butt. ... I’m not a bad person. ... I loved him a lot, and I miss him very much.”
Marvel said Wright told him that Richards pleaded for her to do something but that she didn’t think he was badly wounded.
Wright told him that Richards’ last words were, “I’m dying, call for help — please call for help,” Marvel testified.
Wright also brought up Anderson’s death, telling Marvel that “Randy got what he deserved” because he had stolen some of her deceased mother’s possessions, Marvel said.
Wright went on to explain: “It was all I had left after her death,” Marvel added.
Defense attorney Pat Aydelotte asked Marvel why Wright would have told him such things.
“I don’t know,” Marvel replied.
Aydelotte then asked Marvel to read a portion of his report of Wright’s confidences.
In the report, Marvel described how Wright told him she would not “give them a fancy trial” and that she would kill herself first.
She added: “Will you please kill me and get this over with? Just take me back to the jail and let me lie down,” Marvel said in his report.
Benton police detective Patrick Baker, who led the investigation into Richards’ disappearance and death, also took the stand to describe his interactions with Wright.
While she refused to give a statement, she did offer a hint just as Baker locked her back into a cell, he testified.
“She said, ‘Under the fish pond. That’s not him,’” Baker told the court.
Meggan Jewett, an officer at that Grant County jail, where Wright was in custody after her arrest, described an incident in which Wright asked to look at a “law book.”
After Jewett took her the Arkansas Criminal Code, Wright perused it for several minutes.
“She said the only thing she was guilty of was manslaughter,” Jewett said.
Over the next several days, Wright appeared more willing to discuss Anderson’s death, according to testimony from Jewett and other witnesses.
At the jail, Wright had repeatedly called a Saline County sheriff’s investigator to talk about Anderson’s death, Jewett said, adding that Wright also asked jailers to place such calls for her.
That investigator, Tony Baugh, testified that Wright called him at least four times, telling him she had information.
Baugh was present during
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Wright’s 4 /2-hour interview on Oct. 7, 2011, he said.
During that interview, she at first said no one else was involved in Anderson’s death. But later, Baugh said, Wright wrote down the name of Myra Terry.
Terry now faces charges including abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering.
A week later, Baugh said, Wright began calling him from the jail.
The first time, she left a voice mail saying, “I need to see you.” An audio recording of that message was played during Baugh’s testimony Wednesday.
Baugh went down to Sheridan with another investigator and recorded another interview with Wright, he said. He did not share those details in court.
A few days later, Wright called him again, Baugh said.
Then she called a fourth time. Baugh said he put her on hold, found another investigator, and they recorded the conversation.
Prosecutors played that recording for the court during Wednesday’s hearing.
In it, Wright sounds playful, calling Baugh “baby” and telling him that she doesn’t play games.
“I’ve never been hard to get,” she teases him.
Wright the tells Baugh to go to Jay Beeson, who was later charged with capital murder in Anderson’s death, and tell him that she wants Beeson to take Baugh to “that place.”
“Just tell him you need to know where he got Randy from,” she continues, laughing.
According to court documents, Wright had earlier given a statement in which she said a male friend chased Anderson into a field and fired three shots before bringing him back to the house.
In the audio played Wednesday, Wright confides that she’s sharing information because she thought her friends would have come forward in her defense and that she doesn’t want people to think she’s a lunatic.
“I’m not an evil person,” she adds.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/29/2012