TEXARKANA -- A 67-year-old woman on trial for capital murder in the death of a fellow square dancer was described by a Miller County prosecutor Tuesday as a calculating woman driven by rage, jealousy and desperation.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Black told the jury that Virginia Ann Hyatt's husband, James Hyatt, decided to file for divorce after 40 years of marriage because life had become intolerable.
Black said James Hyatt waited until his wife left the couple's home on Pineview Street in Texarkana for a routine visit to her mother's nursing home. He then hurriedly packed a few belongings and headed to his sister's home in Florida on the day before Patricia "Patti" Wheelington, 59, was shot five times on her front porch.
"He was afraid of what she might do to him. It was the possessive, obsessive nature of Virginia Hyatt," Black said. "They slept in separate bedrooms, and he locked his door at night."
Black said the Hyatts hadn't been intimate in 10 years and that Virginia Hyatt's disturbing reactions to other women, particularly Wheelington, made the couple's problems reach a crescendo.
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," Black said, quoting a 17th century poet as he addressed the jury. "She was obsessed and convinced that Patti Wheelington is responsible for her losing her husband, but James Hyatt was going to leave her anyway, even if he'd never met Patti."
Black told the jury that the Hyatts and Wheelington became friends years before the slaying, when James Hyatt worked to build Wheelington and her husband's home on South Valley Road. Wheelington's husband died of an illness about a year before the shooting, Black said. They remained friends and were members of the Guys and Dolls Square Dancing Club in Texarkana.
Black said Virginia Hyatt went to Wheelington's home on Dec. 2, 2013, a few days after James Hyatt left, looking for her husband. Wheelington told friends that Virginia Hyatt insisted that her husband was there, Black said.. That evening, Virginia Hyatt confronted Wheelington at a square dance, Black said.
He said Wheelington and her friends were so concerned about Virginia Hyatt's behavior that they were afraid to let Wheelington go home after the dance.
"But Patti said, 'I'm not going to run from anybody. She was a very friendly person and thought she could talk to anybody," Black said. "Her friends warned her not to open the door if Virginia came back."
Texarkana lawyer John Pickett argued that the state cannot prove that Virginia Hyatt killed Wheelington, much less that she did it with premeditation, as is required for a capital-murder conviction.
"There is no evidence that she shot and killed Patricia Wheelington on the morning of Dec. 3, 2013," Pickett said. "There is suspicion here, there is speculation here, a lot of conjecture here, but there's no proof. There's no evidence here."
Pickett told the jury that gunshot residue found on clothing in Virginia Hyatt's bedroom is not enough to convict her. He added that police were unable to find the .38-caliber pistol that was used to kill Wheelington, and no DNA or blood evidence links Virginia Hyatt to the killing.
Pickett argued that the state rushed to arrest a suspect without conducting a thorough investigation.
"Less than 24 hours after Patti Wheelington's death on Dec. 3, they're arresting Virginia Hyatt for the most serious crime in the state of Arkansas. They don't wait for reports from the Crime Lab. They don't need them. Their mind is made up," Pickett said.
Testimony as to why investigators quickly identified Virginia Hyatt as a suspect has been ruled inadmissible. Circuit Judge Randy Wright ruled Tuesday that detective Shane Kirkland could not tell the jury about his interview with Ken Caldwell, a close friend of Wheelington's who was the last person to speak to her on the phone.
Caldwell died of an illness shortly after Wheelington's slaying, and his statements were not videotaped. Caldwell was talking to Wheelington when she told him Virginia Hyatt was coming up her driveway, according to a probable cause affidavit. Caldwell tried repeatedly to reach Wheelington throughout the day and alerted other friends about his concern, the affidavit states.
Wright ruled that the testimony is inadmissible because Caldwell isn't alive to testify himself.
Black said Caldwell's calls to the friends led two women to go to Wheelington's home in the late afternoon. They discovered Wheelington in a bathrobe dead on her front porch.
Crime scene investigator Mark Sillivan was questioned by Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black as he testified about photos taken at the crime scene that were shown to jurors. In the photos: Wheelington's right leg was bent, knee up. Her foot was against an exterior door from the porch to the kitchen. Her right arm was stretched above her head. She still held a half-burned cigarette between two fingers. On a small wooden table between two swivel chairs was a bright-yellow coffee mug, a pack of cigarettes, an ashtray and a cellphone.
Sillivan said it appeared that Wheelington was shot as she sat in her chair, and that four more bullets entered her forearm and chest as she tried to reach the door, stopping her where she stood.
One shot was fired at such close range that soot from the gunshot was apparent on Wheelington's face, Sillivan said.
Wheelington's neighbors testified that they heard five shots ring out about 8 a.m., but they thought it was a homeowner scaring away geese or deer. Chuck Black told the jury that Virginia Hyatt claimed that she was at McDonald's buying her convalescent mother a sausage biscuit at the time, but video surveillance footage shows her in the drive-thru lane much later than that.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, which means Virginia Hyatt faces life without the possibility of parole if she is convicted of capital murder.
The trial continues today.
State Desk on 02/04/2016