Defense begins in trial of woman accused of killing fellow square dancer

Judge rejects call to toss case

TEXARKANA -- Testimony from witnesses for the defense is scheduled to continue today in the capital-murder trial of a 67-year-old Texarkana woman accused of shooting a fellow square dancer in 2013.

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The state rested its case Friday afternoon.

Virginia Ann Hyatt's lawyers -- John Pickett, Damon Young and Bruce Condit, all of Texarkana -- began calling witnesses after Pickett argued unsuccessfully that the court should dismiss the case, saying the state failed to present sufficient evidence to prove guilt.

Hyatt is accused of shooting Patricia "Patti" Wheelington five times on Dec. 3, 2013, as Wheelington sat on the porch of her South Valley Road home in Texarkana.

"Motive does not equal murder, your honor," Pickett argued to Circuit Judge Randy Wright. "Witnesses that have provided testimony in this case all go to motive, your honor. Their testimony has nothing to do with factual evidence. None of this type of testimony and evidence provides a legally factual basis to support a finding of guilt."

Pickett said the witnesses who took the stand on the state's behalf, many of whom were friends of Wheelington's, had been fooled into thinking Hyatt was wrong when she said there was an affair between her husband and Wheelington.

"And these are people with a lot of life experience who were sincerely wrong in their beliefs that James Hyatt and Patricia Wheelington weren't having an affair," Pickett said.

James Hyatt, Virginia Hyatt's estranged husband, said on the stand Tuesday that he and Wheelington had become romantic in 2009.

Wright disagreed with Pickett's assessment of the state's case and ruled the trial should proceed.

James Hyatt had testified earlier last week that he left his wife Nov. 29, 2013, because he feared she would harm him. He and other witnesses said Virginia Hyatt's jealous nature and obvious dislike for Wheelington led them to worry for Wheelington's safety as well.

Texarkana police Detective Tye Whatley testified Friday that he assisted the investigation by accessing voice mails, text messages and other data from Wheelington's cellphone. Virginia Hyatt left voice mails for Wheelington at 2:17 p.m., 2:20 p.m. and 2:22 p.m. on the day James Hyatt left, and those three messages were incomprehensible recordings of wailing, pleading and screaming, according to testimony. Hyatt's voice was calmer when she left Wheelington a message at 7:58 a.m. the next day -- Nov. 30, 2013.

"Hey, please, please give me my husband back. Please, this is horrible. You can get you any man in the street, anywhere. Can you call me back? Are you there? Can you hear me? Please call me back," Hyatt said on the voice message.

Whatley reviewed the calls and texts Wheelington received the day of her death, beginning with a call logged at 7:17 a.m. from a contact listed as "MF."

James Hyatt testified Wednesday that the number associated with the contact "MF" is for a cellphone Wheelington gave him.

Whatley said the last time Wheelington spoke to anyone on the phone was during a one-minute, 51-second call at 7:57 a.m. Dec. 3, 2013, to a friend, Ken Caldwell. Caldwell died of illness shortly after Wheelington's killing.

Caldwell continued to call and leave messages for Wheelington throughout the day. At around 3 p.m., Caldwell began leaving messages asking Wheelington if she was coming to pick him up as they had planned, but she never did.

Friends of Wheelington's called her repeatedly. Late that afternoon, friends Barbara Ricketts and Phyllis Nabors discovered Wheelington's lifeless body on her front porch, a cigarette still between the fingers of her right hand.

Texarkana police Detective Jason Haak testified that he and Detective Paul Nall interviewed Virginia Hyatt on Dec. 4, 2013, at the Bi-State Justice Building in downtown Texarkana at about 2 a.m., shortly after her arrest. Haak said Hyatt seemed "nonchalant" and didn't ask why she was in custody. Haak said Hyatt at first denied she'd been to Wheelington's home the morning of Dec. 2 to confront her.

Ricketts testified Thursday that Wheelington was shaken and upset by an unannounced visit from Hyatt the day before the shooting. Whatley testified that text messages and phone records supported Ricketts' and other witnesses' testimonies about the incident.

Haak said Hyatt claimed she was in the drive-thru of McDonald's on East Seventh Street in Texarkana, Ark., buying her mother a sausage biscuit at approximately 8 a.m. Dec. 3, 2013, the time investigators believe Wheelington was killed. Hyatt said she next drove to the nursing home where her mother lives and stayed for an hour.

But video surveillance from the restaurant shows Hyatt left the drive-thru at 9:30 a.m. that day, and the nursing home video shows she spent 12 minutes visiting her mother afterward, Nall testified. He testified that video surveillance from a convenience store, a fireworks store and an automotive business along U.S. 82 shows a car that looks like Virginia Hyatt's Lincoln Town Car driving in the direction of Wheelington's home at 7:53 a.m. and driving the opposite direction at 8:16 a.m.

Under cross-examination by Pickett, Nall agreed that Hyatt visited her mother's nursing home nearly every day and that being confused about the time at which she was there on a specific day isn't surprising. Nall also agreed that the tag number of the white sedan seen on video footage can't be identified.

Witnesses who testified last week described Hyatt as jealous of all women, especially single ones who might dance with her husband at Guys and Dolls Square Dancing Club in Texarkana. But the two defense witnesses who took the stand Friday afternoon said they had never seen Hyatt behave jealously.

Sylvia Jordan, a Guys and Dolls member, said Hyatt has trouble getting around, suffers from diabetes and that she has small, arthritic hands, under questioning from Condit.

Under cross-examination from Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Black of Texarkana, Jordan said Hyatt "can dance, but she doesn't move very fast."

"Would you agree that you wouldn't have to move very fast to shoot somebody sitting in a chair?" Black asked Jordan.

Jerry Ward told the jury that he and his wife, Ann Ward, quit Guys and Dolls because they "saw some stuff going on that was detrimental to square dancing." Ward said he never heard Hyatt speak negatively of Wheelington or anyone else, contradicting other Guys and Dolls members who testified for the state.

Virginia Hyatt faces life without parole if convicted of capital murder.

Metro on 02/08/2016

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