OZARK — Nona Dirksmeyer had romantic relationships with at least two men before her death in December 2005, even though her longtime boyfriend Kevin Jones said his relationship with her was exclusive, attorneys told a Franklin County Circuit Court jury Tuesday.
Trey York of Ashdown and Jordan Harris of Springdale testified Tuesday in Jones' murder trial that they had romantic relationships with 19-year-old Dirksmeyer while Jones was attending the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Jones, 21, is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 15, 2005, slaying of Dirksmeyer in her Russellville apartment.
Harris said he and Dirksmeyer were vocal-music education majors at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and that they developed a relationship toward the end of the spring 2005 semester.
He said that about midnight on July 1 or 2, 2005, Dirksmeyer called him at his home in Springdale and invited him to spend the night with her. He said he drove to Russellville after the phone call and the two had sex shortly after he arrived.
Harris said they stayed in contact with each other during the summer but the relationship ended when Dirksmeyer told him in early August that she was getting back into her relationship with Jones.
York, 20, said he developed a friendship with Dirksmeyerwhen they were in the same study group in a biology class. He said they went out on a date in late October or early November 2005.
The next day, York said, Dirksmeyer invited him to spend the night with her. He said they did not have sex during that visit, that their contact was confined to kissing. He said that for the next few weeks she visited him in his dormitory room about once a week, but they made no sexual contact.
York said Dirksmeyer stopped dropping over around Thanksgiving because he felt she was using him to get help in her biology studies.
Earlier Tuesday, Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons told jurors in his opening statement that these relationships may have prompted Jones to kill Dirksmeyer.
He said Dr. Charles Kokes, the state medical examiner, will testify that Dirksmeyer was killed in three stages.
According to Gibbons, Dirksmeyer was choked and beaten in the first stage, and in the second stage she was stabbed and slashed with a knife on her face, shoulders and throat. In the third stage she was struck twice with the base of a floor lamp that fractured her skull, Gibbons said.
Gibbons said a used condom wrapper found on Dirksmeyer's kitchen counter either was planted by Jones to make investigators believe Dirksmeyer was killed as part of a rape or that it sent him into a rage that ended with Dirksmeyer's death.
Gibbons said he believes theevidence shows Dirksmeyer was killed in a fit of rage. That a floor lamp was used to kill Dirksmeyer showed the killer didn't intend to kill her when he arrived, he said; otherwise, the killer would have had a weapon with him.
One of Jones' attorneys, Kenneth Johnson of Monticello, said in his opening statement that the timeline of Jones' day on Dec. 15, 2005, showed he didn't have enough time alone to go to Dirksmeyer's apartment and kill her between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., the time the medical examiner estimated Dirksmeyer was killed.
Johnson also pointed out that the bloody palm print on the floor lamp light bulb could not have been made at the time Dirksmeyer was killed as the state suggests.
He said a report by former Russellville Police Chief James Bacon said the blood on the bulb was dry but for a section that "appeared tacky." Johnson said a defense expert would testify that the blood would have dried in 30 to 45 minutes. Dirksmeyer's body was found about 6:30 p.m.
Johnson also faulted the prosecution for not analyzing DNA recovered from the condom wrapper. He said a defense expert would testify that the DNA was from someone other than Jones.
He also criticized investigators for allowing Dirksmeyer's stepfather, Duane Dipert, to take possession of Dirksmeyer's cell phone before Jones was charged. Johnson said the memory chip in the cell phone was wiped clean and did not give the defense an opportunity to retrieve whatever evidence there might be on it.
Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 20 on 07/11/2007