Jay White found guilty of murder and obstructing justice in Owen County trial
SPENCER — Jurors found 39-year-old Jay White guilty of murder and obstruction of justice after deliberating about two hours Wednesday.
The guilty verdicts came on the seventh day of a trial in Owen Circuit Court. White is to be sentenced May 23 by Monroe Circuit Judge Darcie Fawcett, who oversaw the trial. He faces a prison sentence of 45 to 65 years for murder and two years on the second charge.
During his closing statement Wednesday morning, Owen County Prosecutor Benjamin Kim said the evidence in his murder case against White proved the Spencer man shot Elizabeth "Bizzy" Stevens in the head with his AR-15 rifle.
"The defendant has told different conflicting stories, none of which is true," Kim told jurors. "And he has every reason to lie. He's killed Elizabeth Stevens."
Defense lawyer Megan Schueler said evidence she presented from experts made that unlikely. She said that given where White was seated inside the pickup when Stevens was killed, he could not have fired the fatal shot. She said Stevens died by suicide or by accidentally shooting herself.
She conceded her client should have been truthful with investigators instead of lying. "We are not here to determine if he (White) made great decisions," Schueler said. "We are here to determine if he committed murder."
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The jurors agreed that he had, despite testimony from experts who studied and re-enacted the shooting. They said the bullet's trajectory through the victim's head made a shot fired from the front seat, where White sat, unlikely.
Medical experts from both sides testified that a wig Stevens was wearing when she was shot would have helped them discover important information such as how close the gun barrel was to her head when the bullet was fired. The blood-encrusted wig was discovered a few weeks before the trial in an unsealed bag in an evidence storage area.
Throughout the trial, Schueler referenced two searches and two interviews recorded on officers' body-worn cameras that weren't preserved and were later taped over, and also the long-missing wig, as reasons to question the integrity and results of the police investigation.
"It can't be trusted. Mistakes were made here. Evidence was lost and there were no written reports to back up those videos," she said. "They lost some frigging evidence."
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Schueler said White had no reason to kill Stevens. "Where is the motive? Why would he intentionally shoot her? There's no reason to turn around and just shoot someone in the head."
The prosecution didn't have to offer a motive and was tasked with proving White knowingly shot Stevens, intending to kill her. And that he tried to cover up his actions by wiping down the gun.
"If you are going to charge someone with murder, and say it's intentional, preserve the evidence," Schueler said. "If you don't have your evidence, you shouldn't be able to charge someone with murder."
But what the state offered, including testimony from the man driving the truck who said White pulled the trigger, convinced the jury of White's guilt. They went to the jury room for lunch and to deliberate at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday and returned around 1 p.m.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Jay White convicted of murder, obstruction of justice in Owen County trial
