Lebanon farmer guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder

Apr. 18—A Boone County jury on Thursday found Andrew Wilhoite guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of his wife, Elizabeth 'Nikki' Wilhoite.

They deliberated about nine hours, telling Boone Superior Court I Judge Matthew Kincaid at one point that they were unable to reach a verdict.

Wilhoite was charged with murder, but the jury could also choose manslaughter if they thought the death was a result of "sudden heat."

Two jurors broke from the pack and told Kincaid they thought it was worth trying again, and Kincaid instructed them to return to the jury room and reach a verdict. They reached one within a half hour.

Voluntary manslaughter is a level 2 felony punishable by 10-30 years in prison.

Wilhoite has been held without bond in the Boone County Jail in Lebanon since his arrest the day after her death, as is customary with a murder charge. He may now be eligible for bond until his sentencing hearing June 4 but that would be determined during a bond hearing.

Wilhoite and his family showed disappointment in the verdict, but so did his wife's family.

Murder or manslaughter?

Nikki autopsy photos revealed she received three to five blunt-force injuries to her head. They were exposed and easy for the jury to see because she had lost her hair during chemotherapy to treat breast cancer.

Two forensic pathologists who testified this week — one for the prosecution and one for the defense — agreed the blows occurred while she was alive for probably one to 10 minutes after the first blow with a flower pot.

Andrew admitted to hitting his wife once with the flower pot and no more that night. He offered no explanation about her other injuries and said "I don't know," when asked about them.

He didn't check for a pulse. He didn't call a friend. He didn't take his wife to Witham Hospital, which is near their farm in the 4000 block of N. County Road 175 E., Lebanon, Boone County Chief Deputy Prosecutor T.K. Morris said.

Autopsy photos showed two gashes on the upper left side of Nikki's head. The flower pot left the first gash near her forehead. The second wound was about 5 inches behind the first. It bruised less than the first because her life was already slipping away from the first blow, a pathologist testified. Her nose was also broken, her lip split, and her eyes bruised.

The pathologists agreed the injuries that came after the first blow could have occurred when Andrew put Nikki in the bed of his pickup truck, or when he rolled her off a small concrete bridge near their home into a shallow drainage ditch below.

The bruises around her eyes could have resulted from a blow or fall before her death, a pathologist said.

Andrew testified in his own defense Wednesday, describing a wild, alcohol fueled fight between the couple the night of her death. It began with heavy drinking in their garage hangout area after dinner. He said she was angry with him after recently learning he'd had an affair with a Fraternal Order of Eagles — Lebanon #2062 cook who was 13 years his senior.

Nikki and the other woman had been in contact with one another that night, and it set Nikki off, testimony revealed.

Andrew said the affair had ended, and he tired of the argument and went to bed. But, he said, he got up shortly afterwards to help Nikki from the garage into the bathroom because she was intoxicated and falling.

He claimed he then went to sleep, only to be awakened when she jumped atop of him, scratching, hitting, and yelling about the other woman.

Police photographed several scratches on his arms, neck, and torso when they interviewed Andrew the next day.

Nikki threatened to get Andrew's oldest daughter from a previous marriage and involve her in the argument. At that time, Andrew physically put Nikki out of the house to protect the girl, he testified.

Andrew and Nikki both fell off their front porch, both screaming and shoving, and rolled around in the yard. "Somebody needed to leave," he said, adding that he started to leave but fell onto his knees in mulch. In front of him was a 27-pound ceramic flower pot, he said, and Nikki was charging at him from behind. He grabbed the pot to hold her off, he testified.

"I came up off my knees swinging," he said.

It hit her head and she fell still onto the grass.

"I see her just laying there," Andrew said. "I'm still huffing and puffing from the fight. I rolled her over and said 'Hey ...' I bent down to pick her up. She was limp. She was just so limp."

He loaded her into his pickup truck, spread the potting soil that fell from the pot over the grass, gathered the pot shards into a trash bag, showered, and drove around, throwing the shards out one at a time along U.S. 52. He didn't know until he reached the drainage ditch that he would dump his wife's body there, Andrew told the court.

His attorney asked if Andrew meant to hit Nikki with the pot. "I didn't mean to hit her," he said, weeping. "I didn't mean to kill her."

"Are you sorry for that," the attorney asked. "Yes, my God," he said, breaking down.

"Why didn't you check for a pulse," Boone County Chief Deputy Prosecutor T.K. Morris asked Andrew. "She was still alive."

"I thought she was gone," Andrew said.

He said he didn't know why he hid her body and pretended she was a missing person for a day but added that he wanted things to "be normal," and he didn't want his three children to suffer from the death of their mother and stepmother.

Closing arguments

Nikki had two major lacerations on her head and additional injuries not caused by falling onto the grass, Morris said in closing arguments Thursday morning.

"He hit her, and he hit her again, and again, and then he put her in a truck and dumped her," Morris said. "He could have taken her to a hospital. He could have called 911.

"He wanted her dead, it's that obvious ... He murdered her."

Andrew's attorneys James Voyles and Jennifer Lukemyer asked jurors to consider the lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and involuntary manslaughter.

Lukemyer said Andrew had no intent to kill his wife and her death was the "very sad culmination" of a sad, volatile, unhealthy relationship in which stressors continued to escalate.

"We believe that what he did was not murder," she said.

Mental and physical abuse, discord, and lack of communication between the two, paired with alcohol use, her cancer, the affair, and Nikki's filing for a legal separation days before her death, all played a role, Lukemyer said.

"They didn't talk about it," Luckemyer said. "They just let it simmer until it started boiling and boiling and boiling."

Voyles called Andrew a farmer who loved his children and who was in a very difficult marriage that was plagued with alcohol and fighting. Andrew killed Nicki in an episode of sudden heat, but he didn't murder her, Voyles said.

There was nothing sudden about Andrew's killing Nikki, Morris said, adding that they'd been in a slow burn for years.

Andrew weighed more than 200 to 220 pounds on the night of Nikki's death, while she weighed 145 pounds and was characterized by one of their children as "fragile" after her chemotherapy, Morris said.

"Andrew didn't have a busted up nose," Morris said. "Nikki Wilhoite did. It all points back to murder."