MOSCOW - Seventeen days of testimony in the David Meister murder-for-hire retrial ended Thursday, and the case will go to the jury Monday.
Second District Judge Carl Kerrick gave the jury of nine men and five women today off while he drafts jury instructions with the prosecution and defense attorneys. Closing arguments will be conducted Monday morning.
A 2003 jury convicted Meister of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the 2001 killing of Tonya Hart. But the Idaho Supreme Court ordered a new trial, ruling the initial trial Judge John R. Stegner erred when he didn't allow Meister's defense to pursue a theory that a man named Lane Thomas killed Hart, and when Stegner told Meister he would get a lenient sentence if he confessed.
Meister actually did confess to the murder in August 2002, saying Hart's fiance Jesse (Shorty) Linderman paid him to kill Hart. But Meister later recanted, claiming his admission was coerced by law enforcement officers.
Defense attorneys Tom Whitney of Moscow and Scott Chapman of Lewiston rested their case Thursday after calling private investigator Charles (Chuck) Schoonover to testify. Schoonover interviewed one of Meister's alibi witnesses before his first trial. The prosecution implied that Schoonover helped the witness concoct a story that would bolster Meister's alibi.
"Absolutely not," Schoonover replied when Whitney asked him if he tampered with witness Jeremy White.
White previously testified he and Meister were getting pizza in downtown Moscow when they heard Hart had been shot.
On cross examination, Schoonover admitted he told White part of Meister's alibi was the account of going to get pizza with White. Earlier this week, White testified he initially didn't remember the pizza run, but Schoonover "jogged his memory."
After Whitney rested his case, the tragedy of the Hart murder was highlighted when Latah County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Evans called Hart's mother Debra Hart as its first rebuttal witness.
She recalled getting a call from Linderman at 10:55 p.m. on the night of Dec. 11, 2001. Debra Hart said she remembered the specific time because it was unusual to get a call that late.
Through tears, she said "I pretty much lost it," when Linderman told her Tonya was dead.
Debra Hart said she and her boyfriend called Hart's father, and they all rushed to the trailer house north of Moscow where Hart lay dead with 9mm bullet wounds to her face and chest. She said she was greeted by a "bunch of cops."
"I was begging and pleading with them to tell me what was going on," Debra Hart said.
Among other rebuttal witnesses, Evans called Joy Lee, Lane Thomas' sister. In 2005, Lee filed a statement with the Latah County Sheriff's Office that said her brother came to her Moscow apartment at 9:52 p.m. on Dec. 11, shortly before the murder, and stayed there all night.
Whitney challenged that account, asserting Lane Thomas urged his sister to make the statement to strengthen his alibi. Lee denied the charge, but Whitney pointed out that previously Lee had only said her brother showed up "late" on the night of the murder.
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Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or (208) 883-0564.
