Witnesses’ accounts questioned

IOWA CITY - At the end of the first full day of witness testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Charles W. Thompson, Assistant Johnson County Attorney Meredith Rich-Chappell and Johnson County District Attorney Janet Lyness told the court that they wanted speak in their own defense.

Defense attorney Tyler Johnston, through argumentative questioning of a witness, had just accused prosecutors of trying to influence witness testimony and hide inconsistencies in testimony from jurors.

“Isn't it true, Mr. Brown, that you had a conversation with prosecutors during the break?” Johnston asked James Brown, a prosecution witness who changed his testimony after the court's afternoon break Thursday regarding the placement of furniture in his apartment on the night of the homicide.

Brown maintained that no one told him to change his testimony about where the couch and the love seat were placed, and Rich-Chappell reiterated that stance after the trial recessed for the evening.

“Mr. Johnston suggested that I somehow coached Mr. Brown on what to say,” Rich-Chappell said. “That is not the case. I didn't tell him he had something right or wrong.”

Lyness seconded Rich-Chappell's comments, saying that neither she nor Deputy Attorney General Thomas H. Miller “did anything of that nature.”

Johnston spent the day pointing out inconsistencies in the testimony being offered by Ronda Bluitt and Brown, her boyfriend. Bluitt and Brown lived in the Broadway Condominiums at the time of the homicide, and they both testified Thursday to hearing a loud “pop” on Oct. 8, 2009.

On that night, according to police, John Versypt, 64, of Cordova, Ill., was fatally shot while checking in on the condos he owns on the south side of Iowa City. Versypt was shot at close range with a .38-caliber revolver in his head and in his hand, according to trial information.

Police suspect Versypt's shooting happened during an attempted robbery. Several witnesses identified Thompson as being involved, according to police, and lab results showed components of gunshot residue on clothing that Thompson was wearing at the time of the homicide.

Thompson, 19, of Iowa City, faces a first-degree murder charge, and Justin A. Marshall, 20, also has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the shooting. He originally was considered a material witness in the case, but he was arrested last month in Texas and extradited back to Iowa.

His trial is scheduled for Jan. 17.

Bluitt took the witness stand first Thursday and testified that after she heard the loud pop and a door to the apartment complex swing open, she saw two men running in dark hooded sweat shirts.

Upon cross-examination, however, Johnston reminded Bluitt that, in an interview on the day of the shooting, she told an investigator that she saw just one person in a dark hooded sweat shirt running from the scene.

Bluitt at first denied changing her story. After watching a videotaped interview of her initial interview with police in which she said she saw one person running, Bluitt explained that she changed her story after “it came back to memory that it was two people.”

She said she wasn't interested in helping police with their investigation originally.

When Brown, Bluitt's boyfriend, took the stand, he told jurors that he went over to the apartment where Thompson and Marshall lived on the eve of the shooting and saw a gun. He said Thompson explained that he had the gun to protect his family.

But when Johnston questioned Brown about the gun, he reminded Brown that during previous interviews with investigators, Brown described the gun differently than he did in court on Thursday.

Brown denied changing his story and challenged Johnston to “get out your tapes” and prove it. Johnston told jurors that they would see tapes of Brown's initial interview today.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.