2018-01-24
Posted January 24, 2018 09:02 pm - Updated January 24, 2018 09:32 pm
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Spielbauer capital murder trial: Closing arguments, deliberation expected Thursday
Women driving north on Helium Road called Randall County dispatch about 12:45 p.m. April 8, 2014, after the noticing a body laying beside a vehicle in a bar ditch on Helium Road. This photo was referenced during testimony Wednesday in Jeremy Spielbauer’s murder trial. (Amarillo Globe-News file)
Jeremy Spielbauer
CANYON — Closing statements and the start of jury deliberations are expected today in the capital murder trial of Jeremy “J.D.” Spielbauer after the prosecution and defense finished presenting their cases Wednesday.
Spielbauer, 34, is accused of murdering his 32-year-old ex-wife, Robin. Her body was found April 8, 2014, west of Amarillo, near the intersection of Helium Road and West County Road 34, with blunt-force trauma and a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The state rested its case about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, the sixth day of testimony.
The state had called more than 40 witnesses and introduced about 24 pieces of evidence, seeking to demonstrate that Jeremy committed the murder while caught in a tension-filled love triangle with Robin and then-wife Katie Phipps.
Prosecutors argue Jeremy killed Robin and tried to pin it on Phipps, 32, by using a gun he knew would be linked back to her.
Phipps was originally arrested for the murder in April 2014 and later released after prosecutors said cellphone tracking data cleared her.
The state’s final witness in its case was a forensic scientist who testified that a metal fragment found at the murder scene fit a chip in the alleged murder weapon — a pink and black .22 caliber Sig Sauer pistol authorities seized from a bedroom Phipps and Jeremy were sharing in 2014.
The forensic scientist also testified that a polymer piece found at the scene could’ve come from the pistol.
The defense presented a brief case Wednesday, seeming to try and bolster its theory that Phipps was still the killer, having shot and killed Robin after finding her with Jeremy at the Helium Road location.
Michael Spielbauer, Jeremy’s adoptive father, testified that he saw Phipps and Jeremy on April 9, 2014 — the day after the murder — arguing about a photo of the crime scene in the Amarillo Globe-News.
“She stated that the vehicles were not parked that way,” he said from the witness stand.
Michael Spielbauer testified “it just seemed odd” Phipps would know how the vehicles were parked and that he thought it implied she was at the scene. Paula Spielbauer, Jeremy’s stepmother, offered similar testimony.
Also, Robin feared in November 2013 that Katie was going to kill her, according to testimony from Paula.
But under cross- examination from Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren, the two seemed to struggle to answer why they didn’t report that information to authorities until October 2016, after Jeremy had been arrested for the crime.
“You didn’t think maybe, just maybe, you should provide that information to law enforcement?” Farren asked Paula.
“Not at the time, no,” she said.
The prosecution has relied on cellphone tracking experts, who testified cellphones belonging to Phipps and her then-12-year-old son appeared to be at or near a friend’s home in the 1900 block of Karen Street at the alleged time of the murder — between 9:30 and 10 p.m. April 7, 2014.
Eyewitnesses also placed the two at the Karen Street home.
If convicted of capital murder, Jeremy faces life in prison without possibility of parole. He has been held in Randall County jail since his arrest in April 2016.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today in 251st District Court in Randall County.