By Eric Litke
Sheboygan Press staff
The Charlene Ruffin-Brand murder trial was highlighted this morning by testimony from one eyewitness who had previously refused to talk to police and another who contradicted her earlier statements to police and later broke down on the stand.
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The witnesses are among eight that have testified so far against the 42-year-old Sheboygan woman charged with stabbing her husband to death on New Year’s Day. Ruffin-Brand, of 1307 S. Seventh St., is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, if convicted.
She has admitted killing her husband, but her attorney is arguing she acted in self-defense after enduring years of verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
The trial broke for lunch from noon to 1 p.m., but testimony had not resumed as of 2:15 p.m. as both attorneys were called to the judge’s chambers immediately after returning from lunch.
Isaiah Appleton, 21, Ruffin-Brand’s cousin, was presented as a witness for the prosecution this morning, but on cross-examination by defense attorney Brian Kinstler his descriptions seemed to match Kinstler and Ruffin-Brand’s claims of self-defense. Appleton said he was in the next room as Marchel Brand, 40, pushed Ruffin-Brand across the kitchen during an argument.
“He pushed her, and after he pushed her he charged her again,” Appleton said, adding that Brand was charging before his wife grabbed the knife and stabbed him. “He never got a chance to do whatever else he was planning on doing.”
Appleton, who is in jail on unrelated charges, said he was going over to defend Ruffin-Brand, who fell over the sink. She was still leaning back when she slashed out at Brand with a knife in her hand, plunging the blade into Brand’s neck just below the ear, Appleton said. Brand was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
The couple had been arguing since Mandi Kunstman, 34, came to the house earlier in the evening and told Ruffin-Brand she had an affair with Brand last summer. Witnesses have said that sparked a series of angry confrontations involving Brand, Ruffin-Brand and Shem Clayborn, who is Ruffin-Brand’s brother and Kunstman’s boyfriend.
Appleton said Brand and Clayborn had been yelling at each other at several points in the evening, as Clayborn left the house, returned, and left again prior to the stabbing. The confrontation that ended with the stabbing began when Brand pushed his wife as she changed a garbage bag in the kitchen, Appleton said.
His detailed, consistent testimony stood in stark contrast to the prior witness, 18-year-old Tashira Britton. Britton, another relative, made at least one statement that contradicted earlier written and oral statements to police and said she couldn’t remember in response to numerous other questions. She was excused, however, shortly after Judge Terence Bourke ruled Assistant District Attorney Joel Urmanski could not play a recording of her original interview for the jury.
Britton had also claimed she was in a bedroom when the stabbing occurred – coming out only after hearing the sound of someone falling – but Appleton said she was with him in the living room within clear sight of the incident.
Other witnesses today included Officer Trisha Burington of the Sheboygan Police Department, who Kinstler questioned about a 2001 arrest of Brand. According to Burington, Brand pushed Ruffin-Brand to the ground several times and pulled out a chunk of hair, leading her to first threaten him and later attempt to slash at him with a pen.
Brand was convicted of misdemeanor battery and resisting or obstructing an officer and sentenced to 18 months probation and 30 days jail.
Ruffin-Brand was later convicted in another domestic incident for threatening to stab Brand with a fork after suspecting he had an affair, court records show. She was convicted of disorderly conduct, an ordinance violation, and fined $186.
In testimony Tuesday, Kunstman said Ruffin-Brand held a knife to Brand’s throat earlier in the evening Jan. 1 while attempting to make him leave.
Ruffin-Brand’s son, Kevan Ruffin, 21, said Brand regularly hit, slapped, choked, threw things and threatened to kill his mother. He said the couple fought every day, with either one initiating arguments but Brand always initiating physical conflict.
State statute allows a person to use force likely to cause death if the person “reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.” The prosecutor must convince jurors beyond reasonable doubt that Ruffin-Brand did not act in self-defense and showed “utter disregard for human life,” according to the statutory definition of reckless homicide.
The case, involving a black defendant and victim, is being heard by a mostly white jury with no black members, made up of nine women and four men. Thirteen jurors remain since one man was removed Tuesday after notifying the court he knew Kunstman. One will be named an alternate before deliberations begin.
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