Hamilton County, TN: Defense Does Not Dispute Prosecutor's Charge That Gann Killed His Estranged Wife

by Judy Frank
posted February 16, 2010

The story of the killing of Robyn Gann isn't a whodunnit, the attorney for the man accused of the homicide told a Hamilton County Criminal Court jury late Tuesday afternoon.

It's a why-he-dunnit, Dan Ripper, who is representing the late Mrs. Gann's husband, Kenneth "Danny" Gann, said during opening statements in the murder trial.

The attorney did not dispute a prosecutor's graphic description of the events of March 2, 2008, when the 25-year-old woman turned up strangled to death in the office of the home she and her estranged husband had briefly shared.

Nearby, on a couch in an adjoining room, police found then-23-year-old Danny Gann stretched out and unresponsive - with a plastic bag taped over his head.

Officers ripped off the bag and summoned emergency responders. Gann was taken to Memorial North Park where he quickly recovered and was questioned by homicide detectives.

The confession he gave police as he lay in his hospital bed will come back to haunt Gann this week when prosecutors play it for the jurors who will determine his fate.

But that's not the key to understanding this case, Gann's attorney told the jury.

"There's no dispute about who did what here," attorney Ripper said. "The dispute is what it all means."

The defense attorney said Mrs. Gann moved out of the couple's home, taking their two-year-old son with her, a couple of months prior to her death.

The day before the killing, he said, Gann tried repeatedly to make arrangements to see his son.

Finally, when he realized that wasn't going to happen, Gann contacted his wife and asked her to meet him during the wee hours of the morning at their home so they could talk, the attorney said.

"She was drunk when she got there, and the first thing she did was go get a beer out of the frig," the defense attorney told jurors. "She went after him with a kitchen knife."

Eventually, Mrs. Gann announced that she was leaving, attorney Ripper continued.

"No, you're not. You're drunk," he said his client told the angry woman.

Enraged, Mrs. Gann began trying to choke her husband and started scratching him with her fingernails, attorney Ripper said. Then she announced that she was being held against her will and was going to call the police.

That's when his client lost it, he said, and soon afterward Mrs. Gann was dead.

However, the fact that Gann killed his wife does not mean he is guilty of first-degree murder, the defense attorney insisted, because "This was not pre-meditated."

Prosecutors, on the other hand, said that's exactly what it was.

To bolster their position, they introduced dozens of pieces of evidence - including photos of a hole the size and shape of a shallow grave that been dug in the crawl space under the couple's home.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning.