December 20, 2010 5:34 PM
Angel McCurdy
Daily News
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — Todd Ball is scheduled to go on trial next month for the 1999 death of his ex-wife, Kim Ball.
The state attorney’s office filed multiple motions Friday for the last hearing before the trial is expected to begin.
Russ Edgar, the prosecutor in the case, said that he made several motions to Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells to allow a domestic violence case between Ball and his ex-wife. Edgar said only some of the motions he requested were approved.
“The court allowed some of the alleged domestic violence case,” Edgar said. “We asked for an expert memory witness that was not allowed. And the court ruled on various other motions pertaining to things in the case.”
Some of the other motions brought up were a motion to suppress, which was denied, and a motion to use an excited utterance by the victim, which was granted.
Several of the motions requested were ruled under advisement by the judge.
View photos of Todd and Kim Ball. »
Read about the last hearing. »
Read about his arrest »
The Lynn Haven man was arrested in April 2009, nearly 10 years after the murder. Kim Ball, a 28-year-old housekeeper who had recently been divorced, disappeared from a home she was cleaning on Destin’s Holiday Isle on June 10, 1999.
Her shoes, purse, keys and car still were at the home she was cleaning. There was no note and no sign of struggle.
Two days after her disappearance, her body was found floating in a ditch in South Walton County — her 4-foot, 10-inch frame already decomposed and difficult to examine.
The medical examiner later ruled that Kim Ball died from asphyxiation.
At the time of his arrest, Ball was living in Lynn Haven with his wife, Billie Ball, and their children. He was arrested at his business in Southport in Bay County and charged with premeditated first-degree murder.
After he was released on $100,000 bail in June 2009, he was put under a program similar to house arrest with an electronic monitoring device.
Jury selection for the case will begin Jan. 12 at the Walton County Courthouse.
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