Angel McCurdy
2011-03-04 21:27:52
CRESTVIEW — Photograph after photograph of the June 2, 1991, murder of Norma Jean Ates showed the jury Friday that she died a bloody death.
She likely was shot first in the bathroom and began to drip blood as she made her way into the bedroom, said Jan Johnson, a blood stain analyst who testified for the prosecution.
She said Ates likely fell onto the bed, possibly touching a blouse she had planned to wear that evening to a baccalaureate service at Baker School. Then, in her last moments, she fell to the ground while she struggled to use the telephone phone that was found beside her body.
Norma Jean Ates was shot a total of seven times in the chest and back.
The first week of Jimmy Ates’ second murder trial wrapped up Friday. He is accused of killing his 44-year-old wife and setting fire to his home in Baker to try to cover up the crime.
The prosecution claims that Ates, a former teacher at Baker School, killed his wife and tried to make the murder look like a burglary-homicide that went awry and ended in flames.
Mike Stewart, a former Okaloosa County sheriff’s investigator, took the stand again Friday to testify what Jimmy Ates told him about his events the day Norma Jean Ates was killed.
Stewart said he talked to Ates two days after the murder. He said Ates told him that he closed his vegetable stand earlier than usual because of stormy weather. After a few delays and two trips to Holt, he made it back home, where Ates said his wife was “ready to go” to the service.
At the last minute, however, Norma Jean Ates became ill and threw up. Jimmy Ates said his wife was often sick, according to Stewart
“Then he left his home at 6:25 or 6:30. Closer to 6:30,” Stewart said. “I remember he said, ‘closer to 6:30’ because we hadn’t told him about the 911 call.”
Victoria Moore, a former dispatcher for the Sheriff’s Office, testified that she received an unidentified call at 6:20 p.m. the night of the murder. Then at 6:25:31 she got a call from the Ateses’ home.
“There was static and clicking sounds,” Moore said. “I did a ring back on the line three times then hung up.”
Moore said there was no protocol in 1991 for unanswered calls, so no one was dispatched to the Ateses’ home.
Johnson, the forensic analyst at the time of the murder investigation, said she did not suspect there was a struggle the night Norma Jean Ates was killed.
“What I mostly saw was dropped blood,” Johnson said. “I would have expected to see more transfer or cast-off stains (from the blood) if there had been a violent struggle.”
The jury looked intently as they were shown the bra and dress slip worn by Norma Jean Ates the night she was killed. The once white garments were covered in blood and residue.
David Williams, former firearms and gun residue expert with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, testified that the first shots to Norma Jeans Ates’ chest were from close range with a .22-caliber weapon.
“The muzzle and firearm were very close. I’d guess at most 6 inches,” Williams said.
He held the garments and pointed out each hole in the fabric. The left cup of the bra showed a definite entry wound. It could not be determined whether another hole in the left cup was an entry or exit wound.
Dr. Kevin McElfresh, CEO of Casework Genetics in Virginia, testified that after studying the DNA results there were no large samples of DNA found under Norma Jean Ates’ nails.
Prosecutor James Colaw alluded that large amounts of DNA would have been suggested she had struggled with her assailant.
Instead, McElfresh said he found a small amount of DNA belonging to Jimmy Ates on his wife’s left hand.
Ann E. Finnell, one of Jimmy Ates’ defense attorneys, noted that the small amount of DNA found on Norma Jeans
Ates’ right hand did not match her husband.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the county courthouse.
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