Friday, April 22, 2011

Battle Creek, MI: Expert testifies murder victim had 24 wounds

An Ypsilanti woman killed in a Marshall truck stop nearly two years ago suffered 24 knife wounds, including a slashed throat.
Dr. Michelle Elieff, a pathologist at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, said she found stab wounds on the head, neck, chest, back and hands of Aloysia St. Ange during an autopsy on Aug. 5, 2009.
The woman died the day before in the parking lot of Love's Travel Stop at 18720 Partello Road in Marshall. Her husband, Kentish St. Ange, 28, is charged with open murder in his wife's death. Elieff's testimony came during the second day of his trial in Calhoun County Circuit Court.
Elieff said during questioning by Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Buscher and defense attorney John Vincent that she found 12 defensive wounds on the woman's hands, apparently as she tried to fight off the knife attack about 4 a.m.
The final and fatal wound was likely a 3½-inch cut across the woman's throat that silenced her screams and ended her life, probably in seconds, Elieff said.
Police and prosecutors allege that Kentish St. Ange and his wife, 33, spent the night together at an Albion motel and then returned to the Marshall truck stop, where St. Ange, a long-distance trucker, had left his semi.
A cashier at the truck stop, Connie Farmer, testified that St. Ange came in and pre-paid $20 for gasoline for his wife's car about 4 a.m.
"Then he asked if we sold knives," Farmer said. "I pointed to them, he went over and glanced at them and then left like he was in a hurry."
She said he didn't buy a knife and the knife St. Ange was holding after the attack was unlike any sold at the truck stop.
Outside, police said, the couple argued and a trucker, Mark Tibbe, testified he was awakened by a woman's screams.
Tibbe said he saw a woman and then a man run in front of his truck. Moments later they walked back together toward a small car.
"He had his arm around her shoulder," Tibbe said.
After hearing another scream, Tibbe said he saw the woman run back in front of the truck again.
"She stopped and turned around and I noticed her shirt was bloody," he said. "I just remember blood on the front of her."
The same man went after her and again they returned to a spot near a small car.
"He was making her go back and then it got quiet," he said, adding the whole incident lasted between two and four minutes.
Tibbe next noticed the man using a cell phone and holding what Tibbe thought was a knife.
Marshall police arrested Kentish St. Ange, still standing in the parking lot, after he called a 911 emergency dispatcher at 4:17 a.m. and said he had stabbed his wife in the neck. Her body was found a short distance away.
During an interview with Marshall Police Department Sgt. Tim Bryant, St. Ange was sometimes crying and quiet, sometimes talking about hearing voices and about conspiracies against him and about numerous affairs he believed his wife was having with other men, Bryant said.
Bryant said St. Ange told him he stabbed his wife after they hugged and she asked about a knife in his pocket.
When Bryant asked St. Ange if he intended to kill his wife, Bryant said "he said he thought about it but didn't plan it."
Testimony continues today before Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt.

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