Portage County, Wisconsin: Closing arguments in trucker shooting trial to begin

Jurors will begin deciding today whether Michael Haydon killed Pat Zemke on Nov. 18, 2003, in a semitrailer parked on an exit ramp off Interstate 39.
The eight days of witness testimony are finished, and attorneys will make their closing arguments today.
Haydon is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a sentence of life in prison. Haydon already is serving a 25-year sentence for sexually assaulting his girlfriend at gunpoint in 2003.
Haydon is accused of shooting Zemke, a Kolbe & Kolbe driver from Rib Mountain, because he thought the driver was a different man, one Haydon thought who was sleeping with his girlfriend. Zemke was killed by shotgun shells that had split-shot fishing sinkers added to them.
Haydon was tapping his girlfriend's phone conversations, and became increasingly jealous when he suspected an affair, Portage County District Attorney Tom Eagon said.
"In his mind, he saw (the driver of the truck) as a threat to his relationship," Eagon said during his opening remarks April 5.
The case put forth by the Eagon's office hinges on whether the testimony of three former cellmates of Haydon's is enough to convince the jury. The cellmates testified Haydon told them he was the killer.
Two testified Haydon told them outright he was the killer, and one said Haydon told him he was surprised the shots didn't "blow (Zemke's) face away."
But that same inmate testified Haydon said he'd pitched Zemke's wallet back into the cab to make it look like a mugging. No wallet was found at the scene.
There is no physical evidence, no DNA or fingerprints, tying Haydon to the crime, although that doesn't rule him out. No DNA or prints were found from others who were in the cab after Zemke's WDH - Body Copy was found, crime scene investigators testified during the trial.
"All (physical) evidence was obtained prior to November 2007 when this case was dismissed" for lack of sufficient evidence, defense attorney Jeffrey Jazgar said during his opening statement April 13.
Haydon did have a motive, and could have had access to a shotgun, the type of gun that killed Zemke, Eagon said.
But none of Haydon's friends who own shotguns testified they lent him one, and none of their guns turned up any evidence when examined by police.