Crawfordsville, IN: Suspect described as ‘gentle giant’

Trial heads into 2nd week Monday

By SOPHIA VORAVONG
svoravong@jconline.com

CRAWFORDSVILLE — Attorneys for a New Richmond man charged with murder in the gruesome shooting of an ex-girlfriend spent Friday afternoon in Montgomery Circuit Court trying to characterize their client as a “gentle giant.”

Those were the exact words both a former supervisor and coworker at Fairfield Manufacturing Co. in Lafayette used to describe Scott D. Malott, 37, to jurors.

Malott’s trial on charges of murder and criminal confinement began Tuesday before Judge Thomas Milligan. Testimony will resume Monday morning.

“He was a quiet guy. He was a gentle giant. He never lost his temper,” said Thomas Lind of Colfax, who trained Malott when Malott was hired in 2005.

Lind was one of three Fairfield employees called Friday by Malott’s defense to testify. Questions posed by Malott’s attorneys, Kurt Homann and Heather Perkins, largely focused on his demeanor.

Malott is accused of fatally shooting Heather M. Rush, 30, five times on March 9, 2009, at Malott’s home at 3749 W. Montgomery County Road 1200 North in New Richmond.

Rush, the mother of Malott’s two children, had just moved in. At the time, she was dating Roger Lyman, 34, of Colfax — though it’s unclear whether Malott knew the two were dating.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Joe Buser alleges that the shooting occurred after Malott held Rush and Lyman at gunpoint for three to four hours in Rush’s bedroom.

Malott’s attorneys are arguing that Malott snapped after seeing Lyman in Rush’s bed.
If the defense is successful, that would make the shooting a lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter.

According to information presented during the trial thus far, Rush and Malott dated for about four years. They broke up in the fall of 2007, shortly after Rush met — and soon married — someone she met online.

That marriage ended in late 2008. Rush then moved into Malott’s home in March 2009 because of financial struggles.

Rush and Malott’s former baby-sitter, Rosemarie Koebcke of New Richmond, testified Friday that Rush became bored by her relationship with Malott.

Toward the later years, Rush would more and more often want a baby-sitter for Friday and Saturday nights. On some of those instances, Rush wanted to go out dancing.

“She just wasn’t as happy as she’d been before,” said Koebcke, who was called to testify by Malott’s attorneys.

Koebcke said she became “a shoulder for Scott to express his feelings to.” She also had testified on Malott’s behalf during his custody battle with Rush.

Though the couple shared joint custody, Rush was given physical custody of them.
“Scott is a wonderful father,” Koebcke said Friday. “I mean seriously, the kids adore him.”

Retorted Buser during cross examination: “The judge didn’t see it that way, did he?”

Several witnesses this past week testified that Malott became upset the morning of March 9, 2009, because he believed Rush violated an agreement in which she was not to have men over when the children were home.

Lyman slept over that night.

His videotaped statement to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department was played Friday afternoon for jurors.

“She didn’t want him to freak out about having a boyfriend right after her divorce,” Lyman tells a deputy. “... He was obsessed with her.”