Opinion ID: 821509
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: John Richie

Text: John Richie testified pursuant to a grant of immunity from prosecution for any crimes associated with his testimony. Richie testified Sherman Robbins was his aunt‘s brother and had taken Richie to get candy when he was a child. Richie also was acquainted with Michelle Joe; he had protected her on occasion from her former boyfriend, who beat her. Richie testified he first met defendant several years before the events at issue in this case, at a place called Butler‘s Camp. About a month or two before defendant was arrested, defendant began living with Richie, Richie‘s girlfriend Kathy Sisk, and their children, in Richie‘s apartment. On the morning of March 21, 1994, Joe drove to Richie‘s apartment in a green Mustang and asked for defendant. Richie followed defendant outside, where he overheard Joe ask defendant to help her commit a burglary. Richie went back inside, and defendant came in about a half-hour to an hour later. Richie ―pleaded‖ with defendant not to participate in the burglary, and defendant assured Richie he would not do it. According to Richie, Joe came to the apartment again shortly before dark and asked Richie to babysit her child. Richie agreed. Joe left as it was getting darker, and defendant left as well, but Richie was not sure if they left together. Richie did not see either defendant or Joe until the following morning. Richie had gone to visit his friend, Rick Saso. When he returned, defendant and Joe were at the apartment with various items including a small television set, a microwave oven, a computer or typewriter, a stereo, a rifle, and a shotgun. The shotgun smelled like gunpowder. Sisk and Melissa Fader, whom Richie had not met before, were counting pennies from a jar. Fader claimed the pennies were hers. Joe had ―urinated herself‖ and asked to use the shower, and Sisk gave Joe some fresh clothes to wear. 7 Richie testified that he rode his bicycle to Saso‘s home and told him there was some property for sale at his apartment. Saso followed Richie back to the apartment in his car. While the others bartered over the property, Richie went outside. At some point, Saso emerged and asked Richie to help him put the property in his car. Saso said he had traded an ―eight-ball‖ — about 3.75 grams of methamphetamine — for all of the property. Richie helped Saso load the items into the car, and Saso left. Back in the apartment, defendant gave Richie part of his share of the methamphetamine, and they, along with Joe and Fader, ―indulged‖ in use of the drug. Fader and Joe then left as it was getting light outside. According to Richie, over the next few days defendant seemed nervous and watched the newspapers. At some point, defendant volunteered to Richie that he had killed a man. Defendant said he had tied the man up, ―told him to ‗get right with God and he would be back in a minute,‘ ‖ and then shot him. Defendant also said that he and Joe had argued about the way in which the victim was to die. Joe wanted the victim smothered because it would be quieter, but defendant said that ― ‗wrestling with [the victim] until he died would have been more of a torture than shooting him.‘ ‖ Defendant did not say why he had killed the man. When Richie asked defendant how he could do such a thing, defendant said ―it was nothing, that you couldn‘t get emotionally involved.‖ Either during this conversation, or a subsequent one, Richie asked defendant to leave the apartment. Richie further testified that at some point after his arrest defendant wrote Richie a letter from jail. According to Richie, the second sentence of the third paragraph of the letter began, ― ‗[W]ith both Michelle and Melissa telling on me . . . .‘ ‖ In the letter, defendant did not deny that what Joe and Fader were saying about him was true. 8