Opinion ID: 2593661
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mead's Inculpatory Statements

Text: ¶10 The subsequent police investigation revealed several earlier statements by David Mead implicating him in his wife's death. On separate occasions, Mead had spoken with three people, Winneteka Walls, Stormy Simon, and Mead's cousin, James Hendrix, about killing his wife. During the two years immediately prior to Pamela Mead's death, David Mead had been having an affair with Walls. Walls wanted Mead to leave his wife and threatened to reveal the affair to Pamela Mead if he did not. Several weeks before the drowning, Mead told Walls that he wished his wife were dead and that his wife was going to have an accident. Specifically, he said she would have a nasty spill, and, when she did, he would have an alibi. ¶ 11 Mead also had an affair with Simon, then an exotic dancer, in either 1991 or 1992. The affair ended abruptly, however, when Simon discovered Mead was married. Nevertheless, the two remained in contact, and, in a 1993 telephone conversation, Mead told Simon he was unhappy in his marriage. Simon advised him to get a divorce. He told her he could not do so, however, because he would lose his business to Pamela Mead and her family. [2] Instead, he said he would be better off killing his wife and getting the insurance money. Apparently, Pamela Mead was listening to the conversation on another extension. She became upset and left her husband for a time, living with her family in Colorado. ¶ 12 Mead also made inculpatory statements to his cousin, James Hendrix. Hendrix was released from prison in June or July 1994. After his release, he met with Mead, who gave him a present, a $100 bill wrapped around a piece of rock cocaine. The next day, Mead gave him more cocaine and about $900. At that time, Mead asked him to kill Pamela Mead, offering him $30,000 or $40,000 in exchange. David and Pamela Mead had purchased a life insurance policy in December 1993, that provided each of them a $250,000 death benefit, and an additional $250,000 accidental death benefit. Mead told Hendrix the money for killing his wife would come from these proceeds. When Hendrix asked Mead if the police would suspect Mead in his wife's death, he responded, for the last year[ ] he had been the perfect husband. ¶ 13 Detective Candland learned of the statements Mead made to Walls and Hendrix. She presented Walls's and Hendrix's statements to Dr. Grey. Relying on these statements, Dr. Grey certified the manner of death as homicide on September 28, 1994. ¶ 14 Several months later, in 1995, Mead sought out Simon, with whom he had an affair before Pamela Mead's death, at her workplace. He told her his wife had died in a mysterious freak accident and that investigators were looking for Simon. He told her not to speak with them and asked if she recalled the telephone conversation wherein he told her he would be better off killing his wife and getting the insurance money. She responded that she did. He told her he did not. Mead then asked her if that was something she felt she would have to admit in court. She said it was. Simon felt intimidated by Mead during the conversation. ¶ 15 Additionally, an apparent discrepancy surfaced in Mead's alibi. Robert Elliot, who worked for Mead at Valley Ground Service, claimed that he had been working on the night Pamela Mead died, arriving at about 9:00 p.m. and leaving after 10:00 p.m., and that he did not see Mead or any other Valley Ground Service employees that night.