Opinion ID: 2323789
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Defense Investigation

Text: Defendant's attorney retained a private investigator, Richard Strohm, who, in March and April of 2000, conducted interviews of nine peoplefriends and co-workers of Marie and Jimmy Hesswho had first-hand information about their marital relationship. Those interviews revealed that Jimmy had abused and threatened his wife and attempted to dominate and control her. Herbert Wickward was Jimmy Hess's long-time good friend. They hunted and fished together, and their families socialized with each other. Wickward remembered that on a fishing trip when defendant forgot the bait, or on a hunting trip when she forgot the shells, Jimmy called her a stupid bitch and just belittled her. And he didn't care who was around. On a trip to the Poconos, when defendant spilled some grease one morning while cooking, Jimmy threw up his fist and pushed her back to the table and verbally berated her for fifteen minutes. On such an occasion, when Jimmy was in a rage, with his face beet red, he would listen to no one. Wickward witnessed Jimmy raise his hands and get in [defendant's] face, and say, shut up you bitch I'll kill you. Several times, Wickward heard Jimmy threaten to kill [defendant], and ... threaten to kill himself. Wickward knew that Jimmy drank to excess almost every night, including the night before his death. Although he never observed Jimmy physically assault defendant, on one occasion he saw defendant with black eyes and abrasions on her face, which defendant explained was caused when she ran into a door. Some of the couple's friends noted that defendant would wear sunglasses, even during evening hours, suggesting that she was hiding bruises. Some of Jimmy's friends spoke of his penchant to drink to excess, and more so towards the end of his life. Some noted that defendant lost considerable weight in the months before she killed her husband. Friends of the couple described Jimmy as controlling, as treating defendant like a slave. According to Margaret Fanelle, a neighbor, if Jimmy told [defendant] to jump she would say how [high]. Defendant carried a portable telephone, even when in the yard or out hanging clothes on a line, because Jimmy check[ed] on her all the time. Fanelle believed that defendant was afraid of her husband; you could see it by just looking at her and talking to her. Another neighbor, Andrea Goodman, recalled that Jimmy insulted his wife and made her cry, telling her that she shouldn't think, and he thinks more in one day than she thinks in a week. Marylyn Reppert, a mutual friend of the couple, remembered that a month before Jimmy's death she took a whale-boat trip with the Hesses. Reppert noticed that the long beaded braid that defendant always wore in her hair was missing. When Reppert asked what had happened, defendant looked at Jimmy and then she said I cut it off. Out of her husband's presence, defendant explained that Jimmy yanked it out of her head. Defendant told Reppert that the night before the shooting Jimmy came home drunk and was very mad. And he put a gun to her head and told her that he could shoot her and get rid of her body where nobody would ever find it. The bartender at the Woodshed Bar frequented by Jimmy recalled that Jimmy lost his temper many times and even threatened one of her friends, saying he was going to bury her in the Pines and nothing could happen to him because he was a cop. Also provided in discovery to defendant's attorney was a statement from Lieutenant Timothy Richardson of the Burlington Police Department, who recounted a fishing trip in Canada a year before Jimmy's death. One evening Jimmy had been drinking heavily and became very violent and had to be subdued. Indeed, as a result of that episode, Lieutenant Richardson refused to go on the next annual fishing trip if Jimmy was to be part of the excursion.