Sides present opening statements, witnesses take stand at Patterson murder trial

Following a car crash on Labor Day weekend in 2009, John Lawrence recalled a heated exchange he had with his estranged wife, Michelle.

"I almost died in a truck wreck," he said he told her. "You would have been rich."

In the first day of the murder trial of Ryan Patterson on Monday, John Lawrence testified that he told his wife Michelle Lawrence those words in anger. But prosecutors laid out a scenario that suggested the seemingly innocuous conversation may have planted a seed that culminated in the murder of Jamie Lynn Orman, her 15-year-old son Derrick and the unborn son she was pregnant with.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle is seeking the death penalty for Patterson, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Jamie Orman, who was 30, was seven months pregnant, Swingle said. The fetus was 34 weeks old and viable outside the womb, a forensic pathologist testified.

During his opening statements, Swingle told the jury -- brought in from Pemiscot County -- that Patterson shot the pregnant Cape Girardeau woman and her son in the head as part of a botched plan to kill his girlfriend's husband for $400,000 in insurance money.

"Ryan Patterson invaded Jamie Lynn Orman's home as she lay in the bedroom and shot her to death," Swingle told jurors. "Then he went to another room, to the foldout bed where her 15-year-old son Derrick Orman was sleeping, and he shot that boy to death."

Swingle told the jury that Patterson thought that John Lawrence would be at home and that he intended to shoot him and burn the home down for insurance money. John Lawrence testified that he had a life insurance policy worth $250,000 and $150,000 in homeowner's insurance. Law enforcement testified that an open gas container was on John Lawrence's property.

There was also a time element that created urgency, Swingle said: A divorce hearing was scheduled for the day of the murders and if John and Michelle Lawrence were divorced, she would get nothing.

Defense attorneys countered that Samuel "Ray Ray" Hughes might have committed the Oct. 27, 2009, murders that took place at John Lawrence's home at 1224 N. Missouri Ave. Hughes, who pleaded to a reduced second-degree murder charge in exchange for his testimony, has maintained he was just a lookout. Michelle Lawrence also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for her role. Both are expected to testify at some point during the weeklong trial.

Patterson is represented in court by lawyers David Kenyon and Robert Steele. Steele said during his opening statements that Patterson and Michelle Lawrence, who prosecutors say hatched the plan to murder her husband, knew that John Lawrence worked nights.

"They already know that John is not at home," Steele said. "So how can there be a conspiracy to kill someone they know is at work? How are they going to kill someone they know is not there?"

Steele also called Hughes' character into question, pointing out that he has admitted to more than 40 burglaries in Arkansas. Hughes had fled to Missouri, Steele said, because he had failed to register as a sex offender for "violating a child."

In stronger language, Steele asked the jury to consider that Hughes was the one who committed the murders, not Patterson. John Lawrence later confirmed Steele's statements, saying that Michelle Lawrence did have his work schedule. Furthermore, Michelle Lawrence watched their children while he worked, which she was doing that night, he said.

Sons testify

But four days of testimony remain. Swingle called several witnesses Monday, including several members of law enforcement, a forensic pathologist, a former Patterson co-worker and Jamie Orman's two surviving sons, who testified that they watched their brother Derrick die.

Those two boys, now ages 14 and 11, said they had been upstairs asleep when they were awakened by loud noises coming from downstairs where their mother and brother were sleeping.

The 14-year-old testified that shortly after he heard one shot, he heard his mother scream "No!" before another shot rang out. When he and his younger brother got to their brother, Derrick, they saw that he had been shot in the face, but he was up and moving around.

"Derrick was up and he was covered in blood," the 14-year-old said. "He was walking back and forth, but I couldn't tell what he was saying. Then he just fell to the floor."

The boy called 911, he said, and the dispatcher told him to roll Derrick over on his side and try to get the blood from his mouth. But the 14-year-old's attempts to save his brother were to no avail.

"He just stopped breathing," the 14-year-old said.

The pathologist, Dr. Russell Deidiker, testified that Derrick asphyxiated on his own blood.

When the boys testified, Jamie Orman's mother, Terry Bettis, put her head down and tears streamed down Jamie's sister's face. Throughout much of the trial, Patterson looked on in silence, only occasionally whispering to his attorneys or jotting down notes.

Another key witness Monday was Tammy Davis, a certified nurse's assistant who worked with Patterson at Jackson Manor in the months leading up to the killings. She testified under direct examination from Swingle that Patterson had offered her thousands of dollars to be the lookout so Patterson could "hit a lick." She said she took that to mean a burglary and that she told Patterson no. She had even accompanied Patterson to the home on Missouri Avenue, she said. But when she saw news of the murder on television and she saw the same house, the police were called. Swingle said Davis was "key" to the case being solved.

But the defense team attempted to shoot holes in her testimony. Under cross-examination, Davis admitted her sister had been Hughes' girlfriend. She also confirmed that Hughes and Patterson had been at her mother's home the night before the murders. She said that they had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night before. Hughes was also there later the morning after the murders, she said. She also testified Hughes and Patterson had left together at one point and that she saw them driving around with a red gas can hanging out the window before returning. After she went to bed, she heard a car start, assuming it was Patterson. But she did not know if Hughes was with him at that time.

Davis admitted she did not initially tell police that Hughes had been at her home the night before the murder. When asked by police a second time, two days later, she admitted Hughes had been there and asked her sister to burn his clothes.

"I didn't tell police he was at my house because I was afraid for my family," she said.

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