LAWRENCE CO.—Court’s over for the day in Lawrence County, where both the state and defense rested today in the murder trial of Tyler McQueen; here’s the newsblast, followed by transcript:
Disclosure NewsMagazine/DisclosureNewsOnline Thursday, May 2, 2013 afternoon news blast.
The testimony in the murder case of 21-year-old Tyler McQueen ended this afternoon with defense attorney Matt Vaughn calling two witnesses and playing an audiotaped interview and announcing McQueen will not take the stand.
McQueen faces three counts of First Degree Murder in the March 24, 2012 stabbing death of 78-year-old Bob Westall in Westall’s sister’s apartment in United Methodist Village in Lawrenceville.
Authorities say McQueen committed the murder at the behest of Westall’s niece Helen Marie Westall, who hired him as a hit man promising a payment of $10,000 cash and an Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Vaughn’s first witness was Lawrence County Jail administrator Angel Fuentes, who testified that he processed both McQueen and Helen Marie into the jail on March 30, 2012.
Tyler McQueen
Fuentes testified that Helen Marie was 5’6”, 171 pounds and right handed and that Tyler McQueen was 5’6”, 145 and also right handed.
Vaughn asked no further questions.
He called case agent Tim Brown back to the stand, who laid the foundation for the playing of the audiotape in which McQueen admitted again that Helen Marie had hired him to “kill Bob Westall for $10,000 and a car.”
Brown asked. “And you agreed to kill Bob, correct?”
“Yes,” McQueen said. “That’s what she wanted from me but I was just all talk.”
“But she thought you were going to kill Bob,” Brown continued.
“Yes,” McQueen said.
Brown told McQueen that Helen Marie had changed her story again and now she was saying the entire murder was his idea.
“She’s the reason I am here [in jail],” McQueen said. “So testifying against her won’t be a problem.”
McQueen said several times that he had no intentions of killing Westall and was in fact afraid of Helen Marie.
At one point during the struggle with Westall, McQueen said he told him that if he would just stop attacking him he would explain.
Prosecutors argue McQueen intended to kill Westall or he would have not have driven himself to Westall’s apartment, he would not have pulled the phone wires to prevent a call for help and he would not have crawled through a window as he was instructed by Helen Marie.
Closing arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning (May 3, 2013) with jury instructions to follow shortly thereafter, clearing the way for deliberations to begin.