Key Witness For Cherry Falters, Takes The Fifth Defense Rests In Murder Case, Says Witnesses Intimidated By Prosecution
Attorneys for accused killer Stephen Cherry rested their case sooner than they’d hoped Monday after their lead witness feared answering key questions.
Julie Coniconde was expected to testify about marijuana she intended to buy from Susan Foutz, who was shot to death at her Hauser Lake home last June.
The witness claims Cherry was acting as a middleman for Foutz, his drug-dealing former girlfriend, defense attorney John Adams told Judge James F. Judd outside the presence of the jury.
But Deputy Prosecutor Lansing Haynes warned Coniconde against “incriminating herself,” saying her testimony could be used to bring drug or criminal conspiracy charges against her.
Coniconde, also of Hauser Lake, was to testify that she had sent Cherry to Foutz’s home with money to buy drugs the night Foutz had him arrested for trespassing, Adams said.
Cherry, a 46-year-old former truck driver, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault.
He is accused of killing Foutz, 42, wounding Charles Babb, 40, the man staying with Foutz that night, and chasing Foutz’s roommate, Tami Hoover, 32, into the woods and threatening to kill her. Afterward, Cherry attempted suicide but survived.
Looking incredulous Monday, Coniconde asked Haynes if he would pursue drug charges against her nearly two years later when the only other witness is dead.
“How are you going to prove it?”
She asked to pause the trial in order to call her attorney, who was present when she returned to the stand. Coniconde then testified she gave Cherry $200 to deliver to Foutz the night he was arrested for trespassing, just days before Foutz’s death.
She invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked what the money was for.
Asked by Adams if that had anything to do with threats by the state, the witness answered, “Yes.”
Coniconde said she called Foutz to make sure she had gotten the money. When Foutz said she hadn’t, Coniconde became angry and went to Cherry’s house, where she rearranged the distributor cap wires on his truck.
Adams has argued that Cherry’s truck stalled several hundred yards below Foutz’s house the morning she died, and wasn’t purposefully hidden. Although Cherry was hopelessly in love, Foutz’s on-again off-again feelings made the relationship “harder to keep track of than the soaps,” Coniconde said.
Cherry told her he planned to marry Foutz the day her divorce from another man was finalized, the witness said. When Foutz needed money for divorce-related costs, Cherry sold $10,000 to $20,000 of his heavy equipment, Coniconde said.
“She got the money, then they got in a fight and she kicked him out. It was ‘OK, what are you bringing me now?’ and then, ‘Get the hell out.”’
Adams accused the prosecution of intimidating his witnesses, since most of those under subpoena failed to show up in court.
“I feel there were witnesses with relevant and pertinent information who said they were willing to testify, and after they had been contacted by agents of the state they were reluctant to testify,” Adams said.
Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas declined to say if his office contacted the defense witnesses.
“We would love to respond to these insinuations, but it is improper for either the prosecutor or defense lawyer to make any public comment while the matter is being considered by the jury,” Douglas said.
Jury deliberations are expected to start today following closing arguments.
, DataTimes