Inmate testifies plot to kill girl his idea

A Kootenai County inmate nicknamed “Kickstand” testified Wednesday that a plot to murder a teenage girl so she couldn’t testify against a relative accused of raping her was his idea.

Don Delesdernier, who was shackled and on crutches as he entered the courtroom, testified that he had met William Caldwell when both were serving time in a Boise prison. When they ran into each other last month at the Kootenai County Jail, Delesdernier said they struck up a conversation about crime and “old, past times.”

Talk turned to Caldwell’s upcoming trial on charges he raped a teenage relative and his need for an alibi, Delesdernier said.

“I said, ‘Why don’t you take care of her,’ ” Delesdernier testified. “He says, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ I said I’d take care of her. He said, ‘Really?’ “

Deputy Prosecutor Art Verharen asked Delesdernier why he was willing to offer his help.

“We’re convicts and there’s a code kinda thing, you know it,” he said. “We’ll usually help people.”

In exchange for his testimony, Verharen said Delesdernier will likely be released from jail on his own recognizance and, in a pending felony drug case, prosecutors would recommend he receive probation instead of more time in jail.

Wednesday afternoon’s hearing was held to prove that probable cause existed in the case against Caldwell’s 57-year-old mother, Myra, who’s accused of participating in the alleged murder conspiracy.

William Caldwell’s preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday but was postponed after his attorney filed a motion Wednesday morning to disqualify Magistrate Robert Burton from hearing his case.

Mother and son sat just a few feet apart in the courtroom Wednesday morning wearing shackles and matching red jail jumpsuits. Myra Caldwell used sign language to finger-spell messages to her husband, who sat in the front row, and tell him that she loved him.

After Burton signed an order disqualifying himself from presiding over William Caldwell’s preliminary hearing, the accused rapist was taken back to the Kootenai County Jail.

Myra Caldwell returned to court in the afternoon for her own hearing.

Prosecution witnesses also included another inmate – Delesdernier’s wife, Sheri S. Spain, who was arrested and booked into the Kootenai County Jail last week on unrelated charges.

Spain testified that she received a picture of a girl in the mail with an address written on the back of the photo. There was a note telling her to get the picture to her husband in jail.

Authorities say Myra Caldwell, instructed by her son, was the one who sent the photo of the teen to the Hauser Lake trailer park where Spain was living at the time.

Delesdernier said he tipped off investigators to the murder plot because he was concerned for the girl’s safety. He told detectives that he had told William Caldwell he had a friend who could perform the hit.

He testified that William Caldwell said his mother would provide a picture of the girl and the girl’s out-of-state address.

“My mom knows what’s up,” William Caldwell allegedly told him.

Once detectives learned of the alleged plot to kill the girl, Detective John Mason of a regional violent crimes task force posed as “Fred,” the hit man Delesdernier had proposed using.

Mason testified that he called Myra Caldwell on Nov. 2 under the guise he was the hit man. During the nearly 12-minute phone conversation, replayed in court Wednesday, Myra Caldwell initially indicated she wasn’t “exactly sure” about the plan.

“Do you want her taken care of?” Mason asked.

“I’ll tell you what, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all,” Myra Caldwell responded.

She confirmed during the conversation that she had sent the picture of the girl. She also said she was nervous about the possibility she was speaking to a cop.

“We had someone around here that did something like this and ended up in jail,” the Pinehurst resident said.

“I ain’t a (expletive) cop,” Mason assured her. “The cops here are stupid. They couldn’t catch a (expletive) cold.”

Mason said Myra Caldwell agreed to pay $200 as a down payment and another $200 later. When she was arrested Nov. 9, a stamped envelope, addressed to the home where she was supposed to send the money, was found in her purse, along with the detective’s phone number and the teen’s address and phone number.

Defense attorney Shawn Nunley asked Mason if Myra Caldwell had ever used the word “murder” or anything similar.

Mason said he believed “take care of” meant Myra Caldwell knew the plan was to have the girl killed. The detective said mother and son also used “code words.”

They allegedly used the word “paint” in place of “kill” and “car” or (Chevy) “Nova” to refer to the intended victim in conversations about “painting the car.”

Nunley said the family actually does have a Nova, which Mason indicated had been photographed when detectives served a search warrant at Myra Caldwell’s home.

“All the state really proved is that the picture was sent,” Nunley said. “The word murder was never used.”

The judge said there is probable cause to try Myra Caldwell on the charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, a crime that carries the same possible penalty as murder itself.

Burton denied Nunley’s request to reduce the woman’s $1 million bond or release her on her own recognizance. Nunley said Myra Caldwell had no criminal history, was a lifelong resident and didn’t have the money to bond out of jail.

He said it was troubling that she was being held on high bail while the state was willing to release Delesdernier, “a person that would kill for free.”