Tape at trial shows Ellington joking
A Hayden man joked with a convenience store clerk for at least 10 minutes about 9 a.m., three hours before he allegedly murdered an Athol woman, the clerk testified Thursday afternoon.
The testimony could be crucial to Jonathan Wade Ellington, who is on trial for second-degree murder in a road-rage case.
Prosecutors contend Ellington was angry all day; defense attorneys say the clerk’s testimony illustrates that he was not.
Ellington is accused of running over 41-year-old Vonette Larsen and ramming her daughter’s car on New Year’s Day after a high-speed pursuit that ended on Scarcello Road in Athol.
Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Art Verharen must prove that Ellington acted with implied malice, and he has built a case that Ellington was angry from the early morning hours of Jan. 1 until the confrontation with the Larsen family.
The convenience store manager testified, however, that Ellington purchased one tall can of Zima alcoholic malt beverage and a small plastic bottle of grape juice and joked around with him.
“We were having quite the little laugh fest,” said Johnny Longest, who is now incarcerated for a probation violation and came to court in a yellow prison jumper.
Deputy Public Defender Anne Taylor played a surveillance tape of the store encounter for the jurors, who huddled in the jury box to look at the laptop the video played on.
Others in the room could not directly see the video.
For the first time since the beginning of the murder trial, Vonette’s husband, Joel, and her daughters Jovon and Joleen Larsen were allowed in the courtroom to watch the proceedings, after having testified about witnessing Vonette’s death. Ellington’s fiancée, Ann Thomas, was also finally allowed in the room.
Also on Thursday afternoon, Marine Corps Maj. Dick Culver testified for the defense that a person could feel the shock wave of a gun fired through a vehicle’s window glass – specifically a .44-caliber pistol like the one Joel Larsen shot at Ellington during the incident.
Defense attorneys contend that Ellington was fearful and fleeing for his life on New Year’s Day because he was being chased by the Larsens, and Joel Larsen was shooting at him.
Defense attorney Chris Schwartz asked Culver whether people would generally be fearful if they were being shot at.
“It’s a very difficult question to answer,” Culver said. “Generally speaking … if you see yourself being shot at, what you want to do is take cover, save yourself, don’t get shot.”
On cross-examination Culver said not every person might become fearful if they were shot at, and each case is different.
Previous prosecution witnesses, including Joel Larsen and an audio engineer who analyzed a 911 call of the incident, said Ellington was fired at after he rammed the white Honda Accord that Jovon and Joleen were in.