I might be a wee bit biased but I believe this defendant is toast.
And rightfully too, I might add.
Vickers changes story in video
-
The second day of testimony for the prosecution continued Wednesday in Janice Vickers’ murder trial with the introduction of a two-hour video interview of Vickers taped the night Shirley Lindenbaum died.
During the interview, Vickers, 48, recounted how she ran over 82-year-old Lindenbaum with her Chevy Tahoe on White Oak Drive on Nov. 3, 2006.
During the course of the videotaped interview, Vickers told Detective Vance Weltner of the Comal County Sheriff’s Office how the accident occurred, but changed her story several times as Weltner became increasingly stern with her.
Vickers said she was reaching for some CDs that had fallen onto the floorboard when she struck Lindenbaum.
“I went off the road and slammed the brakes,” Vickers initially said on the video. “I backed up – thump, thump – I pulled forward – thump, thump.”
Vickers said she got out and found the body of a woman, but did not know her identity.
Vickers initially stated she tried to load the body into the passenger side of her vehicle, but it was too heavy.
She said she left her vehicle and ran to several nearby houses screaming for help because she could not find her cell phone.
When Weltner told her that her tire tracks had been found in Lindenbaum’s driveway, Vickers changed her statement, saying she had driven through the neighborhood looking for help. She said Lindenbaum’s house was just one of the driveways she pulled into, and that she did not know at that time that the house belonged to the woman she had run over.
Weltner asked several times if Vickers knew Shirley Lindenbaum. She denied knowing her or having ever met her.
“I’ve never seen her in my life,” Vickers said after viewing a photo of Lindenbaum.
As the interview continued, Vickers continued to change the details of the accident, saying at one point that after initially running over the body, she might have run over it again as she pulled a U-turn, instead of backing over it. Later, she said she might have run over the body again when she returned to the scene after trying to seek help.
An hour into the video, Weltner asked if Lindenbaum’s body had ever been in the Tahoe.
At this point, Vickers related a second attempt to load Lindenbaum’s body into the vehicle.
She said she was able to get the woman into the passenger seat, indicating the woman was actually alive because she was making “gurgling” noises, even though her head had been split open. Vickers said the sight of the brains and blood caused her to panic so she pulled the woman back out of the car and onto the road.
“I was in shock,” she said. “(I thought) they’re not going to believe me, so I got her back out and laid her back down.”
In the video, Weltner eventually accused Vickers of lying from the beginning and asked her if she had harmed Lindenbaum in some manner and then run over her to cover up a crime.
“No,” said Vickers. “Why would I do that?”
Vickers said in the video she found her cell phone in her vehicle and called 9-1-1.
EMS and police arrived minutes later to find Lindenbaum’s body in the ditch next to Vicker’s Tahoe.
Throughout Wednesday’s trial, prosecutors continued to focus on the condition of Lindenbaum’s feet, which investigators have testified were remarkably clean and unscratched for an elderly woman walking barefoot on the side of the road.
Lindenbaum’s body was found three-tenths of a mile from her home.
The defense
Defense attorney Mark Clark did not address the video. He questioned Weltner about whether investigators tried to verify Vickers’ claims that she knocked on several doors for help and even entered Lindenbaum’s home in an attempt to use the phone.
Weltner said he found Lindenbaum’s front door open when he arrived hours after the accident but did not know if investigators ever searched for Vicker’s prints on neighborhood doors or on the phone in Lindenbaum’s home.
Weltner also confirmed he had not checked, or ordered for other investigators to check, other nearby driveways for signs of Vickers’ tire tracks.
Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. today.
Prosecutors have subpoenaed 36 people in Vickers’ trial.
