Murder trial delayed

Defense alleges another did slaying

November 11, 2005

MARY AMES/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The state rested its case Wednesday morning in the Palmer Superior Court trial of a Big Lake man accused of killing his wife's cousin, robbing the man's safe of prescription medications and setting the house on fire to erase evidence of the crimes.

Richard Deremer, 34, who goes by the first name Bart, allegedly planned the Nov. 23, 2003, murder of David McKinney with his wife, Cynthia Estes-Deremer, 45. The couple needed both the drugs and the money they could get from the sale of the morphine, morphine patches and Dilaudid missing from McKinney's floor safe, according to Palmer Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Powell.

Another man committed the crime, according to opening statements made by John Murtagh, Deremer's defense attorney. Murtagh named Terry Sudbury, 36, as the real murderer.

No information has been presented by the state or the defense that would link Sudbury and McKinney before the murder and no information has been presented that links Sudbury and Deremer.

Sudbury has not been formally accused of any crime in connection with McKinney's slaying, but according to a previous Frontiersman article, Sudbury was arrested in February 2004 for robbing the Susitna Professional Pharmacy near Wasilla at gunpoint on Sept. 10, 2003, and taking the prescription pain-killer Oxycontin.

For that crime, Sudbury was charged with armed robbery, three counts of third-degree assault and one count of second-degree theft, and convicted of those after a jury trial in March of this year, according to court records.

Sudbury was in jail when he wrote notes and talked to a cellmate, implicating himself, according to Murtagh.

Sudbury had a pill problem, Murtagh said, and told a man he was going to do a home invasion and burn the evidence. Sudbury specifically talked about things the public didn't know, Murtagh said, such as something that was left in the safe that shouldn't have been there.

The state's evidence included a cutting disk that was found in the safe and was apparently used to cut an opening in the door of McKinney's safe.

Sudbury, in jail in Arizona and appealing his conviction, had said since the trial began Oct. 24 that he would take the Fifth Amendment - refuse to testify - if he were asked about the notes he wrote and things he said regarding McKinney's murder, according to lawyers' statements while the jury was out of the courtroom. The Fifth Amendment protects a witness from making any disclosures prosecutors could later use against that person in a criminal proceeding.

The defense planned to call witnesses who talked with Sudbury, including his former cellmate, and present copies of the notes he had written in jail, which were turned over to Alaska State Troopers with the cooperation of the cellmate.

&#8220I have bearers of hearsay, and that's my case,” Murtagh told the court while waiting to hear Sudbury's final decision.

But Sudbury said something different during a conference call Wednesday. The call included Powell, Murtagh, Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, Sudbury and John Pharr, Sudbury's attorney. When asked if he would testify in front of a jury without taking the Fifth, Sudbury said he would. Smith allowed Pharr and Sudbury time to speak about the issue by themselves, making sure they both understood the context of the questions, before continuing the conference call.

After consulting with his client, Pharr said it came down to Sudbury's decision not to claim the Fifth and to answer questions in front of a jury.

&#8220My presentations are premised on an unavailable witness,” Murtagh told the court. &#8220Terry Sudbury being here changes the order of presentation. In a first-degree murder trial, we have a whole new lay of the land.”

Murtagh did begin presenting his case by putting trooper investigator Leonard Wallner on the stand Wednesday afternoon, laying the foundation for items that will be brought into evidence later in the trial. The rest of his case now has to wait until Tuesday, however, when Sudbury arrives in Palmer from Arizona.

The trial has been delayed several times. One juror has already been excused because of time conflicts, and both lawyers and the judge acknowledged this delay would result in the loss of another.

Smith said jury grumpiness would be an issue, but the delay was unpredictable and unavoidable.

&#8220It's a bit of a Kabuki play here,” Smith said. &#8220We all know where we are going, but we have to go through each step.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.