Murder trial enters second week

PALMER — The murder trial of a man accused of shooting to death a 28-year-old woman in Butte in November was poised to enter a second week Monday.

Benjamin Wilson, 31, of Palmer, faces one count each of first-degree murder, second-degree murder by the intent of serious injury, second-degree murder by extreme indifference, manslaughter, third-degree assault, kidnapping, and two counts of coercion.

Letitia Faller, the victim, was found laying on the ground with a gunshot wound near a Butte convenience store about 10 p.m. Nov. 7. She later succumbed to her injuries in an Anchorage hospital. Wilson had apparently kidnapped Torin Ford, Faller’s 26-year-old boyfriend, who later told police Wilson had pointed a gun at him. Earlier in the day, she apparently signed over health privacy and education rights for her then-7-year-old daughter to a sister.

Faller attacked Wilson with a knife after a series of text messages on a relative’s phone from a contact named “Big Ben” threatened the life of both Faller and her daughter, according to the case’s original affidavit.

Wilson was arrested after a traffic stop by officers responding to the shooting, and asked aloud: “Why did I shoot her! Why? She had a knife. I could have taken it from her. Why did I shoot her?” according to an affidavit.

Ford testified under subpoena that Wilson had kidnapped him the night of the shooting. He grew combative at one point during cross-examination, accusing public defender Jeffrey Bradley of distorting the truth. Bradley referenced a text he had received Monday, apparently reading “You (expletived) with the wrong guy.”

“Have you ever met me, seen me, talked to me?” Bradley said.

“No, but I looked up most of your cases, and I looked up most of your wins and losses and how you won, and this is pretty much what you do every time, is bring up a lot of hearsay information,” he said. “My experience with you and listening to how you talk, and you assume, and you jump to conclusions and things like John Rambo, Willie Nelson really doesn’t put somebody in the same category who’s never took psychology or sociology. I’m pretty much telling somebody what my perception of you is through observation.”

Asked where he had looked up this information, Ford responded that he had looked it up in the Fairbanks Public Library.

“The results in court are public record,” he said. “Just like my dad’s death, which you never looked up. That means I do your job better than you.”

Ford also testified that he was angry, but not enough to attempt revenge against Wilson.

“If I could have had a time machine and I had a gun, I would have shot Leticia, but I was not armed,” he said. “Am I upset with the fact that he killed Hope’s mother? Will I go and enact revenge or retaliation on anybody? No. I hope he get what he deserves, like Cain and Abel.”

The jury also heard testimony from an Alaska State Trooper among the law enforcement officials responding to the call. Patrol trooper Pierre Burkett testified that Wilson complied with orders, and asked why he had shot a woman while laying on the ground.

An investigator with the Technical Crimes Unit also testified he had retrieved text messages from some phones in connection with the investigation.

Superior Court Judge Eric Smith also ruled that the jury would be able to hear an hour-long interview between Ford and an Alaska State Trooper between the shooting and the trial, during which Ford addresses the kidnapping.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.