Shotgun murder trial begins

Prosecutors: Woman wanted cousin's drugs, planned his death

January 22, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A Palmer Superior Court trial resumes Monday afternoon for a Big Lake woman accused of planning the shotgun murder of her cousin, stealing drugs from the dead man's floor safe and setting fire to his house to destroy evidence in November 2003.

Cynthia Estes, 45, is

charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree arson, first-degree burglary, second-degree

theft and evidence tampering

in the November 2003 death of David McKinney, 49, whose body was found in the-still smoldering debris of the house he spent seven years building. Estes's husband, Richard Deremer, 34, was convicted of the same charges in November.

Attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed on several things.

&#8220Don't expect much dispute about the murder, the fire and that Richard Deremer was the murderer,” Palmer Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Powell said in her opening statement earlier this week. &#8220But pay attention to what the defendant knew and intended. She had said, ‘It was him or us,' and was the person with inside information. She knew he filled his prescriptions less than a week before the murder. She knew and she helped. She admitted to driving Deremer there with borrowed shotgun and ammunition. The defendant is guilty of being an accomplice to first-degree murder.”

Almost a year later, Estes admitted in a taped conversation that her husband murdered McKinney, that she drove him to McKinney's house and that Deremer called her on a walkie-talkie radio to come pick him up, Powell said.

&#8220And while he [McKinney] lay murdered, she walked to the floor safe,” Powell said. &#8220She admitted she knew that he kept the safe combination in his wallet, she got the wallet out of his jacket, but couldn't read the combination on the paper. And they went out and got a cutting disk.”

In different interviews, Powell said, Estes said she didn't know her husband was going to kill McKinney, that later she said she didn't even know McKinney was dead until after she had picked up Deremer from McKinney's house and they had returned home, and that, even later, Estes said, ‘I knew he was going over to kill him.' The Valium, morphine and hydrocodone McKinney kept in the safe were missing and, when questioned about them, Estes said, ‘We did them,' Powell said.

Anchorage defense attorney Rex Butler told jurors the evidence would show Estes had no reason to lie when she was recorded in a phone conversation saying she knew her husband went to confront McKinney, but never showed her what was in the duffel bag he carried with him as Estes drove him to McKinney's home.

&#8220She didn't know exactly what her husband was going to do,” Butler said. &#8220But at the corner of Hollywood, she heard a pop and she went home because she didn't want to be part of it. They used a radio to call because cell phone service wasn't so good out there. When Cindy went to the scene of the fire, in an attempt to protect her husband, she said nothing.”

Estes changed her statements once troopers arrested her and told her things go better in court for people who cooperate, Butler said. She had no reason to fabricate anything, and believed the troopers, Butler said. Then she found out her bail was set at the same amount as Deremer's, $600,000, he said.

&#8220She called troopers and asked why she had the same bail,” Butler said. &#8220She protected her husband until she said, ‘I got to get home to the children. My children need me,' and she called the troopers many times to cooperate. That's why we're here.”

The slain man's father testified Wednesday, after the lawyers delivered opening statements.

&#8220He was a good carver,” Herbert McKinney said of his son. &#8220He found out he had hepatitis C in 1996, and the doctor said he would live maybe 10 years. It was bad. He knew he was dying and he had a vision of building a house, leaving his daughter something. He lived in a trailer next to us for three years and moved out to Big Lake in July 2003. He called to tell me he had been having some trouble with Cindy. ‘Cindy and them,' he said. Some of his pills were missing, so he left some out when Cindy came over and, sure enough, she took them. He went to confront them. He said he wanted me to come out because he had been threatened.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284.