Jurors were told they will have to determine whether a Clearfield woman committed suicide or was murdered as the homicide trial of her husband, Thomas W. Randolph Jr., opened Thursday in 2nd District Court.
Randolph, 33, Roy, faces the death penalty in the Nov. 7, 1986, death of his wife, Rebecca Rae Randolph.Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson told the jury in his opening statement that the case "comes down to one issue and one issue alone: Who shot Becky Randolph? Was it Becky Randolph or Tom Randolph?"
Wilson said the evidence will prove Tom Randolph shot his wife in the head, making it look like a suicide, to collect more than $250,000 in insurance benefits.
Defense attorney Bernie Allen, however, painted a bleak picture of Becky Randolph's last few months during the summer of 1986. She was suffering from depression, drug and alcohol abuse, had lost her job of 11 years and her marriage was troubled, Allen said.
A DUI conviction in June 1986 caused her to lose her license, she was turned down for unemployment benefits and feared criminal prosecution for writing a series of bad checks to support her drug use, he said.
She may have tried to commit suicide once before that summer, Allen said, who said she had talked about it numerous times with friends and relatives, and finally did it.
ut a string of relatives and Rebecca's substance abuse counselor testified as the trial opened that she was on the rebound from her problems. They said she planned to leave her husband and was going to move back to her family home in Roosevelt whehr she had a the possibility that she shot herself. Rebecca was afraid of pain and didn't want to disfigure herself, according to her cousin, Delia Stewart. Her body was found in an unheated waterbed in the master bedroom of their Clearfield home, according to testimony at her husband's preliminary hearing in December. She had been shot once in the head with a handgun. The utilities had been shut off in the house for four to five months earlier because of the couple's financial problems, according to Rebecca's aunt, Rosalie Allred. She also testified her niece, who didn't like cold, dark places, would never have crawled into an unheated waterbed in a dark, cold house in November. Linda Layton, Rebecca's substance abuse counselor through Davis County Mental Health in 1986, testified she talked with Rebecca the day before her death and found the story of her suicide almost impossible to believe. Rebecca had turned her life around, although she still had some lapses when she used cocaine, Layton said, but in general was putting her life back together. She wanted to stay off drugs, was taking control of her life, and had made up her mind to leave her husband, who was supplying her with cocaine, the counselor said. Layton also testified that Tom Randolph appeared to try to interrupt his wife's counseling by not providing her transportation to her sessions and ridiculing what occurred in them. The counselor testified that Thomas Randolph was physically and mentally abusive to his wife, in addition to supplying her with drugs. Layton also told the court that after his wife's death, Randolph telephoned and threatened her saying, "people like me will get what's coming to them." A DUI conviction in June 1986 caused her to lose her license, she was turned down for unemployment benefits and feared criminal prosecution for writing a series of bad checks to support her drug use, he said.
She may have tried to commit suicide once before that summer, Allen said, who said she had talked about it numerous times with friends and relatives, and finally did it.
But a string of relatives and Rebecca's substance abuse counselor testified as the trial opened that she was on the rebound from her problems. They said she planned to leave her husband and was going to move back to her family home in Roosevelt, where she had a job waiting.
Rebecca's sister and cousin testified they discussed suicide with her, but discounted the possibility that she shot herself. Rebecca was afraid of pain and didn't want to disfigure herself, according to her cousin, Delia Stewart.
Her body was found in an unheated waterbed in the master bedroom of their Clearfield home, according to testimony at her husband's preliminary hearing in December. She had been shot once in the head with a handgun.
The utilities had been shut off in the house for four to five months earlier because of the couple's financial problems, according to Rebecca's aunt, Rosalie Allred.
She also testified her niece, who didn't like cold, dark places, would never have crawled into an unheated waterbed in a dark, cold house in November.
Linda Layton, Rebecca's substance abuse counselor through Davis County Mental Health in 1986, testified she talked with Rebecca the day before her death and found the story of her suicide almost impossible to believe.
Rebecca had turned her life around, although she still had some lapses when she used cocaine, Layton said, but in general was putting her life back together. She wanted to stay off drugs, was taking control of her life, and had made up her mind to leave her husband, who was supplying her with cocaine, the counselor said.
Layton also testified that Tom Randolph appeared to try to interrupt his wife's counseling by not providing her transportation to her sessions and ridiculing what occurred in them.
The counselor testified that Thomas Randolph was physically and mentally abusive to his wife, in addition to supplying her with drugs.
Layton also told the court that after his wife's death, Randolph telephoned and threatened her saying, "people like me will get what's coming to them."