FORT DODGE, Iowa — The final shot a woman fired through the back of a 20-year-old Iowa man's head in 2001 came from close range about 15 minutes after earlier shots because a pool of blood had already started to dry, a blood pattern expert testified Tuesday at her first-degree murder trial.
Using the prosecutor as a prop to show jurors how he thinks Tracey Richter shot Dustin Wehde nine times, noted Oregon crime scene reconstructionist Rodney Englert told jurors that the first several shots hit Wehde in the right arm, the abdomen and the butt while he was standing but the last four struck him while his head was on the ground.
One of those four shots struck Wehde near the shoulder and two others went through the back of his neck, and the blood patterns from all three wounds were consistent, testified Englert, who investigators hired in 2008 to recreate the bloody scene seven years earlier in Richter's home in Early, a small town in northwest Iowa.
But the ninth and final shot came 10 to 15 minutes after the previous one, Englert said, and it splattered particles of drying blood across the room and onto the ceiling and a dresser.
"It took high energy to propel that and it had to come from the pool of blood," Englert testified. "We have a source and that source is coagulated blood. It takes time for that to occur and it was shot into."
Englert testified as prosecutors wrapped up their case that Richter killed Wehde after forcing him to write a diary framing her ex-husband in a murder-for-hire plot. Attorneys for Richter, who claims she killed Wehde in self-defense during a home invasion, will start calling their witnesses Wednesday.
Wehde was shot nine times with two weapons and died on the floor of Richter's bedroom on Dec. 13, 2001. Englert said he studied the bullets, the shell casings, the blood found on the ground and walls, the bullet holes in Wehde and even went to the home with investigators as they reconstructed the crime scene.
In court, Englert used Sac County Attorney Ben Smith to play Wehde as he acted out how the bullets may have hit Wehde. He said the shots to the head came from about 3 feet above Wehde. The bullets fired while Wehde was standing could have come from a kneeling or crouching position, he said.
Englert's testimony is crucial because Richter's attorneys have claimed she fired the final shot from the doorway of the bedroom while Wehde was trying to get up after he ignored her command to stay down.
Some jurors appeared amazed as Englert gave a crash course on blood patterns, using fake blood on a white board to illustrate what causes different types to form. Englert is an international expert in the field and wrote the book, "Blood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist."
Earlier Tuesday, Dustin Wehde's mother, Mona Wehde, broke down in tears on the witness stand as Richter's defense attorney grilled her about his history of mental health and behavioral issues. Wehde acknowledged that her son had anger management problems, was depressed, once injured his younger sister during a fight and threatened his father with a BB gun in a dispute over his dog.
Richter claims Wehde and another man broke into her home while she was watching her three children — ages 11, 3, and 1 — and assaulted her before she managed to break free, unlock a gun safe and shoot Wehde nine times with two guns while the other assailant fled.
Prosecutors say the home invasion was made up and there was no second intruder. They say Richter lured Wehde to her home and had him write a fake journal in a pink notebook, claiming that her ex-husband had hired him to kill her and her son. Then, they say, she killed him to keep him quiet about his role in her plot to frame her ex-husband and planted the notebook in his car, where it was discovered after the shooting.
Mona Wehde testified Monday that Richter had called her the day before the shooting in December 2001 and asked her to have her son come over to make copies for Richter's family-owned computer business. Mona Wehde said her son was not the best worker, but Richter said that was OK because his work would be "on a trial basis."
Richter's defense has suggested the second intruder could be a man with whom Mona Wehde was having an affair. That man, Jeremy Collins, a Schwan's delivery driver who later developed speech and memory problems after serving two tours in Iraq, denied having anything to do with a home invasion during testimony last week.
Mona Wehde said she thought it was suspicious that Collins broke up with her hours after the shooting and told an investigator two weeks later that he could have been the second intruder if one existed. But she also said she was throwing out all possibilities to try to help them solve the crime.
"I did not believe Jeremy was the second intruder," she said.
She also testified that two odd post-it notes found in her son's room in his writing after the shooting. One of them said "money in November." The other had a telephone number of a West Des Moines hotel where Collins stayed during a date with Mona Wehde.
Mona Wehde said she once wondered whether Richter tried to have Collins distract her so she could lure Dustin Wehde to her home. She said she got a phone call at home from Collins hours before the shooting, even though he knew she was out Christmas shopping. She testified he must have dialed the wrong number.
Mona Wehde and her husband, Brett Wehde, divorced after their son died. Brett Wehde killed himself at Dustin Wehde's grave site 11 months after the shooting.