The first 911 call started with the loud, unintelligible wailing of a man as police dispatcher Marsha Kistler tried asking the man what was going on.
The cries only continued, however, and the call cut off after about a minute or two. A second call came in six minutes later with similar loud cries, although this time a few words could be made out.
“They shot my wife,” it sounded like the man said.
More wailing follows, although the man is able to say a few more words, indicating someone was in his house and that he was in his child’s room.
Porter County prosecutors played audio of these two 911 calls to start the murder trial of Steven Lindsey, 36, who is accused of shooting his wife, Melinda Kirby Lindsey, 23, to death in the bedroom of their home in the 500 block of North Indiana 149 around 6:20 a.m. Jan. 16, 2015.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Frost argued during opening statements that Lindsey’s cries on the two 911 calls were actually part of a set-up by him to make it look like an intruder had killed his wife.
“He murdered Melinda Lindsey,” Frost argued.
The deception continued with Lindsey telling police a story about an intruder knocking him out and dragging him to his toddler’s bedroom, tying him up, before proceeding to the master bedroom to shoot his wife, Frost said.
He added that money, including a $1.1 million life insurance policy taken out on Melinda Lindsey, was the main motivation for the defendant.
Larry Rogers, defense attorney for Lindsey, argued that the government settled on Lindsey as their suspect once they heard gunshot powder residue was found on his hands and wouldn’t rework their case, even when they found out later that was a false positive.
“It’s like pounding a round peg into a square hole – it didn’t work,” Rogers told the jury, adding that police failed to adequately investigate other potential suspects.
This is the third attempt to prosecute Lindsey, as the first trial in September ended in a mistrial after the jury was selected and the second trial in November ended in a mistrial after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict.
Frost noted during his opening statement that Lindsey never actually provided any information to police dispatch when he called 911 the first time, and dispatcher Kistler said during her testimony that she couldn’t make out anything during the first call.
“That call, nothing but screams, that’s all I could hear,” she said.
Lindsey, who was wearing a black suit with a blue button-down shirt, sat looking down most of the time while the two 911 calls were played, wiping his eyes at one point. He sat quietly for the day, resting his head in his left hand and periodically writing notes or whispering to his attorney.
Kistler testified under questioning by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Cheryl M. Polarek that she tried calling Lindsey back after the first call was disconnected, even texting him, but it wasn’t until six minutes later that he called 911 back.
Porter County Sheriff’s Police officers Meredith Brockman, who arrived first at the scene with fellow officer Timothy Bell, said the house was dark when they got there and that they soon discovered Melinda Lindsey after entering the house lying in her bed covered by a comforter and struggling to breathe.
“You can hear her gasping for breath,” Brockman testified.
Bell testified that when they entered, they could hear a man, later identified as Lindsey, yelling in another part of the house. Bell told the jury and the handful of spectators that he told Lindsey to come out but that Lindsey told him he couldn’t.
When police finally entered the room, Bell said, they found Lindsey on the floor with his hands secured behind his back with a zip tie and his toddler in her crib.
At some point, Lindsey was escorted outside the house while he was holding his daughter, and Valparaiso firefighter Samah Sutherland, who offered medical assistance to Lindsey, testified that although Lindsey said several times that no one would tell him where his wife was, he also didn’t seem in shock or distraught.
“He was pretty calm,” Sutherland said, adding people who go through a similar situation are often concerned for their loved one and will do anything to be with him.
However, Rogers noted that Lindsey did ask after his wife and was standing outside in the snow without his shoes. He also asked several of the witnesses about other zip ties that were found by the feet Melinda Lindsey, with some of them saying they had seen them.
The trial, which is set to continue Wednesday, is expected to last about a month.
