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Last updated on Wednesday, September 19, 2018
(BEDFORD) - Jasmine Pickett testified in the murder trial of her former husband Lincoln Pickett today.
Pickett is charged with killing 29-year-old Kami Ratcliff on Jan. 21, 2016 in the back seat of his red Blazer after an argument. He then waited a week before burning her body in a burn pit at his home at 3413 US 50 West.
Assistant Prosecutor Lynda Robison questioned 33-year-old Jasmine, who now lives in Bedford. Jasmine told jurors how she has changed her life. She is now sober, working full time and working to get her children back. The Department of Child Services took her children when she was arrested on Jan. 28, 2016.
Jasmine is facing charges of failure to report a dead body, obstruction of justice and false informing. She signed an agreement of immunity stating that as long as she testified truthfully whatever she said on the stand would not be held against her during her trial. She was not given any promises or plea agreement for her testimony.
She was emotional during her testimony, crying and shaking. She had to stop a few times during her testimony to compose herself.
During one of those incidents, Lincoln stood and yelled that her testimony was made up.
Jasmine shared with the jury that Kami and her then 9-month-old daughter would visit the Pickett home often.
She considered Kami a friend. She soon learned that Kami was having a sexual relationship with Lincoln. Jasmine considered filing for divorce, but she stayed in the marriage and did have relations with Kami and Lincoln on a couple of occasions.
She also admitted to consuming meth the week before and leading up to Kami's murder. She told the jury that she had been up for about two weeks before the murder occurred.
Jasmine told the jury on the night before Kami's death that Kami was at the Pickett house and Kami and Lincoln got into an argument in the couple's bedroom. Lincoln allegedly threw Kami on the couple's bed and onto the floor.
Jasmine attempted to break up the fight by putting herself between the two.
"He tried to hit her (Kami) a couple of times and got me," Jasmine said.
Jasmine was able to calm Lincoln down.
"He got mad and told me not to get between them again," she added. "He hit me in the side of the head with the gun and pointed the gun at me and told me not to do it again."
The argument woke the couple's three children. Jasmine went to comfort them and that is when she discovered she was bleeding from the right side of her head just above her ear.
She later returned to the bedroom to find Lincoln sitting at a table and Kami asleep on the bed. The next morning, Jasmine got the kids up and off to school.
"Kami decided she wanted to go home; we put on our makeup, changed clothes, got her stuff and left," Jasmine says.
Lincoln was driving, Jasmine was in the front seat, Jenna was sitting in the back seat behind Lincoln and Kami was sitting in the back seat behind Jasmine.
Kami then told the couple that she didn't want to go to her boyfriend's house. She said she wanted to go to another friend's house named Cowboy. Lincoln refused to take her and Jenna there, which upset Kami.
Lincoln told Kami he would take her to her mother's home, but Kami didn't want to go there either.
"He (Lincoln) was getting louder and louder driving kind of fast," Jasmine testified. "Kami reached up and hit Lincoln in the head a couple of times which made him madder."
When the vehicle was near the Mitchell McDonald's Jasmine says Kami opened the back door and attempted to jump from the vehicle.
Jasmine was able to stop her and get the door closed.
"She (Kami) started yelling we were going to go to jail," Jasmine says. "I told her I didn't care what she did to him (Lincoln) but I didn't deserve to go to jail."
That made Lincoln mad and Jasmine said he struck her in the head
"I went out," she says. "He knocked my jaw out of place. I woke to a loud sound and my ears ringing. I asked Lincoln what that sound was and he told me to put my head down and leave it down. I did what he told me. I was scared."
Jasmine says they were driving down Spice Valley Road when the incident happened.
"Lincoln drove really fast back home," Jasmine says. "I got out and he backed the Blazer into the garage and then handed me Jenna."
Jasmine told the jury she never looked in the Blazer.
The morning of Jan. 28th Jasmine says Lincoln got her from his mother's house who lives just west of the couple's mobile home. The couple and their children were staying with Veda Pickett because their electricity had been turned off. Neither Lincoln or Jasmine were working at the time.
On that morning, Lincoln had left Veda's home on the family's 4-wheeler to go back to the couple's mobile home. He returned a short time later wanting Jasmine to go with him to help him with something.
The Blazer was stuck in the mud in the backyard and a fire was burning in the backyard.
"He asked me to help me get her out of the car," she testified. "She was wrapped in a sheet - burgundy color - I could just see her feet... her shoes. I was scared. I started to help... I grabbed her foot, but I couldn't. I told Lincoln I didn't want to. He told me if I didn't help he was going to blame it all on me. He started to get her out of the car. I went back around the front (front of the mobile home)."
A short time later the couple was at the front of the mobile home when they noticed police officers go up the highway. Lincoln handed Jasmine the handgun and told her to put it in his "special place" instead Jasmine hid it between the mattress and box spring, where police later found it.
Police arrived at the house a short time later, armed with search warrants. The couple was arrested after Indiana State Police found Kami's remains in a burn pit and blood in the red Blazer.
Jasmine admitted that she lied to the police during her interviews.
The defense questioned Jasmine on five different interviews saying police threatened Jasmine with long jail sentences and she would never see her children again.
Jasmine told police that Kami had committed suicide in the Blazer.
It was not until she was interviewed at the Orleans Police Department after she was bonded out of jail in February by her family that she told police Lincoln had shot Kami.
"I wanted people to know I didn't do it and how sorry I am that is why I am testifying today," Jasmine testified.
Indiana State Police Senior Trooper Detective Gregg Edwards testified he was able to track and map both Lincoln and Jasmine Picketts cell phones.
The state also played a call made to the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department at the time of Ratcliff's death. When Pickett, Jasmine, Kami and her daughter Jenna were in the Picketts' red Blazer on State Road 60 and State Road 37. The caller reported Lincoln was driving erratically, swerving in an out of lanes, cutting off other vehicles and ran a red light at CVS Pharmacy in Mitchell.
Lorinda Gibb, an ISP Forensic Scientist on latent fingerprints testified she did find an upper little fingertip print on Kami's busted cell phone but could not make a positive identification on who the print belonged to. She did say the print had characteristics similar to Lincoln Pickett. She found no identifiable prints on the handgun allegedly used to kill Kami.
Melissa Oberg, an ISP Forensic Scientist, and ammunition expert testified the cartridge casings, cartridges and bullet found in the burn pit where Kami's body was discovered were damaged in the fire and she could not say if those items were fired from the gun that allegedly was used to kill Kami.
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