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Last updated on Monday, September 17, 2018
(BEDFORD) - Jurors heard testimony and viewed several items of evidence on Monday in the murder trial of Lincoln Pickett.
Lawrence County Superior Court II Judge William Sleva is presiding over the case. Public defender Joseph Lozano is representing Pickett and Prosecutor Michelle Woodward is presenting the case for the state.
Pickett, 36, of Mitchell, is charged with murder; obstruction of justice, abuse of a corpse, two counts of false informing and failure to report a dead body. Pickett, now clean-shaven, showed little emotion during testimony.
Police say Pickett shot and killed 29-year-old Kamie Ratcliff in the back seat of his red Blazer after an argument. He then waited several days before burning her body in a burn pit on his property at 3413 U.S. 50 West.
Indiana State Police Crime Scene Investigator Jason Cobb testified most of the day sharing the evidence that he collected at various locations related to the crime.
Some of the most dramatic photos were of the blood-soaked passenger seat and floorboard of the red Blazer owned by the Picketts, tissue recovered in the door well of the passenger door, bloody towels and blankets found in the Blazer and photos of the burned skeletal remains.
After seeing those photos the court recessed for lunch. Ratcliff's family left the courthouse in tears.
Indiana State Police Brad Stille testified that he interviewed Lincoln Pickett's then-wife Jasmine Pickett at the couple's home in his police car.
She told police they had started the fire in the backyard of their home to burn wood that would not fit in their woodstove.
"She was anxious and kept looking through the front windshield looking at Lincoln (who was in another police car parked in front of the one Jasmine was in)," Stille testified. "It was not junk wood, it was wood that could be utilized to heat their home...It just didn't make sense to me, When I started to separate the burning debris I found the spinal column and rib cage."
He also testified to recovering shell casings from a burn pit at O'Neils' home in Loogootee that were from Pickett's gun. He and O'Neils boyfriend Mel Roush had been target shooting a few days before at the home, the same day Pickett allegedly admitted to shooting and killing Ratcliff.
Stille also testified to finding Ratcliff's purse, her state identification and busted cell phone at the home of Veda Pickett, Lincoln's mother, who just lives two houses from the Pickett home. The purse was found in an upstairs bedroom hidden in a hollowed-out cavity in a closet.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Chris Fears testified he too saw Ratcliff's spine and rib cage in the burn pit.
He also testified about his interview with Pickett's sister Allayna O'Neal and says she was consistent throughout her statements to police. O'Neal told police her brother admitted he had shot a girl in the face.
Court will resume Tuesday at 8 a.m. with Judge Sleva ruling on if the full interview of Lincoln Pickett with police will be heard by the jury.
The state is wanting to use just part of that interview and not have any evidence of Ratcliff's alleged drug use, the sexual relationship between the Picketts and Ratcliff, hints of Ratcliff being suicidal and the alleged violent relationship between Ratcliff and the father of her then 9-month old daughter, David Burton Jr, used in the case.
The defense argued that evidence is vital to Pickett's defense.
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