Myers trial at halfway point

The murder trial of John R. Myers II hit its halfway point Wednesday as the prosecution rested its case. Two weeks into the trial that could solve the six-year-old mystery of IU student Jill Behrman's disappearance and death, some aren't convinced the state can win the case.\n"There's no evidence," said law professor Craig Bradley, who specializes in criminal law and procedure and has been paying attention to media reports on the trial. "All (the prosecution has) is a couple of vague statements about this guy saying he felt guilty about something."\nThe state, led by Morgan County prosecutor Steve Sonnega, has presented a case outlining its belief that Myers, an Ellettsville resident, was distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend.\nThough the details are unclear, the prosecution's case argues that somehow Myers lured Behrman into his vehicle May 31, 2000, took her to an isolated wooded area near Paragon, Ind., and then shot her at close range in the back of the head, leaving her body and disposing of the gun. A forensic autopsy also suggested she was raped.\nAuthorities did not locate Behrman's remains until March 2003. Two days after her disappearance, her bike was found in a cornfield outside Ellettsville, which was less than a mile from the trailer Myers lived in at the time. \nThe linchpin in the prosecution's case is the testimony of Myers' own relatives, who asserted that Myers made suspicious comments about Behrman's death.\nMyers' grandmother, Betty Swaffard, broke down in tears while on the stand last week, recounting a conversation she had with Myers in November 2004.\n"I said, 'What's on your mind to upset you so much?'" Swaffard said in her testimony. "He said, 'Grandma, if you just knew the things on my mind ... If the authorities knew, I'd spend the rest of my life in prison.' He said, 'My dad knew, and he took it to the grave with him.'"\nSwaffard testified that her grandson had mentioned he was a suspect in Behrman's disappearance as early as June 27, 2000, when he called to ask her for $200. She told him she only had $10 to give him, and he would have to come to her home to pick it up.\n"He said he couldn't come get it," she said. "He said they have road blocks on Maple Grove (near his home), and he said, 'Don't you know, Grandma? I'm a suspect in the (pause) Jill Behrman murder.'"\nA testimony by Indiana State Police detective Rick Lang Wednesday showed that Myers was not one of his original suspects in the case.\nBesides Myers' grandmother, an aunt, Debbie Bell, said Myers also told her that in 2000, he was afraid of being blamed in the abduction and told her "they haven't found the body yet."\nThe youngest Myers brother, Sam, testified that he kept a 12-gauge shotgun — the same type of weapon used to kill Behrman — at his parents' house, which had gone missing after the summer of 2000. He said to this day he does not know where it is.\nProfessor Emeritus of Law, F. Thomas Schornhorst, who has been been following media reports about the trial, said the case against Myers, which is based solely upon circumstantial evidence, is not uncommon in the legal system. \n"(These cases) often are even more persuasive than cases premised upon notoriously unreliable eyewitness testimony or even questionable confessions of an accused," he said. "A circumstantial case is built brick by brick, and the combination of circumstances may construct a strong case."\nThe prosecution has not had as much success with proving Myers was the only one who could have committed the crime, Bradley said. Bradley, who thinks the prosecution's case is weak, said while the legal team did the best with what they had, he thinks "they just didn't have enough."\nThe defense, led by Indianapolis attorney Patrick Baker, has had much information ruled inadmissible in the court and argues there is no evidence or witness to tie Myers to the crime scene. \nParticularly, Baker has suggested that Behrman was pregnant with an older, married man's child and that she was running away from home on the morning of May 31, 2000. He has suggested through witness questioning that many people knew and were talking about Behrman's disappearance in the community, many of whom were joking that they had killed her. Baker also said a co-worker of Behrman's at the Student Recreational Sports Center, a man known to skeet shoot with a 12-gauge shotgun, could be responsible for her death.\nJill Behrman's parents, Eric and Marilyn Behrman, upset by the statement Baker made to the press about their daughter's supposed pregnancy, released a statement to the press last week calling for Baker to treat her "with fairness, dignity and respect throughout the criminal justice process." \nBaker motioned for a mistrial because of their comments, but was denied by Judge Christopher Burnham.\nAdditionally, an evidence report submitted by Baker Wednesday included an interview from July 19, 2004, with Behrman's mother, in which she told Lang she thought her daughter might have been pregnant.\nAs the trial moves into its second stage, the defense is in the spotlight presenting evidence that can clear Myers' name. \nBradley said he's not convinced of Myers' innocence, but the prosecution hasn't swayed him enough either.\n"Maybe he's guilty, but as for proving him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?" Bradley asked. "I don't see the basis for that"