An Act Of Murder (18 page)

“And isn't it also true that when she came into the lobby, she was screaming?” Trainor asked.

“No, sir, that would not be true,” Parker responded.

Trainor then asked Parker to read part of the statement he gave police shortly after he pulled Steve out of room 506.

“Does it say, in your own handwriting, that the young woman ran into the lobby, screaming?”

“Yes, sir,” Parker replied.

The defense had scored some points—minor points, maybe, but points nevertheless.

The next witness to testify was Bonnie Parker, Philip's mother and Elaine's aunt. Bonnie told jurors that after learning Steve was dead, she comforted Kimberly and took her upstairs to one of the rooms the Parkers had reserved for the weekend, so she could lie down. She said once in the room she sat Kim down on one of the beds and asked what happened. Kim told her the whole story—the dinner, the argument, leaving, and getting lost. Then, after telling Bonnie how she was trying to find Mike Miller's house in Easton, Kim told her Mike worked at Harbourtowne. As Bonnie asked a police officer if he wanted her to find out who Mike was, Kim rattled off Mike's telephone number. The police officer wrote it down and then called Mike to tell him what had happened, Bonnie said. Bonnie told the jurors that while she was with Kim in the room, Kim kept saying, “Oh, God; oh, God,” and started dry heaving, although she never actually vomited.

The rest of the day jurors heard from police and others, including Talbot County assistant state's attorney Henry Dove, Mike Miller, and Father Paul Jennings, the state police chaplain, who testified about the events that occurred before and after Steve's death.

Dove explained that he was part of the murder-mystery dinner-theater show that the Hrickos attended on Valentine's Day in 1998. He said he was playing a detective in the production of
The Bride Who Cried,
and he just happened to be seated at the Hrickos' table. Dove testified about how much alcohol the guests at his table consumed that evening.

“Everybody there ordered at least one drink or beer. One of the couples ordered a bottle of wine, and I think drank the whole bottle of wine before they were through that night. It was not the Hrickos,” Dove said. “I believe Mr. and Mrs. Hricko each ordered a beer right about the time I sat down, which was about a half hour into the reception time. I think they might have ordered another drink—I'm not sure—later on. It could have been two more, but I'm not nearly as sure about that. And then there was champagne served to everybody at the end of the dinner for the toast.”

However, according to the Hrickos' guest check for that night, they only ordered two drinks, a Budweiser and a Wild Goose ale.

Jennings told jurors that Kim was “very calmly upset” after he notified her that Steve was dead. He said her response was not very emotional.

Analysts from the Maryland State Police Crime Laboratory testified that although they recovered three fingerprints from the cover of the
Playboy
in the Hrickos' room, only one was good enough to be compared to Steve and Kim's fingerprints. However, it didn't match prints from either Steve or Kim.

Steve's best friend, Mike Miller, told jurors that he went to Harbourtowne to be with Kim after Steve died.

“I walked into the room where Mr. and Mrs. Parker were. They directed me into the adjoining room. I walked in,” Miller said. “Kim was laying on the bed farthest away from me. I had noticed keys on the bed and a cell phone there. She got up, walked over to me and looked up and said thanks for coming. I reached out to give her a hug. She did not respond in any way with a hug or [anything] other than just thanking me for showing up.”

Mike said Kim really didn't even talk to him about what had happened that night. She didn't answer any of his questions, he added. He told the jurors that Kim's demeanor was “flat,” and devoid of any emotional highs or lows. Mike also said that although Steve chewed Skoal tobacco, he never smoked cigarettes or cigars.

The last witness of the day was Deputy Fire Marshal Mike Mulligan. During his testimony Mulligan told the jurors he believed the fire in the Hrickos' room was a set fire. However, after an objection by the defense team, Judge Horne ordered the jury to disregard Mulligan's opinion about the cause of the fire.

The defense attorneys argued that although Mulligan said he ruled out all natural and accidental causes for the fire, he really didn't eliminate every possible accidental cause, including a lit match. Defense lawyer William Brennan said if Steve had been smoking a cigar, he would have had to light it somehow. And even though Mulligan tried to set a pillow and other items like those found in the room on fire with a lit cigar, he didn't try to light them on fire with a lit match or other ignition source. The judge agreed.

Judge Horne also took issue with Mulligan's testimony regarding the woodstove in the Hrickos' room.

Mulligan testified that even though the doors to the wood-burning stove were open, he eliminated it as the ignition source because it was too far away from what he said was the fire's point of origin. Mulligan told the jurors that there was a store-bought log in the stove that was not made of wood. He said although the log had burned, part of the wrapper, as well as a paper match, remained in the stove. Mulligan said if the log had been made of locust wood, it would have been possible for a spark to have jumped out of the stove and to ignite a fire. But he said he didn't think that was possible in this case, so he eliminated the store-bought log as the ignition source.

“I don't know that we have an exhaustive list from Mr. Mulligan of all the potential accidental or spontaneous causes of a fire,” Horne said. “And finally and most fatally, in my opinion, is the potbellied stove with its two doors open and its ash showing that there had been a log burned therein. It's all well and good to say, ‘But those logs can't spark. Hey, they're wrapped in paper and they're designed so they don't produce any spark.' But they also come with a strong warning on the paper, as I recall . . . and I think it cautions you against using an artificial log with any other source of fire because it may cause little mini-explosions, if you will. Did that happen in this case? I don't know. And that's my problem.”

So Horne said, “The court finds in this case that there has not been that proper foundation and accordingly without such proper foundation, the testimony of Mr. Mulligan as to the . . . beginning of the fire, incendiary, accidental, or spontaneous will not be introduced into evidence and the jury will be instructed to disregard the opinion. . . .”

Among the witnesses who testified on Wednesday, January 13, was Trooper Keith Elzey. Elzey told the jurors about the version of events leading up to Steve's death that Kim had given him when he first met her. He also described Kim's behavior and physical appearance at that time.

“When you first met Kimberly Hricko, describe for us her demeanor and her physical appearance,” Dean said.

“She appeared to me to be somewhat tired. Appeared to be sobbing, not actually crying, but had her head in her hand sobbing a lot,” Elzey said. “But I didn't see any tears.”

During cross-examination by Harry Trainor, Elzey agreed that Kim appeared to be upset.

“Now, when you first noticed her, her demeanor was that she was crying, is that right?” Trainor asked.

“I didn't see any tears, but she was moaning, yes, sir.”

“She was moaning. As a matter of fact, she had a washcloth that she was holding to her face or to her eyes. Is that right?” Trainor asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, she appeared to be upset, sobbed and moaned, and had a washcloth in her hand, is that right?”

“Yes, sir.”

The jurors also heard about Kim's meeting with Elzey and Sergeant Alt on February 23, 1998.

One of the things Mike Miller's wife, Maureen O'Toole-Miller, told the jury was that she had made most of Steve's funeral arrangements for Kim. She said Kim really didn't care about the specifics of the arrangements.

“She was very noncommittal,” Maureen said. “The only thing that she was definite on was that she wanted the body cremated. She was very adamant on that, because she said that's what Steve had said he wanted.”

After Maureen testified, Kim's attorneys told the judge they might call her as a witness for the defense, so she wasn't allowed to stay in the courtroom. But she made good use of her time, waiting in the hallway, talking to everyone else who was getting ready to testify.

“I got the behind the scenes of everything before they testified; because once they came out, they couldn't talk about their testimony,” Maureen said.

But as the trial progressed and the defense began its case, Maureen remained in the hallway, waiting to be recalled.

“I was getting mad,” she said. “So Bob Dean went to the defense and asked if they were going to call me back to the stand, and they told him they weren't.”

 

 

In the months leading up to Kim's trial, she and Maureen never spoke. In fact, it wasn't until a week before the trial that Maureen started talking to Kim's other friends.

“It was kind of strange, but during the trial the five girls, me included, had this odd, strange bond because we were all kind of victims, except for Teri Armstrong, who assumed my role after I found out the truth,” Maureen said. “She stepped in and started taking care of Kim's business between the time she was arrested and the trial. She was selling some of the Hrickos' stuff for Kim.”

Maureen said she and Mike asked Teri if they could have Steve's weights because they wanted to have a weight room, or at least part of the weight room, at the high school in State College, Pennsylvania, rededicated in Steve's memory. But Teri kept telling the Millers that she didn't know where the weights were.

“We told Teri that we'd buy the weights back from whoever she sold them to. We didn't care how much money it would take, we wanted to buy them back,” Maureen said. “But she wouldn't give us any information. She was being totally evasive. Well, it turned out she gave the weight set to her husband. And even though she knew what we wanted them for, and that we were willing to pay any amount of money for them, she wouldn't give them to us.”

During the trial, in the witness room, Maureen got into a huge fight with Teri over the weights again. Tired and emotionally drained, Maureen confronted Teri about giving the weights to her husband. Once again Maureen explained that the Millers would like to buy the weights back, but Teri said her husband didn't have them.

“Teri, you must think we're really stupid if you think we're going to believe that,” Maureen said to Teri. “And we got into a big fight and it started escalating. I accused her of being as bad as Kim, because she was covering up for her, knowing she killed Steve.”

“I loved Steve,” Teri responded.

“You didn't love Steve. You didn't even know Steve; because if you knew Steve, you wouldn't be defending Kim,” Maureen screamed.

“Teri burst into tears. That's the closest thing I ever came to a physical fight,” Maureen revealed. “I was about two seconds from jumping across the benches and hurting her, because she kept trying to lie, but Rachel grabbed me and dragged me out of the room and forced me to go downstairs before someone came in to find out what was happening.”

Maureen said that's why, during the trial, when they were all waiting to testify, the women were all very closely connected, except for Teri.

“We hated her, but we couldn't cause any problems, because we were afraid she wouldn't testify,” Maureen said.

The day Maureen testified against Kim was the same day Brad Winkler testified. At this point Mike had never spoken to Brad, nor did he ever want to.

Mike was angry with Brad because Brad had an affair with a married woman. What Brad did went against Mike's strict Catholic upbringing. As far as Mike was concerned, what Brad did was a sin and he felt Brad was just an unworthy person. Mike didn't want anything to do with Brad because he had betrayed his best friend.

But Mike soon came to understand that Brad was as much a victim as everybody else.

“We had all made plans after everyone had testified that we were going to go get something to eat,” Maureen recalled. “So Steve's sisters, Jenny and Julie, were there, Brad, Brad's cousin Jenny, Rachel, Norma, Michael, and me. We went down the street to a restaurant for dinner and Mike told me to sit Brad at the other end of the table because he didn't want to look at him.”

Maureen told Mike to lay off Brad, because he was suffering, too. Mike agreed and behaved himself for the entire evening. When the evening was drawing to a close, Brad stood up and said he wanted to say something.

“I am so sorry for what I've done,” Brad said, choking up. “I feel so bad and I'll have to live with this for the rest of my life. I feel responsible for what Kim has done and I am so sorry to you and your family. And I just wanted you to know it.”

Then Brad started crying and Mike got up, went over and hugged him, and said, “We forgive you.”

“It was the most compassionate thing I've ever seen anyone do because I knew how much Mike hated him at that point,” Maureen said. “It was just a very touching moment and it just brought all of us closer together.”

 

 

Kim's friend Ken Burgess took the stand after Maureen finished testifying. Burgess told the jurors that Kim had asked him to kill Steve, or find someone who would do it, for $50,000. In an attempt to discredit Burgess's testimony, defense attorney William Brennan attacked his credibility. Brennan questioned Burgess about his conviction on welfare fraud for lying on an application for welfare benefits in 1985.