Published: October 27, 2009 08:59 am      

Judge denies inmate’s testimony in sentencing

Eight more witnesses took the stand Monday in day four of the Ronson Bush murder trial.

Bush pleaded guilty last week to the murder of his friend William “Billy” Harrington.

However, prosecuting attorney Bret Burn’s ace-in-the-hole witness, Grady County Jail inmate Jackie Nash, was not permitted to testify after defense attorneys Vicki Floyd and Mary Bruehl raised objections, saying Nash was not endorsed as a witness prior to the beginning of the trial.

“This should not be allowed,” said Bruehl.

District Judge Richard Van Dyck sustained the defense’s objection and did not allow Nash to testify.

Burns said Nash was going to testify that Bush laughed about killing Harrington and bragged about his plot to escape duing the course of the trial.

OSBI Agent Elizabeth Green did testify, over more objections from the defense who dismissed Green’s credentials as “hearsay” and also objected to crime scene photos taken by Green as “prejudicial.”

Van Dyck overruled the objections and allowed grisly photos of Harrington’s body at the crime scene. Green gave exact descriptions of every photograph.

Louis Garrison of the district attorney’s office also took the stand to testify about how, on the night of Harrington’s murder, Bush took Harrington’s truck to an Anadarko convenience store and purchased beer with Harrington’s credit card.

Garrison obtained a video from the store showing Bush arriving, purchasing beer and then leaving the premises. The defense objected to the video, saying it was “irrelevant,” to which Burns replied vehemently “Every piece of evidence we present is relevant.”

Next, several jail employees, including Kent Baldwin, IT manager and maintenance for the Grady County Jail and Shane Wyatt, jail administrator, testified about a damaged window screen in Bush’s jail cell with pry marks on it, indicating inmates had been attempting to remove the screen from the window.

Baldwin said the metal around the screen was too strong to remove without tools and that he later discovered a metal rod taken from a floor grate. The rod was hidden inside the grate and was sharpened on one end.

Baldwin said he believed the rod was possibly used to try to remove the screens.

Jail videos of the cell in question show Bush and other inmates “always at that window, always working on that,” Baldwin said.

Bush’s ex-girlfriend Stephenie Morgan took the stand a second time, telling the court about how Bush had stolen her credit card, running up a bill of more than $2,500 on liquor, pornography and other items. She also testified that Bush told her he killed Harrington for his love for her.

“He said he did it in my honor,” Morgan said.

Day five of the trial will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27.