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10-08-02: Deputy: Kim Anderson said she shot husband

Testimony begins during murder trial

By SHELLEY GRIESHOP
The Daily Standard

    DEFIANCE - Auglaize County Sheriffąs Deputy Brent Henschen testified at the Brent Anderson murder trial this morning that Kimberly Anderson told him she "continued to fire into the closet" in which her husband had "jumped" on the night of the fatal shooting.
    Henschen, who was brought to the stand this morning by Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce, told jurors he took the statement from Kimberly Anderson on the night she shot and killed her husband, Brent Anderson.
    In the statement to Henschen, Kimberly Anderson said the couple had a fight and she went upstairs to get the telephone. She also said Brent Anderson followed her upstairs to the room, Henschen said. Henschen told jurors Kimberly Anderson said she was at the end of the bed and had retrieved a weapon from the night stand when Brent Anderson came
after her. She also said she continued to fire at him as he came toward her, Henschen said.
    Kimberly Anderson said in the statement that as she began firing the weapon, Brent Anderson "jumped into the closet."
    "She stated she continued to fire into the closet," Henschen told jurors
this morning.
    Henschen also said Kimberly Anderson told him she kept her hands on the gun until she emptied it. Later she told Henschen she gathered the telephone and gun and brought them downstairs.
    She also told Henschen she purchased the gun six weeks earlier.
    As of press time this morning, Henschen had not been cross examined by Kimberly Anderson's attorney, Alan Konop of Toledo.
    But in opening statements made Monday, Konop said Kimberly Anderson was a woman fearing for her life and the lives of her children the night she shot her husband to death at her home in Wapakoneta.
That's what this case is all about, pure and simple," Konop said Monday. "On more than one occasion, he (Brent Anderson) threatened to kill Ms. Anderson and take the whole family out."
    Konop's statement came on the heels of the prosecution's opening
statement that depicted Kimberly Anderson, 38, as an irresponsible mother who callously fired eight gunshots into the body of her helpless husband as he crouched inside a bedroom closet.
    "She was empowered with a 380 (.38-caliber) semi-automatic handgun that was located on the floor of her bedroom, a day when she knew her toddlers were coming home," from a weekend visit with their father, Auglaize County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Amy Fox told the jurors.
    The opening statements were made after the prosecution and defense
seated seven women and five men to the jury.
    Kim Anderson was indicted in December 2001 on charges of aggravated murder, murder and voluntary manslaughter in the death of her husband, Celina attorney Brent Anderson, 37.
    The trial was moved to Defiance after Auglaize County Judge Frederick Pepple on Friday granted Konop's motion for a change of venue due to pretrial publicity. Pepple remains the residing judge in the case.
    During Fox's opening statement, she told the court that Brent Anderson was shot multiple times in the back, groin and hands while inside a walk-in closet in an upstairs bedroom of their home in Wapakoneta on Sept. 2, 2001. He was returning his two sons, ages 3 and 1, from a weekend visit that Labor Day weekend when the shooting occurred.
    The couple had been separated for nearly a year and a divorce was
pending.
    Fox told jurors that Kimberly Anderson will testify the couple's 3-year-old son told her he had been sexually abused by his father, and that she received that information just prior to sending the boy on an overnight visit with his father.
    While explaining Kimberly Anderson's decision to send the boy with his father that weekend, Konop told jurors, "There was a lot of things going on that night. She was taking the older kids to a football game."
    Konop, during his opening statement, said Brent Anderson's actions months before the shooting frightened Kimberly Anderson. He said Brent Anderson posed as a cable guy during one alleged incident, and an interested home buyer another time, in order to enter the homes of Kimberly Anderson's friends.
    Konop also told jurors they will hear testimony stating the argument between the couple prior to the shooting was about the sexual abuse of the couple's sons at the hands of their father.
    "No one wants to believe it, it's a hard thing," Konop said of the sexual abuse allegations.
    Auglaize County Sheriffąs Office Dispatcher Caroline Zenz was the first witness called by the prosecution on Monday. She testified that she was on duty the afternoon Kimberly Anderson called 911 seeking help. Pierce played the 911 tape in which Kimberly Anderson admits shooting her husband after he came after her.
    Also testifying was sheriff's deputy William Johnson who said he arrived on the scene of the shooting first and saw Kimberly Anderson sobbing outside the home, holding two small children. Johnson said he walked upstairs to the bedroom, with gun drawn and careful not to disturb evidence, and found Brent Anderson's lifeless body in the closet.
    Johnson also testified that he discovered a portable phone and a handgun on a rug near the first-floor entrance near the garage.
     As Pierce brought out pictures of the crime scene, siblings of Brent Anderson, present in the courtroom, began to sob and look away.
    Pierce told Pepple at the conclusion of testimony late Monday afternoon, he expects to call all his witnesses by Wednesday afternoon. Konop told Pepple he could be ready to start calling his witnesses at that time and hopes to conclude defense testimony on next Tuesday.
    Pepple last week discussed continuing the trial on Monday despite the
holiday (Columbus Day), but did not indicate to jurors Monday that they
would be expected to appear that day.

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