SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – Jurors were seated just before 11 a.m. CDT on Monday in the murder trial of Barry Van Whitton followed by opening arguments that concluded just before lunch.
Whitton, 46, is on trial in a 17-year-old cold case that was thawed in December 2014 by a grand jury indictment. Whitton was serving time for a federal firearms conviction at the time he was charged in January this year.
State Assistant Attorney General John Hensley told jurors during opening arguments that Whitton had 15 hours to kill his wife, 28-year-old Michelle Whitton, clean up the murder scene and dispose of her body before he stopped on Dec. 7, 1997, to see Michelle Whitton’s mother to tell her that her daughter was missing.
Hensley said blood evidence found inside the master bedroom of the home and upcoming testimony will show that Whitton bludgeoned his wife in the back of the head with the butt of a shotgun at the foot of their bed. Then he dragged her to the master bathroom to begin cleaning up the bloody scene.
Large holes cut from the bedroom carpet were blamed on the couple’s then-2-year-old son, Ethan, Hensley said, adding that Whitton had created a variety of “stories” to explain what happened.
Hensley said Whitton had bragged about killing his wife, discussing details only he could have known, and monitored sessions of the Jackson County grand jury for indictments being issued against him.
Whitton’s attorney, Gerald Paulk, said the timeline and the state’s “dots” connect in only one way that allows Whitton to be the killer while other evidence presented in the trial will show sightings of Michelle Whitton outside the timeline the state has proposed.
Paulk said prosecutors might have left out other potential suspects suggested by evidence – a wallet belonging to another person – found near Michelle Whitton’s car when it was recovered a week later. Paulk said three fingerprints found on the dead woman’s car didn’t match Whitton’s.
Circuit Judge John H. Graham told jurors the trial starting Monday would probably continue for about two weeks.
Stay with the Chattanooga Times Free Press for more on this developing story.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com ortwitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.