JASPER, Tenn. – In less than an hour, a jury of six men and six women found 53-year-old Angela Kilgore guilty of first-degree murder, felony murder and other felonies in the May 2016 slaying of a 72-year-old Whitwell, Tennessee, business owner.
In their closing statements, state prosecutors and public defenders in the trial painted different versions of evidence in the case.
Twelfth Judicial District Assistant District Attorney Sherry Shelton pointed to testimony from Dale Watts, who visited victim Jerry Ridge’s pawn shop to make a payment for another family member, that placed Kilgore and her truck at the scene of the crime. Watts was the first witness to testify about the purple gloves Kilgore was wearing and Kilgore’s explanation that they were for treatment of a “poison oak” rash.
A purple glove found at the scene had DNA on it from both Ridge and Kilgore.
That DNA tied Kilgore to the scene and to the victim, Shelton told jurors.