Photos courtesy of Benjamin Brayfield/The World

Today, marked a distinct change in how the defense questioned prosecution witnesses as the testimony began to getter closer to the crux of Nicholas McGuffin’s guilt or innocence. A parade of witnesses today included former Coquille police chief, Mike Reaves, and former CPD officers Dave Hall and Randy Ulmer. The real sparks occurred during the cross examinations of Kristen Steinhoff-Ramsey and Scott Hamilton and gone was defense counsel Shaun McCrea’s generally easy manner, warm and gentle approach where she almost seemed to make friends with witnesses and mother them along through their answers. Robert McCrea especially took aim at a combative Scott Hamilton whose account of the day prior to when Leah went missing did not seem to jive with the account of his former girlfriend, Melissa Smith, but I will save those details for a separate post.

Two big pieces of information came out today that do not look good for McGuffin or for the former police chief, Reaves. Jennifer Storts testified that on the wee morning hours of June 29, 2000, at approximately 12:15 AM she was on her way home along Fairview Road after a seventy-two hour shift at the hospital where she works in the lab. Storts reported that she saw two males of similar build wearing black “hoodies” with the hoods up over their heads walking up the hill along the shoulder of the road supporting a slight, thin female figure with blond hair. Storts was going to stop and see if they needed any help but then saw a “unusual” sized pickup truck, “larger than a small pickup but smaller than a full size truck”, parked along the side of the road and assumed the trio would not need help because they had a vehicle and went home to bed.

Storts reported what she had seen to Reaves and brought her time cards to help confirm the time she believed she had seen this. Reaves, according to Ms Storts, “made me feel like an idiot” for providing the time card. Storts worked at the hospital with Nikki Dannels, wife of the new police chief, Mark Dannels. When Dannels reopened the case Storts asked if she would be re-interviewed and learned there was no record of her report in the file.

Storts also works with the defendant’s mother, Kathy McGuffin and DA Paul Frasier inquired whether Storts could describe Mrs McGuffin’s vehicle. Storts described it as a “step-side” pickup but could not definitively identify the pickup she saw that night on Fairview Road as the one owned by Mrs McGuffin.

Also testifying today was Tina Mim, a close friend of Kristen Steinhoff’s family at the time Freeman went missing. Mim testified that she overheard McGuffin threatening Steinhoff-Ramsey and discussing his worries about her “mouth” to another person. Mim, a methamphetamine user and convicted felon, was genuinely concerned for Steinhoff-Ramsey’s life and tried to report this to Coquille PD by giving the information to Officer Dan “Danny” Lee. To her knowledge, the Coquille PD never acted on her report.

Obviously a lot more went on today that is worth sharing and I will write up a bit more later tonight or tomorrow morning.