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Daughter testifies about abuse in Moulton murder trial

By MARTI ALEXANDER

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Stephanie Byrum told of domestic violence in her home when she took the stand on Thursday during the trial of David Moulton, who is charged with the murder of his wife.

Rebecca “Becky” Moulton was found on April 17, 2004, in a pond located behind the couple’s residence off of South William Street in Atlanta. Moulton’s trial began Wednesday in the 5th District Court in New Boston. The trial venue was moved from Cass to Bowie County by District Judge Ralph Burgess because of pre-trial publicity in the case.

Byrum told the jury that during the time she lived at home the atmosphere could be described as “very tense.”

She also described several instances where she witnessed domestic violence against her mother.

At one time, Byrum said they lived in a trailer on Farm-to-Market 96 in Queen City. While living there, she said her mother’s relationship with Moulton was “bad, rocky. They argued and fought a lot.”

It wasn’t unusual for Moulton to hit Becky, her daughter said. “He was quick to have a temper,” Byrum stated.

One of the first incidents Byrum told the jury of was when she was brushing her teeth while getting ready for school.

“I could hear them arguing and then my mom came running through the bathroom with David chasing her,” Byrum said. “When he caught up with her he hit at her but missed and punched a hole in the door.”

On another occasion, Byrum said she could hear her mother and David fighting in their room. “She was crying and I could hear him hitting her,” Byrum said.

She told the jury that David eventually left and she went in to check on her mother and found her covered “head to toe in bruises, on the floor and couldn’t get up.”

Byrum said she was 10 to 12 years old at the time.

The jury heard from Byrum how she would leave the house when her mother and David were fighting and ride her bicycle down the street to get away. This happened about three times a week.

“It got to the point that as soon as I would get off the bus from school I would automatically get on my bicycle and leave,” she said.

Upon request from her mother, Byrum said she never told anyone about the abuse or the fighting. “She was a private person,” she said.

At one point during the relationship, Byrum said she recalls the couple fighting and her mother grabbing the keys to the car and her attempting to leave David.

“He followed us out and grabbed the keys and threw them into a creek,” Byrum said.

At this time, Byrum said she was of junior high or high school age.

She was questioned about her mother’s spending habits and she told the jury they went shopping twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. “We were discount shoppers,” she said.

On Moulton’s spending habits, Byrum said, “David would blow money.”

After the first couple of years of marriage, Byrum said David and her mother never slept in the same room.

“He said he had a bad back and the couch was more comfortable,” she said. “There were also times that he would leave at night and not come home until morning.”

Describing what she knew of Moulton’s employment status over the years, Byrum said he did have a job from time to time and would split firewood in the summer. At one point he started a logging business that didn’t succeed.

The Moultons built their home on South William Street in 1999 and around 2000 or 2001 they built a studio addition because Moulton needed it to write and sell songs.

In 2002, the Moulton home was destroyed by fire and Byrum was asked about what was salvaged. She said she was able to retrieve some of her coins but her mother saved only her diamond stud earrings, which she wore every day and even slept in.

A jewelry box was shown to Byrum, which she identified as her mother’s, as was one diamond stud earring. “One of the earrings was lost at the funeral home,” she said. Byrum also identified a cross necklace which she and David gave to her mother for Christmas in 2003, four months prior to her mother’s death.

After the 2002 house fire, Byrum told the jury her mother wanted to rebuild their house but Moulton wanted to live in a camper or move out of this “Mickey Mouse town.”

She said he often referred to Atlanta as a “Mickey Mouse town” and the Atlanta Police Department as a “Mickey Mouse police department that couldn’t do anything.”

In filing the application to receive insurance proceeds after the fire, Byrum said enough money was received to rebuild the house plus an extra $10,000 for living expenses. While rebuilding, the couple lived in a camper trailer on the site of the previous house.

Byrum told the jury her mother was the one who handled the money and a portion of the money left from construction was placed in a safety deposit box that was accessible by she and her mother.

She said Moulton did have access to it at a later time. “He left for a couple of weeks and stayed in a hotel and when he came back he had access,” Byrum said.

Moulton had left his wife in February 2003 and while he was residing in a local hotel, Byrum said she visited him one time and he told her he wanted to divorce her mother and move to Nashville to concentrate on a music career.

After the couple reconciled, Byrum said Moulton had a new truck, which was something he had been wanting, and a tractor and trailer.

On Easter Day 2004, Byrum said her mother told her she wanted to talk to her about something. “We never got the chance,” she said.

Byrum said the last time she was in town visiting her mother, Becky looked “tired and run down,” a way she had seen her mother in the past.

On April 17, 2004, Byrum was living in an apartment in Arkadelphia, Ark., when she received a call from her pastor, the Rev. Jim Howard. “He told me they found my mother in a pond and couldn’t revive her,” she said.

She said her first thought after hearing the news was “what was she doing at the pond?”

It was not customary for her mother to walk to the pond, Byrum said, or to take walks through the woods. “She always stayed on the road,” she said.

A “well-worn path” Moulton had mentioned previously came into question and Byrum said there was no such path or trail to the pond. Byrum said when she, herself, walked down the supposed path she wore boots, not flip-flops as it was said her mother did, because of snakes, briars and underbrush.

“I’ve never known my mother to wear flip-flops through the woods.”

After the phone call about her mother’s death, she met her pastor and his wife in Hope, Ark., and they brought her to the hospital. Moulton was not at the hospital at the time because he had gone home to shower, Byrum said, but he did come back.

When Byrum saw Moulton, she said he told her, “I didn’t think you’d like me anymore” and repeatedly said “I’m so sorry.”

She left the hospital and made it to the house at 1 a.m. and was with Moulton’s daughters Monique and Jamie and Monique’s husband Kevin.

“We were sitting around the table talking about what had happened and the phone started ringing,” Byrum said. “We decided to let the answering machine pick up and when it did, the message was from someone accusing David of harming my mom.”

Moulton told police about the call when they arrived at the home.

The following morning, Byrum said Moulton’s daughters went down to the pond and she followed shortly after. “When I got to the pond Monique had a stick getting something out of the water. She had found a sandal,” Byrum said.

She said she and the two girls walked around the edge of the pond looking around to see if they could figure out what happened. “There was a question in my mind that something else might have happened,” Byrum said.

During opening statements, Longview attorney Johnny Ward, who is assisting with the prosecution, gave the state’s timeline of events that occurred on April 17, 2004.

That timeline included:

– Becky being dropped off at home by her mother at 5:30 p.m.;

– A Domino’s Pizza delivery at 6:30 p.m. and Moulton leaving to check on a “tree job”;

– Moulton arriving home at 7 p.m. to find his wife missing and both cars in the garage;

– A call to Becky’s mother Dean Byrum at 7:37 p.m.;

– A 9-1-1 call made at 7:51 p.m. when Moulton discovered his wife’s body in the pond;

– Emergency personnel dispatched at 7:53 p.m.; and

– Becky being pronounced dead at Atlanta Memorial Hospital at 9:24 p.m.

Between 7:37 p.m. and 7:51 p.m., Ward stated Moulton called Dean Byrum looking for his wife, something he has never done in their 16 years of marriage, and attempting to call two of Becky’s friends, Leigh Soloman and Sandra Sandifer.

After the phone call attempts, Ward said Moulton allegedly went out on the front porch and then yelled off the back porch looking for his wife, fed the dogs and then honked the horn on the truck waiting four to five minutes for a response. When he received no response, Moulton, in a written statement to the Atlanta Police Department, said he went to the back of the property where a slough is located and then to the pond.

Upon arriving at the pond, Moulton had stated he could see the surface of the water and he saw his wife’s body floating in the pond. It was then that he removed his boots and dove into the pond, pulling his wife to the edge where she was half in and half out of the pond and began CPR.

Ward said told the jury when the forensics are brought in, they would hear how many hours it takes for a body to rise to the surface of a pond due to decomposition, etc., and why shortly after someone goes missing in water they drag the bottom of  bodies of water when searching.

During the initial autopsy, the report dated June 2, 2004, stated Becky’s death was “suspicious for homicide” but the cause of death was listed as “undetermined.”

As the investigation continued, a second report was submitted. That report, received in May 2005, declared Becky’s death as a homicide with the cause of death being “homicidal violence.”

Some of the injuries found on Becky’s body included a bloody right eye and a 3/16-inch angulated red mark at the front center of her neck. Ward said Moulton repeatedly said the mark was caused by a C-collar used by EMTs on Becky when she was taken from the pond.

“We all know that you don’t bruise after the heart stops beating,” Ward said.

Ward continued, stating that Moulton told police that the medics dropped Becky several times on the way to the ambulance and that Becky had pond scum in her eye, something that was not documented in any reports.

In discussing Becky’s jewelry, Ward said she had none on while at the hospital even though those close to her said she wore diamond stud earrings and a cross necklace at all times.

“After her death, her mother found the necklace and earrings in a jewelry box in the closet,” Ward said.

He said Moulton had an explanation for everything and his explanation for the necklace was she hadn’t worn it in a long time because it was broken and he couldn’t fix it although those close to her said she had been wearing it the day of her death.

Testimony in the trial began on Wednesday morning with the jury listening to the 9-1-1 call Moulton made from his cell phone on April 17, 2004. In telling the dispatcher his emergency, a distressed Moulton gives his address and states his wife fell into the pond, giving the dispatcher directions to emergency personnel and stating he would leave his headlights on so he could see where he was.

The only rule for this year’s Rotary Bee: Have fun

 By BRENDA BROWN

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Fifteen teams will compete in Thursday night’s Atlanta Rotary Club’s 10^th Annual Spelling Bee but the rules have changed this year in order to add a little spice to the event.

“The rules – there really aren’t any. We took the traditional spelling bee rules and discarded them,” said Rotarian Darlene Waites. “The bee will be less serious this year and we think we have a lineup of fun people to make this year’s program more fun than ever.”

The bee, along with its silent auction and live auction, is all about raising money to provide college scholarships to area students, Waites said. Hundreds of dollars worth of donated items have been collected for the event, which will be held at Morris Upchurch Middle School’s cafeteria in Queen City.

The doors will open at 5 p.m. and bidding in the live auction will begin immediately. A boiled shrimp feast with all the fixin’s will be served at 5:30. (Brisket is available by request only with advance ticket purchase.) The spelling bee begins at 6:30, followed by the live auction at 7:30. Tickets are $10 per person and available from any Rotarian.

Team sponsors for 2010 are Adcock’s Medicine Chest, Atlanta Memorial Hospital, Best Western Pineywoods Inn, Brookshire’s Food Store, Burggraf Atlanta Tire, Cass County Bank, Domino Federal Credit Union, Golden Villa Nursing Home, Hanner Funeral Service/The Ark Veterinary Clinic, Horne Enterprises, International Paper Co., Red River Federal Credit Union, Rose Haven Nursing Home, TEXAR Federal Credit Union and Wesley House.

Rotarians have been busy recruiting spellers, as well. Among this year’s contestants are Curt Bates, Kelly Mitchell, David Cockrell, Barbie Weems, Carol Price, Keith Crow, Robin Betts, Mike Dupree, Eric White, Terri Rutland, Dale Perkins, Paul Cothren, Andrea Allen, Mike Lovely, Melba Foster, Walter Cox, Corey Graf and David Stewart.

“These folks have said, hands down, they will be there and it’s going to be fun. We’re still working to confirm more contestants,” Waites said.

This year’s bee is focused on fun and fundraising – and that means Rotarians hope to raise lots of dough through their silent and live auctions.

A few of the items are quite unique, including a T-shirt signed by New Orleans Saints receiver Reggie Bush.

Waites obtained the shirt during a business conference in Washington, D.C., in February where Reggie Bush was signing autographs.

“To tell the truth, I didn’t even know who Reggie Bush was,” Waites laughed. “The coworker I was with thought I was totally crazy because I didn’t know who he was.”

Waites says she’s not a football fan and she was traveling on Super Bowl Sunday, but she understands now Bush’s autograph could be quite valuable and hopes it will raise some big bucks for Rotary scholarships.

“Some of my friends are incredulous that I would give it away, but I would rather raise money for scholarships than keep it for myself,” Waites said.

Rotarian Jim Horne’s daughter Debbie Mayfield framed the shirt and it will be among dozens of items available on the auction tables.

Another sports great with local ties will also be featured. Drew Stubbs, who began his baseball career at Atlanta High School, continued at the University of Texas and now plays professional ball for the Cincinnati Reds, will have a signed poster of his first home run in the auction.

A baseball signed by Nolan Ryan is also a featured item. Both pieces of sports memorabilia were donated by Hook ‘Em Sports.

In addition to the numerous auction items, each Rotarian will donate a homemade cake or dessert to be auctioned to the highest bidders.

To raise awareness about this year’s bee and auction, Rotarians will work as carhops at the Sonic Tuesday night from 5 to 9.

“We get to keep the tips for our scholarship fund and we’ll be out there to remind everyone the bee is Thursday night,” Waites said.

For a list of all of the auction items, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Citizens Journal.