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July 10, 2008

Weeks’ mother testifies at murder trial

Says she can’t remember son’s whereabouts on night of 1984 killing

By Deb Kelly

TERRE HAUTE — After the prosecution rested its case Thursday, the defense called one witness: the mother of Kevin Mark Weeks.

Weeks, 44, is on trial for the slaying of Loretta Keith, 89, in April 1984 in her West Terre Haute home.

Weeks’ mother, Dorothy Weeks, took the stand, where she characterized her son as “very easygoing.”

Dorothy Weeks said her son had been an Indiana State University student at the time of the killing in 1984. He was living at home, and had just been offered a summer job in Kentucky with a family construction business, she testified. When the school semester ended, right around Mother’s Day, she said, he left for Kentucky.

“He gave me a card and everything before he left,” she said, smiling.

The defendant’s mother painted a picture of the family as being rooted in church. Her husband, Weeks’ father, had pastored the same church for nearly 40 years. It was through the church that the Weeks family, and Dorothy Weeks in particular, became good friends of Loretta Keith, the victim.

Kevin Mark Weeks mowed Keith’s grass sometimes when he was younger, according to earlier testimony.

The family often gave the elderly woman rides to and from the church, and Keith attended every service, Weeks testified – even the Wednesday evening service the night she was killed. Dorothy Weeks said that her stepmother drove Keith home that night.

After the killing, Dorothy said, she and her husband stayed “close” with the Keith family. Even after Kevin Mark Weeks was arrested for the homicide in early 2008, the relationship between the families did not change, she testified.

As far as her son’s whereabouts on the night of the killing, Dorothy Weeks said she could not remember if he was home that night or not.

Several members of the defendant’s family, including his father and siblings, have sat through the entire trial, near members of the Keith family.

The primary item discussed Thursday during the trial was a nylon stocking found in a front bedroom at the home of Loretta Keith after the killing.

The stocking, which was covered with blood, was tested in January 2008 to develop a DNA profile. That DNA profile matched that of Kevin Mark Weeks, according to an earlier witness.

Defense attorney Juliette Stewart House is trying to punch holes in the prosecution’s case, emphasizing a difficulty connecting the blood on the stocking to the actual killing.

During cross-examination of prosecution witness Lt. Chris Wilson of the Indiana State Police, House asked, “How was the stocking used in the murder of Loretta Keith?”

Wilson, who was brought in on the case as a “fresh set of eyes” in 2007, answered, “I believe it contains the blood of the person who broke in and killed Loretta Keith.”

House asked, “Based on what physical evidence?” to which Wilson replied, “The blood that matches the DNA of Kevin Mark Weeks.”

Wilson also testified that in one of his first conversations with Weeks, the defendant “totally denied any involvement” in the killing.

“Four times he was asked if there was any reason his blood would ever be in her house, to which he answered, ‘Absolutely not,’” Wilson testified. Wilson said that when Weeks had finished the initial interview, Weeks asked that he be contacted “when this clears up.”

The defense also continued pointing out seeming discrepancies in locating evidence gathered in the case. When Wilson was first brought into the case, he testified, several items were “unaccounted for,” including the nylon stocking, a sweater that had been found at the scene covered in blood, and other items. The stocking eventually was recovered from an evidence locker in the courthouse.

As part of cross-examination, House asked Wilson about the availability of two spots of blood that were collected from the kitchen floor the morning after the killing.

Wilson said it was not known where the blood evidence from the floor was located. Other items that had been blood-stained, including a chair and a headboard from the bed of Loretta Keith, were unavailable, Wilson said.

House has implied throughout the trial that more than one person may have been inside Keith’s house on the night of the killing, and that without further testing of the blood found in various rooms, it would be impossible to prove who might have been there.

Latent fingerprints taken from inside the house never could be matched to anyone associated with the case, according to court documents.

The defense has also relied on evidence from the first trial for the Keith killing, in which David Lee Scott was convicted based on a secretly recorded confession he made after the murder.

Scott, who still stands convicted of the crime, was released from prison in January after more than 23 years when the DNA evidence pointed to Weeks as having some involvement.

Scott was recorded telling Clifford “Sonny” Allison, another West Terre Haute man, how he killed Keith.

During cross-examination of Wilson, the defense tried to point out that David Scott “has a long history of criminal acts and a long history of violence,” according to the pre-sentencing report prepared after Scott’s trial in 1985.

Closing arguments are expected this morning in Vigo County Superior Court Division 6, starting at 9 a.m.

Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.

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