Investigator testifies in assault trial
Officer believes suspect found out authorities planned to search home
NEW BOSTON, Texas—Whether the defendant in a sexual assault trial was tipped off investigators were planning to search his home was the subject of much questioning by the state and defense Thursday.
Jon David Stover, 38, is accused of repeated sexual misconduct with a girl, to whose mother he was briefly married in 2010. Stover is accused of molesting the girl when she was 6 to 8 years old.
Bowie County Sheriff’s Office investigator Todd Altman, whose testimony began Wednesday, testified Thursday he believes Stover somehow learned investigators intended to search his sprawling residence in Texarkana on July 9, 2010.
“It looked like they knew we were coming,” Altman testified under questioning from Assistant Attorney General Ralph Guerrero.
Altman said before executing the search warrant, one of Stover’s lawyers, Craig Henry of Texarkana, made arrangements with him for Stover to meet officers at a Texarkana sporting goods store, Gander Mountain, to turn himself over to authorities. Sheriff James Prince initiated the meeting for Stover to surrender.
Altman testified carpet in the girl’s bedroom he suspected might contain DNA evidence implicating Stover, based on the alleged victim’s statements, was discolored, wet and smelled of bleach. Altman said the wet carpet made him suspect Stover had information about the investigation.
Will Buttram, a crime scene technician at the time of the search and now an investigator for the Sheriff’s Office, testified he arrived at Stover’s residence before Altman. Buttram said he was met by a friend of Stover’s, Andy Prince, and by Sheriff Prince. Andy Prince and Sheriff Prince are not related. Andy Prince had a key to Stover’s house and let Altman and Buttram inside.
When Guerrero asked Buttram, who said he has assisted in the searches of more than 100 homes, if he had ever been met by a family friend of a defendant to provide access to a residence in the past, Buttram said, “If it’s happened before, I can’t remember when.”
Buttram testified he noticed a chemical smell like bleach in the alleged victim’s room. Buttram said he touched a discolored area of the carpet with a gloved hand and found it wet. Buttram said he used an alternative light source to identify two areas, both on carpet alongside twin beds in the girl’s room, that showed the present of biological evidence that could be sperm.
Altman testified he asked a now-former employee of the Texarkana Children’s Advocacy Center, Tiffany Spangler, to come by his office at Bi-State Justice Building and bring recordings with her that might help in the investigation, under questioning from Dallas defense attorney Toby Shook. Altman testified Spangler was known to be friends with Jon Stover and the alleged victim’s mother and had been the maid of honor at their June 11, 2010, wedding.
Altman said he received information Spangler had recorded conversations with Stover and the girl’s mother separately in the days before the alleged victim was interviewed July 6, 2010, at the CAC. He began asking Spangler questions about her involvement with Stover when she showed up at his office without the recordings.
Shook asked Altman if Spangler became upset when he asked if she had an intimate relationship with Stover.
“I don’t remember asking her that,” Altman said. “I remember her being offended by a lot of things.”
Altman said he asked Spangler about getting paid $4,000 by the girl’s mother for work Spangler and her husband had done for the Stovers. Spangler denied the payment and offered to show him her bank statement. Altman said he declined to review Spangler’s banking records.
Altman said he asked Spangler for the recordings before she came to his office, while she was in his office and a third time via phone. He suspected the recordings didn’t exist because Spangler never produced them.
But this morning, Guerrero told 202nd District Judge Leon F. Pesek Jr. a tape of Spangler talking to Stover had “miraculously” been provided to the state by Spangler’s lawyer. The state issued subpoenas ordering Spangler to hand over any relevant recordings in May, Guerrero said.
Stover’s lawyers told Pesek that Spangler only recently found the recording.
Altman said he asked Spangler, who was an employee of the CAC when the girl was interviewed by Kandice Kimmel on July 6, 2010, if she had given Stover information about the investigation.
Kimmel testified Tuesday and Wednesday that Spangler asked to sit with Altman in the observation room during the alleged victim’s interview. Kimmel said Spangler was told not to be at work that day and to stay out of the case because of her personal relationships with the involved parties.
Kimmel testified Spangler was fired for not doing her job and for her involvement in the Stover case.
Shook questioned Altman at length Thursday about his search of Stover’s home and his investigation.
Altman testified that although he had a search warrant that allowed a search of the entire Stover home, evidence was only collected from the girl’s room. He did not check other rooms or carpet in the house for wetness or a chemical smell.
During her interview with Kimmel at CAC, the girl said Stover made her watch a pornographic movie with him in his bedroom when she was 7. Altman testified he did not search Stover’s room for pornographic films. The girl also claimed Stover once used his iPhone to take a sexually explicit photo of her. Altman testified he did not collect Stover’s cellphone for a forensic analysis. Under questioning from Guerrero, Altman said he wishes in hindsight that he had searched more rooms in Stover’s house and collected his phone.
But Altman was able to tell the jury about roughly 15 purchases of pornographic movies Stover made before and during the time the alleged victim lived in his home, under questioning from Guerrero. While the state possessed records indicating Stover purchased 60 adult pornographic movies from March 2007 to March 2011, only those that could have been shown to the alleged victim were entered into evidence.
Altman read the sexually explicit titles of the videos to the jury while Guerrero displayed the purchasing records on an overhead for the jury. The jury was also shown graphic photos of the covers of the pornographic DVDs Stover bought. Two of the DVD titles read to the jury included the word “teen.”
Outside the jury’s presence, Guerrerro argued the DVD covers should be admitted because the pictures suggest sexual acts similar to those alleged by his accuser.
Pesek instructed the jury they could not use the pornographic evidence to prove Stover is a bad person, but they could use it to show his intent and motive and to corroborate the alleged victim’s testimony if they believe Stover committed a wrongful act.
Stover’s former housekeeper, Virginia Gamble, testified she worked for him from 2000 to 2004 and from 2006 to 2009. Gamble said she found pornographic DVDs lying on the floor in Stover’s bedroom and on a counter in his theater room during 2006 to 2009 “… six or seven times.”
Justin Parker, a trace analyst with the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory in Garland, Texas, testified he was unable to determine if the carpet had been bleached via testing conducted earlier this year. Parker said bleach is highly reactive and degrades easily. The sample was collected during the July 2010 search.
Under questioning from Michigan defense attorney Demosthenes Landaros, Parker testified he was only asked to test for bleach. However, a DNA expert is expected to testify later in the trial concerning the results of testing on the areas of carpet Buttram identified as containing biological evidence via the use of an alternative light source.
This morning, the jury is expected to hear additional testimony from witnesses from the state. Pesek told the nine women and three men, as well as two alternate jurors, he intends to release them at noon today. The girl’s mother is expected to take the stand Monday, as Pesek and the lawyers discussed outside the jury’s presence.
On the first day of Stover’s trial, Shook argued the alleged victim was coached by a greedy mother hoping for a civil money judgment. Guerrero argued Stover is using his sizable financial resources to put on a defense that will confuse the jury and lead to the acquittal of a guilty man.
The trial is expected to last all of next week and possibly longer.
Stover is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and a single count of indecency with a child. The indecency charge is punishable by two to 20 years in prison. The assault charges are each punishable by five to 99 years or life in a Texas prison.