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 Matthew West/The Commercial Dispatch/For the SDN Kristi Leigh Fulgham, right, enters the large courtroom of the Oktibbeha Courthouse Annex on the first day of testimony in her trial on a capital murder charge in the May 10, 2003, shooting death of her estranged husband, Joseph T. ?Joey? Fulgham, at their home in the Longview community. By BEN BOUNDS
Starkville Daily News
The prosecution in Kristi Fulgham’s capital murder trial painted a picture of a premeditated murder with the nine witnesses that testified Wednesday.
Among the key witnesses were victim Joey Fulgham’s younger brother, Shannon, and Kristi Fulgham’s former boyfriend, father and father-in-law.
Opening statements began at 10:20 a.m. Wednesday in the Oktibbeha County Courthouse Annex.
“It’s all about the money — that’s what the evidence in this case is going to show,” Assistant District Attorney Frank Clark said to the jury in his opening statements. “To this defendant, it’s all about the money. On May 9, 2003, Joey Fulgham went to bed in his own house. He was shot in the back of the head from close range while he slept. The person who planned that murder was the defendant. She robbed him of a little more than $1,000 in cash and then shot him in the head.”
Clark motioned to Kristi Fulgham and said that what she really loved about her estranged husband was the standard of living he could offer her. He said she had moved back in with him a few months before the murder under the cover of “trying to work things out” in their relationship, but that was really a coverup to get her hands on his money.
“In order to live off of Joey (Fulgham), she had to live with Joey,” Clark said. “But then she found another way. She involved her 13-year-old younger brother, who thought she walked on water.”
Defense attorney James Lappan then addressed the jurors.
“We are gathered here today, all of us, in search of the truth,” Lappan said.
“There are essentially two questions in this case. The first, on May 10, 2003, was Joey Fulgham murdered? The second, Is Kristi Fulgham guilty of that murder?”
Lappan told the jury that the indictment is that Kristi killed her husband during the commission of a robbery.
“Will the evidence show Kristi killed her husband during a robbery? I believe the evidence will show she did not,” Lappan said.
The victim’s brother
The first witness called by the prosecution was Joey Fulgham’s younger brother Shannon Fulgham, who discovered the body on May 11, 2003.
Shannon Fulgham testified that Kristi and Joey Fulgham had split up a year to a year and a half before the murder, and that she had custody of their two kids, as well as a third child that was not Joey Fulgham’s. He testified that he was under the impression that they were going through a divorce.
Shannon Fulgham was working at Templeton’s Motors’ body shop with Joey during the time of the murder. He testified that on May 9, 2003, the Friday before Mother’s Day, he and Joey went to lunch together after receiving their pay checks.
“Joey’s check was for about $1,020, and he cashed all of it,” Shannon Fulgham said. “He got all $100 bills and one $20 bill. I saw Joey put over $1,000 in his wallet.”
Shannon Fulgham said he last saw his brother late that afternoon, and that Joey failed to meet him at an air show the following morning and then failed to show up for a Mother’s Day lunch at their grandmother’s home.
Joey Fulgham didn’t answer his family’s phone calls that Saturday or Sunday, and that’s when Shannon Fulgham said he became concerned. He went to Joey’s house at dusk on Sunday, May 11, and got no answer at the front door. The back door, which several witnesses testified was never locked, was locked on that afternoon.
Shannon Fulgham said he thought he saw his brother through his bedroom window, but couldn’t get his attention. That’s when he said he ripped the screen off the living room window and climbed in.
“I went straight to the bedroom and found Joey laying face-down,” Shannon Fulgham said, fighting back tears. “I reached to touch him, and he was hard as a brick, hard as this table. He was cold as ice. I kneeled down beside his bed and cried.”
Shannon Fulgham reiterated the fact that Joey Fulgham always left his back door unlocked.
Clark showed Shannon Fulgham pictures of the crime scene taken shortly after he discovered his brother’s body.
Those pictures showed Joey Fulgham face down in his bed with a blanket pulled up to the hairline on the back of his neck. Very little, if any blood was visible in the photographs. Shannon Fulgham said those pictures showed Joey exactly the way he had found him.
During cross examination, Lappan asked Shannon Fulgham if he had ever witnessed any physical altercations between Joey and Kristi Fulgham. He answered that he had never witnessed any kind of physical confrontation.
Shannon Fulgham did testify that Joey knew that Shannon was seeing Kyle Harvey while they were separated, and that Kristi’s daughter, Hailey, was actually Ray Woods’ child.
During redirection by the prosecution, He also testified that he never saw Joey’s wallet in the house on the day he found the body. The wallet was never discovered during the investigation.
The bank executive
The second witness called by the prosecution was Cathy Talbot, vice president and custodian of records of BancorpSouth in Starkville.
Talbot testified that Joey Fulgham cashed a check from Templeton Motors in the amount of $1,021.23 at 1:13 p.m. on May 9, 2003. The check was cashed for the full amount — no deposit was made. In fact, no deposits were made to Joey’s account after his May 2, 2003 bank statement.
The victim’s best friend
Scotty Carrithers, training officer for the National Guard in Columbus, was the third witness called by the prosecution Wednesday. Carrithers testified that he and Joey had become best friends after serving in the Guard together for 11 years. The two roomed together at Joey Fulgham’s home at 2163 Buckner Street in Longview for a few months from the end of 2002 to the beginning of 2003.
“Joey (Fulgham) and I were together all the time, we did everything together,” Carrithers said. “For a few years there, wherever you saw one of us, the other usually wasn’t too far behind.”
Carrithers said he only moved out because Kristi Fulgham was moving back in with Joey. He described the layout of the house and gave details about the security lights on the front porch of the house. He also reiterated the fact that the back door to Joey Fulgham’s home was never locked. Carrithers said Joey had led him to believe that he and Kristi were trying to work things out in their marriage.
Before he was assigned to work in Columbus, Carrithers served as an administrative clerk for the National Guard in Amory, where he handled payroll and life insurance policies. He testified he had access to Joey Fulgham’s life insurance policy and records and that Joey actually had two policies totaling over $305,000 in coverage.
Carrithers said there were two beneficiaries listed. Kristi was the beneficiary of the smaller policy, worth $55,000, and that Joey’s mother, Ann Cash, was the beneficiary of the larger policy, worth $255,000. He said it had not always been that way, but that Joey had come to him and changed the policy in 1999.
“Joey never told Kristi that he’d changed the policy. He kept his financial affairs to himself,” Carrithers said. “I got a call from Kristi one month prior to the murder, and she asked about the insurance policy. I told her I couldn’t discuss it without Joey present. She asked me about the amount, and when I didn’t tell her, she seemed to get upset.”
Carrithers said he told Kristi Fulgham to have Joey call him if there were any questions. He said he saw Joey every couple of days after that, and that he never mentioned it or called him about it. He said he thought the whole situation seemed unusual.
During cross examination by Lappan, Carrithers said Kristi phoned him at the National Guard a second time to ask about the death benefits of Joey’s insurance policy.
“She did not learn about the death benefits from me,” Carrithers said. “I did not tell her who the beneficiary was or the amount of the policy either. She was never told she was no longer the beneficiary of the entire policy.”
The suspect’s former friend
The fourth witness called by the prosecution was Vanessa Sistrunk Davis, the granddaughter of Joey Fulgham’s next door neighbor.
Davis said she used to be friends with Kristi Fulgham. She said the two of them had children the same age and had taken turns caring for each other’s children when Kristi was staying with Joey. She said their friendship lasted roughly three months in 2003, and that they saw each other three or four times a week.
Davis testified that she had a conversation with Kristi Fulgham about a month before the murder concerning a stray dog, and that Kristi had asked if Davis’ grandmother had a gun she could borrow. She said she asked her on three different occasions about a gun.
“The first time she said she wanted to shoot that S.O.B,” Davis said. “Then she asked a second time when we were tanning and again later. I never did see any stray dog.”
Davis also testified that Kristi’s relationship with her half-brother, Tyler Edmonds, was not brotherly and at times seemed inappropriate.
“It was more boyfriend-girlfriend-wise, almost romantic,” Davis said. “She would ask him to rub tanning oil on her and other favors, and it was not brotherly.”
Davis testified that Kristi Fulgham said her relationship with Joey wasn’t going to work out, and that she was sleeping on the couch. She said Joey Fulgham was a loving man and a perfect father. She also said Kristi Fulgham was greedy with her money and that everything was material to her.
The suspect’s father
The fifth witness called by the prosecution was Kristi Fulgham and Tyler Edmonds’ father, Danny Edmonds.
Danny Edmonds testified that Kristi had lived not lived with him full-time for very long. He had divorced her mother in 1978. He said Kristi came to live with him briefly when she was about 14 years old.
Danny Edmonds admitted that Kristi had made allegations that he had molested her while she lived with him. He said the two were later able to put the allegations behind them, somewhat, and remain in contact with one another.
“Kristi was living with Kyle Harvey in Jackson, but moved back in with Joey because he had the money to take care of her,” Danny Edmonds said. “That’s how she is. I only heard from her when she wanted something — like money.”
Danny Edmonds testified that he received a phone call from his daughter a week or two before the murder, and that she asked him if she could “trust him with her life.” When he asked her what she meant, she asked if she could visit him.
During their visit, Danny Edmonds said Kristi asked him if he had a pistol.
“I asked her what she needed a pistol for, and she said ‘I want Joey dead, he’s mean to me and my kids.’ She said he (Joey Fulgham) had a life insurance policy, and that she and the kids would get over $300,000 if he died. Then she said if I helped her and didn’t say anything about all of this, that I would be looking good in a new Cadillac.”
Danny Edmonds testified that he didn’t call the police because he didn’t take his daughter seriously.
Phone records admitted into evidence by the prosecution showed that the calls Kristi Fulgham made to her father the week before her estranged husband’s death were made from a cellular phone registered to Harvey.
Danny Edmonds confirmed the number registered to Harvey was the one Kristi used to contact him. He also told the prosecution that the weekend Joey Fulgham was killed, his son, Tyler Edmonds, was supposed to be staying at his home in Columbus, and that Kristi was supposed to bring him there, but they never showed. He said he made repeated calls to the cell phone previously mentioned, but could not get through to either of them.
The victim’s stepfather
The sixth witness called to testify was Joey Fulgham’s stepfather, David Noel.
Noel testified that he and Joey’s mother were keeping Kristi Fulgham’s children the night of Friday, May 9, 2003. He said he got a phone call from Kristi at around 4:30 a.m. the morning of May 10, asking him to have her children awake and ready for her to pick them up just before daybreak around 5 a.m.
“She said they were going on a trip,” Noel said. “I never saw Joey that morning, and I had not spoken with him Friday night. He wasn’t there when we went to pick the kids up from their house. I didn’t hear from him at all on Saturday or Sunday.”
Noel said he got the call from Larry Morgan, Kristi’s stepfather, late Sunday afternoon saying that Joey had been killed.
He said when he arrived at the house he noticed that the security lights, which he had helped Joey install, were not operating, and that was unusual.
The suspect’s boyfriend
The next witness called was Kyle Harvey, Kristi Fulgham’s boyfriend at the time of the murder.
Harvey testified that he and Kristi had dated for about a year, and that she had lived with him before moving back in with Joey Fulgham. He said she moved out to “give him financial freedom.” Harvey claimed he paid all the rent and bills and bought all the groceries while he and Kristi were living together. After she had moved back in with Joey, “we were strapped, just barely making it,” Harvey said. “We started having problems when money got low. She blamed me for the financial situation.”
Harvey said she started looking at houses for sale. She told him she was going to come into some inheritance money very soon — about $300,000.
Harvey also testified that the week of the murder, he and Kristi made plans to go to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a brief vacation. When he told her he couldn’t pay for it, he said she told him not to worry. He said she drove back to Starkville to pick up her younger brother Tyler and her children, and said they would be back Friday afternoon. He said he got a call from her sometime that evening saying she was 20 minutes out of Jackson, but that she never showed.
Computer records show he received e-mail messages from her and Tyler after that saying they were held up and wouldn’t be back until that morning.
Harvey testified that Kristi had several $100 bills when she arrived in Jackson with her half-brother and her kids, and that she paid for the entire trip with that cash.
The trip included a stop at a souvenir store where she bought everyone a T-shirt (including one for Joey from the kids), a hotel room at the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino for $285, lunch at Shoney’s, pizza for dinner in the hotel room, breakfast at the casino buffet, jet ski rentals at the beach, and lunch at McDonalds.
He said when he asked her where the money came from she said not to worry about it and that she didn’t want to talk about it. He said he found out at around 5 p.m. Sunday, May 11, that Joey Fulgham had been killed.
Also called to testify Wednesday were Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator Robert Elmore, who showed the jury a video of the crime scene, and Cheryl Bullock, CEO of Jackson Association of Realtors.
The trial resumes at 8:30 a.m. today at the Courthouse Annex. |
