Husband testifies against wife in Yaak murder trial
Opening arguments began Monday in Montana 19th Judicial District Court in the trial of Sarah Louise Carpenter Skinner for the January 2017 homicide of Travis Gillett.
In connection with Gillett’s death, Ezra Skinner, Carpenter’s husband, pleaded guilty on March 12 to tampering with or fabricating evidence. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Skinner and Carpenter were first arraigned Sept. 18 on charges of deliberate homicide, a felony, or in the alternative deliberate homicide by accountability. They faced a maximum of life in prison.
Carpenter was arraigned again on March 26, with the additional charge of tampering with or fabricating evidence. She pleaded not guilty on both counts.
In the prosecution’s opening statement Monday, Deputy County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang told the jury that he anticipates the evidence will show Skinner was with Carpenter when she ordered Gillett down an embankment at the side of a road at gunpoint, and then shot him three times.
Zwang said Skinner is also expected to testify that he and Carpenter returned to the scene looking for Carpenter’s government assistance card, and that she walked down the embankment and shot Gillett once more in the back of the head.
Zwang told the jury that, “This case involves a very strange and very long sequence of events.”
Shortly before Gillett’s death, he said, Carpenter had removed a no-contact order related to past violence in her relationship with Gillett.
Leading up to Carpenter shooting Gillett, Zwang said that Skinner claims he and Carpenter took more than one drive with Gillett with plans to throw him off a bridge. The trip described on the final night leading up to Gillett’s death had the trio, along with a child belonging to Carpenter and Gillett, spending eight to 10 hours driving as far as the bridge at Libby dam and back through Libby and Troy to the Yaak.
On the defense side, Carpenter’s attorney, Greg Rapkotch from Kalispell, said in his opening statement that Carpenter will testify Skinner acted alone in Gillett’s death.
Rapkotch said Carpenter is expected to testify that Skinner was angry over a miscarriage of what he thought would be his child, and blamed Gillett for upsetting Carpenter. Yet, Rapkotch said, the child would have been Gillett’s.
Rapkotch said that Carpenter’s testimony will describe Skinner abducting Gillett, then later taking Carpenter to the Yaak — where the couple were recorded on video surveillance at the Dirty Shame Saloon — but did not take her to Gillett’s body.
Testimony was scheduled to begin again on August 9.
In a March 9 interview with County Sheriff’s Detective Duane Rhodes, Skinner told Rhodes that Carpenter had “expressed her intent and plan to kill” Gillett on Jan. 12, 2017, according to an affidavit from Rhodes.
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Ezra Skinner took the stand Aug. 9-10, in the ongoing trial of Sara Carpenter, who is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence in the January 2017 death of Travis Gillett.
Skinner was queried first by Deputy Lincoln County Prosecutor Jeffrey Zwang, who on Wednesday asked Skinner about the alleged events that ended in Gillett’s death in the Yaak on Jan. 14, 2017.
Skinner testified to a circuitous journey beginning in Ponderay, Idaho, where he alleged that he assisted Carpenter with binding an apparently drugged Gillett with duct tape, rope and a blanket, and loaded him into the back of Carpenter’s vehicle.
The route he described included reaching Highway 2 by way of Highway 56, then traveling to the Rexford Bridge north of Libby Dam with a stop for gas in Libby.
“I was given directions to follow certain roads that led me to a bridge above the Libby Dam, the reservoir,” he said.
When Zwang asked, “Are you very familiar with this area,” Skinner responded that he is not.
At that bridge, Skinner said that he and Carpenter exited the vehicle, unloaded Gillett and loosened his bonds. The plan was to throw Gillett from the bridge, but they did not throw Gillett over.
“We stopped what we were doing, and we loaded him back up,” Skinner said.
When Zwang asked if there was any discussion of what they were going to do, Skinner responded, “I was under the impression that we were going to throw him off into the water.”
Skinner followed by saying they talked about that briefly.
On a trip with multiple twists and turns, Skinner alleged that they then drove through Troy to reach the Yaak River Road, and traveled north through the town of Yaak to the 48-mile-marker on a road identified in records and testimony as “Solo Jack” Road.
Along the way, Skinner said that they stopped multiple times to look at possible places to throw Gillett off into the river, but it never progressed further. Along the way, Gillett was able to sit up and began to be able to speak.
Skinner said that Carpenter moved into the back seat next to her infant with Skinner’s gun and threatened Gillett with it while arguing with him.
By the time they reached the Yaak River Road, Skinner testified that he was beginning to think that the entire trip had just been a “big prank.”
At mile marker 48, Skinner said he left the vehicle to relieve himself. While he was doing so, he said Carpenter ordered Gillett at gunpoint down an embankment and shot him.
Skinner also testified that he and Carpenter returned to the scene after driving just south of the town of Yaak to search for a government benefits card with Carpenter’s name on it.
He said he dropped her off and drove up the road to turn around. When he returned, he alleges he stood on the running board of the vehicle, and from that vantage witnessed Carpenter shoot Gillett an additional time in the back of the head.
Skinner broke into tears throughout the day, alternating into blank stares into the distance when he was not answering questions. During a break, he was rubbing his temple and yawning as he stared at the ground.
When shown pictures of Gillett’s body as it was found on the edge of a woods, Skinner started crying and glanced toward Gillet’s family in the gallery.
Skinner testified that he and Carpenter conspired to delete text messages and records of phone calls, and that they conspired in the sale of his gun — the alleged murder weapon — to a relative of Carpenter’s while they were in Texas for a wedding.
Skinner and Carpenter were married June 20, 2017, and Carpenter gave birth after their August arrests to twins, a boy and a girl, Skinner testified. The children are now with a relative.
After a break for lunch, defense attorney Greg Rapkoch cross examined Skinner, driving toward questioning the reliability of Skinner’s testimony given changes he had made to his story since the first time he came forward to accuse Carpenter of killing Gillett on March 9, 2018.
In his first line of questioning, Rapkoch asked Skinner how many times he had met Gillett, to which Skinner answered three times.
Rapkoch brought up an interview with Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Duane Rhodes during which Skinner said that he had woken up to Gillett standing over Skinner and Carpenter sleeping “many times.”
Rapkoch also focused on when Skinner was aware of the nature of the plea deal he received, and presented a video in which Skinner’s attorney told him there was “light at the end of the tunnel” as he received Skinner’s permission to offer the County Attorney’s Office his testimony.
He noted that the 10 year sentence was a significant reduction from the life sentence Skinner had faced, that Skinner would be eligible for parole in less than two years if given credit for time served, and the significance of the possibility he may be allowed to see his children again outside of prison.
Skinner acknowledged those things were true.
Rapkoch repeatedly returned to the change in statements that Skinner made between March 9 and March 19.
In his first statement, Skinner described the alleged journey as a “booze cruise” and did not say Gillett was bound. He came back two weeks later to change those elements and surrounding details.
Throughout the Skinner’s testimony, Rapkoch only referred to Skinner’s March 9 statement as a “lie,” making the statement the center of his only question on redirect, alleging that “You authorized your attorney to speak with the County Attorney’s Office with a lie.”
Skinner responded, “Yes I did.”
On redirect, Zwang then asked Skinner, “Was the whole story that you told your lawyer, and then you told Detective Rhodes in that first interview a lie?” To which Skinner responded, “No, not all of it. But parts, yes.”
In his cross examination, Rapkoch characterized Skinner as possibly breaking his agreement by accepting his plea in the court after giving his first statement, but before altering his statement to include binding Gillett.
In the redirect, Zwang asked Skinner if in the course of entering his guilty plea to tampering with evidence he had told any lies. After almost seven hours of giving testimony, Skinner indicated he was unsure and expressed confusion.
However, when Zwang asked if Skinner had answered his lawyer’s questions truthfully during the change of plea, Skinner ultimately said he had.
Rapkoch also questioned whether Skinner had changed his story because he saw a toxicology report that showed there was no alcohol in Gillett’s system. On redirect by Zwang, Skinner said the first time he had seen the report was when Rapkoch placed it in his hands in court.
Most of the afternoon was spent by Rapkoch on breaking down, step-by-step, the alleged journey from over 18 months before that ended in Gillett’s death.
He told Skinner to estimate his travel time and time spent stopped at each portion of the nearly 12 hour drive, as well as the drive Skinner alleges took place earlier in the evening during which Gillett was not bound and Skinner was following in a separate car.
When Skinner responded that he did not know how long something took, Rapkoch would ask him to give him a number to “write on the board,” and if he failed to give one, would offer him estimates until Skinner responded in an affirmative manner.
During redirect, Zwang established through questions to Skinner that Skinner had been awake since 4:30 a.m. January 13, and did not sleep until after 1:30 p.m. January 14, in addition to drinking and using marijuana and pills he said he received from Carpenter.
Using the combined numbers, Rapkoch questioned how the total time of 12 hours lined up with a text message and security footage from the Dirty Shame in the Yaak, allowing for only about 11.5 hours. Skinner responded that it was just an estimate.
Rapkoch also focused on differences in how Skinner described the level to which Gillett was vocal during the journey between his statements and his testimony, questioning at one point whether it was possible to mumble through duct tape.
Rapkoch questioned elements of Skinner’s testimony and statements as they related to text messages that were recovered from his phone by law enforcement after they had been deleted.
During redirect, Zwang asked Skinner whether he knew if there were any text messages that law enforcement had failed to recover.
“If I was to look through it and try to remember, I don’t know,” Skinner said.
The prosecution still had witnesses to call at the end of Thursday, and is expected to call additional witnesses Friday. Rapkoch indicated in his opening statement that he intends to call Carpenter to testify.
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The trial in Montana 19th Judicial District Court of Sara Carpenter, who is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence in the January 2017 death of Travis Gillett, was continued from Friday to August 14.
At the end of Friday, the prosecution had called all of its witnesses, and defense attorney Greg Rapkotch had called Carpenter as the defense’s first witness.
Rapkotch reached the end of his direct examination of Carpenter on Friday, but the prosecution was unable to begin the cross examination in the time that remained. Carpenter testified under questioning by her defense lawyer to a story in which Ezra Skinner took action alone in the death of Gillett.
Lincoln County Attorney Marcia Boris was scheduled to begin with the cross examination of Carpenter August 14, at 9 a.m.
It is unknown whether the defense will call any additional witnesses.