Cop Roy Kipp convicted, will face death penalty...
D E M I G O D
Roy Kipp convicted, will face death penalty,
showed little reaction as his verdict was read Thursday.
www.courttv.com/trials/kipp/verdict-convict_ctv.html
By Harriet Ryan
A jury convicted former Florida sheriff's officer Roy Kipp Thursday of
murdering his wife and her lover.
The panel of six men and six women deliberated less than three hours before
finding Kipp guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of
burglary. The jury will reconvene March 14 to decide whether to sentence
Kipp, 44, to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As the court clerk read the verdict, Kipp sat at the defense table with his
hands in his lap. He showed no emotion. Afterwards, the victims' families
stood in the Punta Gorda courthouse lobby hugging and crying.
Sandy Kipp, 35, and her boyfriend, sheriff's deputy Jeff Klein, also 35,
were slain in her new apartment. Roy Kipp testified he was shocked when he
discovered the lovers in a compromising position and fired at Klein after
the deputy pulled a gun. His wife, Kipp testified, was killed accidentally
when she ran in front of him.
No gun was recovered from Klein's body, but the defense suggested officers
removed Klein's weapon to make Kipp look more culpable.
But with their verdict, jurors seemed to reject that conspiracy theory and
endorse prosecutor's claim that the murders were plotted and the motive was
jealousy. Prosecutor Marshall Bower told the panel in his closing argument
Thursday morning that Kipp was "a controlling, obsessive husband" who turned
violent when he realized his wife was leaving him for another man.
"He couldn't stand it," Bower said.
The prosecution drew heavily on the testimony of Kipp's friend and
co-worker, Peter Lewkowicz, who said Kipp confessed to him hours after the
shooting.
"He said, 'I waxed 'em,'" Lewkowicz testified. He said Kipp had suspected
his wife of cheating with Klein, his friend and former co-worker, for months
and pledged to "(screw) him up" if he ever got confirmation of the affair.
The week before the shootings, Lewkowicz said, Sandy Kipp told her husband
she was moving out.
In Lewkowicz's account, Kipp tracked his wife to her new apartment, peered
through a window and saw the pair together. Lewkowicz said he "lost it" and
shot Klein repeatedly before turning the gun on his wife who was screaming
and threatening to call police. A portable phone in dial mode was recovered
just inches from Sandy Kipp's body.
The defense called a string of neighbors and acquaintances who said the
Kipps doted on each other and their 8-year-old daughter, Danielle. But Kipp
served as his most important witness. On direct examination, he portrayed
himself as a loving husband who had no idea his wife was being unfaithful
until he stumbled upon her with a lover. He said he fired his gun only after
Klein pointed a weapon at him.
"As soon as I saw the gun, I reacted immediately ... and I shot him." Klein
never fired, he said.
On cross-examination, however, he appeared to stumble. He said he could not
remember talking to Lewkowicz after the shootings, nor other incriminating
conversations with his brother, his sister-in law, nor his wife's best
friend.
"Let me get this straight, you can remember the traumatic events of what
happened in that apartment, but you can't remember a conversation several
hours hours later," Bowers said.
"That's correct," Kipp answered.
Bower ridiculed that account as "preposterous."
"Sandy and Jeff are both gone because of that selfish man," Bower said.
The case is being tried in Charlotte County because of extensive media
coverage in Collier County.
--
This was your desire. And here I am now, always to be with you
as a worst nightmare. Because I will hold YOU to the contract of
your choice, which you coerced me to sign, but unwilling to keep.
DEMIGOD
