CO: Wife's pickax death called accident
Teresa
'She must have been killed as he twisted off her,' lawyer says
By Joe Garner, News Staff Writer
EAGLE -- Sharon Garrison died as her husband defended himself against attack
with a pickax, the attorney representing Charles "Chuck" Garrison told
jurors during the opening of his murder trial Wednesday.
Defense attorney Mark Johnson said the couple fought furiously in their
Breckenridge-area, log chalet on the night of Sept. 26, 2000.
Sharon Garrison finally grabbed an antique miner's pickax off the wall and
threatened her husband, Johnson said. Chuck Garrison fended her off, but
they fell to the floor struggling over the 24-inch ax and he ended up in a
corner, dazed.
"When he saw her again, it was clear his wife was dead," Johnson said. "She
must have been killed as he twisted off her and the pickax penetrated her
head."
Johnson said the argument erupted after Sharon Garrison, who "had stopped
sleeping with her husband months ago," agreed to have sex with him if he
would pay for repairs on one of her rental condos. Afterward, she returned
to the first floor and he "followed her downstairs, pleading for her to
spend the night with him."
The 49-year-old woman's nude body was found almost three weeks later. She
was stabbed, strangled, trussed, wrapped in a carpet and tarpaulins and then
buried on the grounds of their luxury home still clutching strands of her
husband's long, gray hair.
The coroner testified in earlier proceedings that she died fending off blows
from a blunt object, one of which punctured her skull.
Johnson said the blunt object was a rubber mallet she wielded before its
handle broke and she went for the pickax.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said Garrison initially told
police he didn't know where his wife was, but suggested she was visiting a
friend at a mountain cabin that had no telephone.
Almost a week after his wife vanished, Garrison allowed investigators to
look around their home and relied on notes while talking to them, Hurlbert
said.
Chuck Garrison, now 58, was arrested riding his motorcycle near Evergreen
the day his wife's body was unearthed.
Because the couple, each of whom had been married and divorced three times
previously, had a long record of domestic violence reported to the Summit
County Sheriff's Department, Chuck Garrison was the logical suspect in a
crime that has become a poster case for domestic violence among ski-town
rich.
"The real question is: What is the truth of their relationship," Johnson
told the jurors, who were selected about noon Wednesday after two and half
days of screening. "He is guilty of being a weak man. He is clearly guilty
of being a liar. What you have to decide is if he is guilty of murder."
Johnson said his client chose "to bury his wife and begin the facade"
because no one would believe he died protecting himself. "It's no secret
here that Mr. Garrison buried his wife to avoid the authorities."
Garrison, who wore a black suit with a Regis Philbin-style gray shirt and
muted gray tie and an American flag lapel pin, is charged with first-degree
murder.
He sat in rapt attention, his jaw set, as Johnson described his late wife as
a "gold digger" who left two teen-age children with their father to take
Garrison for her fourth husband.
"They were both veterans of the marriage wars," Johnson said, describing how
Sharon Garrison "siphoned off significant money" for her children and other
family members."
Hurlbert played an audio tape of the couple arguing while their pet macaw
screeched over their rising voices.
Prosecution witness Theresa Rust, who called herself Sharon Garrison's
friend, said Garrison left the tape of the expletive-filled argument over
bills, divorce threats and death threats at Rust's home on their last visit
before Garrison vanished.
But Johnson contended in cross-examination that Rust, who was trained as a
lawyer, was plotting with Garrison to goad her husband and strip him of his
wealth before filing for a divorce that she would not drop.
Rust said Johnson's line of questioning was "absolutely false."
Contact Joe Garner at (303) 892-5421 or gar...@RockyMountainNews.com.
March 14, 2002
Teresa
Driver of front-end loader testifies in murder trial
Husband was 'nervous' while watching operator of machine spread load of dirt
in hurry-up job
By Joe Garner, News Staff Writer
EAGLE -- Bob Agosti testified Thursday that he slowly realized he might have
buried Sharon Garrison by spreading dirt with a front-end loader on a
hurry-up order from her husband.
"I honestly didn't want to believe I'd had any part in this. It still tears
me up," Agosti told jurors in Eagle County District Court on the second day
of testimony in Chuck Garrison's trial for the first-degree murder of his
wife.
Garrison is accused of killing his wife in their Breckenridge-area luxury
home Sept. 26, 2000, and burying her cinched, nude body in fill dirt on
their 35-acre homesite.
Two days later, Agosti said, Garrison appeared uncharacteristically nervous
and uneasy as he approached Agosti at a job site. Garrison offered to pay
$100 if Agosti would come the next day to spread fill dirt he had been
delivering to Garrison's acreage during the previous few weeks, Agosti said.
But Agosti said he could not do the job until Oct. 2, when Garrison met him
on his 900-foot gravel driveway and supervised how he wanted the earth
spread.
"It was kind of a strange request, how he wanted the dirt spread," Agosti
said, describing how Garrison paced back and forth by some evergreens as
Agosti worked.
Garrison, 58, was arrested Oct. 18, after investigators sifting through more
than 10 feet of fresh fill found the bloodied body of Sharon Garrison, 49 --
70 yards from the log chalet where they had lived out their troubled
marriage.
The couple, each of whom had been married and divorced three times
previously, had a long record of domestic violence with the Summit County
Sheriff's Department.
In a videotaped interview with investigators four days after one of Sharon
Garrison's daughters alerted authorities her mother was missing, Chuck
Garrison hung out his wife's dirty laundry in a rambling monologue. Although
he was a suspect in her disappearance, he talked with investigators for
almost four hours without an attorney.
He said his wife had attempted suicide years earlier. He said she couldn't
hold her liquor, couldn't manage her money and didn't have his sense of
humor.
"I can't say we had a normal marriage because normal people don't file for
divorce three or four times in a 10-year marriage," he said. Garrison also
said on the videotape he wanted his wife "to sit home, barefoot, pregnant
and cookin'."
Defense attorney Mark Johnson described Sharon Johnson as a "gold digger"
who was siphoning off her husband's money to her family before divorcing
him.
March 15, 2002
Teresa
By Steve Lipsher
Denver Post Mountain Bureau
Friday, March 15, 2002 - EAGLE - Chuck Garrison lied about his wife's
disappearance and was "real nervous" when hiring a heavy-equipment operator
to bury her body, according to testimony in his murder trial on Thursday.
Even though his attorney now concedes that Garrison killed his wife, Sharon,
during a fight in September 2000, several days afterward the 58-year-old
went through a four-hour interview with authorities acting as if he didn't
know what happened to her.
"That's the $64 million question," he told investigators at the Summit
County Sheriff's Department. "It's certainly out of character to disappear
for this long. She has not done this before."
In a sensational case that drew such widespread attention that the trial had
to be moved out of Summit County, authorities say Garrison killed his wife
of 10 years with an antique pickax, tightly wrapped her body in a carpet and
tarpaulin, and then buried her in front of their upscale Breckenridge home.
"Is she dead or alive? Needless to say, I've asked that myself. I don't
know," he told Dick Cleveland, an investigator with the district attorney's
office, a week after she was believed to have been killed. "It looks worse
every day."
In the videotaped interview, Garrison, wearing a black cowboy hat, comes
across as folksy, cocky and smug as he answers questions but has trouble
accounting for the days surrounding Sharon Garrison's disappearance. And
while acknowledging that they had a troubled marriage -Sharon had filed for
divorce several times and was attempting to do it again, and both had been
arrested for domestic disturbances - he said aspects of their relationship
remained solid.
"They're as good now as they've ever been in the good times. They're far
better than they were during the bad times," he said. "I can't put my finger
on it what the last row was about. I really can't."
Despite his claims in the Oct. 6, 2000, interview, authorities believe that
he had killed Sharon a week earlier, and they found her body buried beneath
tons of fill dirt on Oct. 17.
Defense attorney Mark Johnson, however, contends that Garrison killed his
wife accidentally and in self-defense, then lied and literally covered up
the evidence out of fear.
District Attorney Mike Goodbee and Assistant DA Mark Hurlberg are expected
to present forensic evidence from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and a
coroner's autopsy today, and they are likely to wind up their case early
Monday.
In the second day of prosecution witnesses, friends of Garrison reported
that he acted strangely after his wife disappeared. Garrison told friend
Alan Moffitt on Oct. 3 that his wife was missing, but his demeanor remained
"regular Chuck."
"He said he felt like Sharon had come to bodily harm. As a friend, I tried
to comfort him," Moffitt said, suggesting to Garrison that perhaps she had
just left the notoriously stormy relationship. "He said 50 percent of the
time when a woman is missing, her husband is arrested. That came out of the
clear blue sky," Moffitt said. "He specifically asked me, "If they don't
find a body, would there still be a crime?' "
At that point, Moffitt asked if Garrison had done anything to his wife.
"He said, "No.' "
In late September, Garrison contacted his friend Bob Agosti, a
heavy-equipment operator, with an urgent request.
"He asked me if I could go up the next day and move dirt right away," Agosti
recalled. "At the time he came in, he was fairly excited, which is a little
different for Chuck because he's usually laid back. He even offered to pay
me $100 to do it."
A few days later, Agosti did show up with a front-end loader to move the
dirt around the Garrison property.
JonesieCat
"Teresa" <ctf...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:Avyk8.44368$af7.36969@rwcrnsc53...
Not sure I'm getting this. Garrison must have buried his wife. Right? And in
order for that grave not to appear conspicuous, he wanted the guy to spread
the pile of dirt around and even it all out, right? So it would all look
uniform and give no indication anything had been buried there. Right? What I
can't get is why the guy who used the back hoe didn't see where the grave
was himself.
JC
Teresa
Suspect Says He Accidentally Killed His Wife With Ice Pick
Posted: 1:57 p.m. MST March 18, 2002
Updated: 7:06 p.m. MST March 18, 2002
EAGLE, Colo. -- The man on trial for allegedly killing his wife and then
burying her underneath tons of dirt near their Breckenridge home testified
in his defense Monday afternoon.
Hear What Chuck Garrison Had To Say About Wife's Death
***Video here:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/den/news/stories/news-130943520020318-140333
.html?tml=den_8pm&ts=T&tmi=den_8pm_1_09000103182002
Chuck Garrison told jurors that his wife's death during an argument was an
accident, and that he never meant to hurt anybody.
He broke down several time as he testified most of the afternoon in Eagle.
He described a horrific fight, which he claimed his wife, Sharon, had
started.
"She told me that she had taken the cash, and that she was leaving,"
Garrison said.
He and his wife fought about money from the beginning, he said. Each had the
other arrested for domestic violence, and filed for divorce several times
during their 10-year marriage, 7NEWS reported.
Audio tapes that Sharon Garrison secretly made after the couple's arguments
were played in court. Prosecutors said the tapes prove he threatened to kill
his wife, but Chuck Garrison said it was just an example of another ugly
argument.
"She used the 'kill' word, I used the 'divorce' word. I refused to use the
'kill' word. We would bite each other in the ass," Garrison said.
Under questioning by defense lawyer Mark Johnson, Garrison said the fight
became physical when his wife struck him in the chest and pulled a rubber
mallet from the bathroom and started hitting him with it.
Garrison said eventually his wife found an antique miner's pick in a display
on the wall and swung it at him.
He said he grabbed the pick and the two fell to the floor, and when he got
up she had been hurt.
"There were no signs of life. I tried to blow some air into Shannon, did all
the Boy Scout-right things, and there was just no response," Garrison said.
He told the jury that he did everything wrong after that. He said he buried
her body and lied to the police because he was scared.
"I moved the body, cleaned up the mess. I did all the wrong things. I'd
never been so scared in my life," he said.
Garrison's testimony continues Tuesday when prosecutors get their
opportunity to cross-examine him.
Sharon Garrison was reported missing by her siblings in September 2000.
Her body was found in a newly landscaped area on the grounds of the couple's
Breckenridge-area home about three weeks later.
Earlier in the day, a former Summit County sheriff's deputy told jurors
about a call he received from Sharon Garrison about two years before her
death.
Sharon Garrison told Pete Szuch she wanted someone to know that Chuck
Garrison would kill her someday.
Teresa
Murder case likely to go to jury today
By Steve Lipsher
Denver Post Mountain Bureau
Wednesday, March 20, 2002 - EAGLE - Chuck Garrison on Tuesday quietly
admitted to a long string of lies after killing his wife, Sharon, but
maintained it was an uncharacteristic act committed in self-defense.
"It's certainly time for the lying to stop, sir," the Breckenridge
burglar-alarm vendor told District Attorney Mike Goodbee under withering
cross-examination.
Closing arguments in the sensational case are planned for this morning, and
the jury is expected to begin deliberations by midday to determine
Garrison's culpability in killing his wife, tightly binding her body and
burying it in the front yard of their upscale log home.
Attorneys for both sides spent the early evening embroiled in discussions
with District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle over the range of crimes the jury
will be allowed consider in the case.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there is a request for first-degree (murder),
second-degree, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide," said
Goodbee, who maintains Garrison is guilty only of first-degree murder -
committing the crime "after reflection and judgment."
Garrison, who Monday sobbed frequently while describing the fatal Sept. 26,
2000, confrontation with his wife of 10 years, maintained his composure as
Goodbee pointed out lie after lie in a videotaped interview with authorities
as well as his statements to friends and relatives.
"When you said, "Things are as good now as they've ever been,' where was
Sharon?" Goodbee asked.
"Sharon was buried" was the reply.
"So was that a true statement?" Goodbee responded.
"Things couldn't have been worse, sir."
Garrison testified that his efforts to have her body buried and hide her
vehicle were out of fear, not contemplation.
Defense attorney Mark Johnson introduced a string of witnesses to attest to
Garrison's normally complacent nature and his wife's avarice, which he
contends is the reason behind the fight that Sharon Garrison initiated.
One of Garrison's three former wives, Rosslyn Swift; one of his former
girlfriends, Linda Grover; and his grown son, Troy, testified that he had
never shown anger or acted violently toward them.
"Chuck was not a violent person. I've never seen him in an altercation,
never seen any evidence of physical abuse in the marriage," said his
lifelong friend, Bob Buford.
Other defense witnesses, including one of Sharon Garrison's three former
husbands, Steven Krom, said that she seemed to be driven by care for her
daughters to marry Garrison.
Noting that Sharon Garrison complained she didn't have money to send her
girls to college yet spent money on a large collection of Hummel figurines,
recreational vehicles and antiques, family friend Peggy DeMoss said: "I
thought, if my kids needed money, I wouldn't be buying these items."
Garrison contends that Sharon Garrison dropped her frequent threats to
divorce him only after he agreed to give her cash, pay off her debts or buy
her new vehicles, and that she attacked him that fateful night while they
argued over money.
Although he admitted telling his wife "Divorce, death - they're the same to
me" and "Maybe I'll have a trial, but there won't be a divorce," he said
that was normal banter for the couple.
"That was button-pushing," he said. "I loved Sharon. She was one of the best
things that ever happened to me." But prosecutors constantly redirected the
focus to the fact that Garrison killed his wife - a point he has conceded -
and said that Sharon Garrison's constant demands for money and her
propensity for unexpected emotional outbursts had no relevance.
"I am anxious to get this case to this jury, so they can tell us what they
think justice is," Goodbee said.
Teresa
> > heavy-equipment operator, with an urgent request.
> > "He asked me if I could go up the next day and move dirt right away,"
> > Agosti recalled. "At the time he came in, he was fairly excited, which
is a
> > little different for Chuck because he's usually laid back. He even
offered to pay
> > me $100 to do it."
> >
> > A few days later, Agosti did show up with a front-end loader to move the
> > dirt around the Garrison property.
>
> Not sure I'm getting this. Garrison must have buried his wife. Right? And
in
> order for that grave not to appear conspicuous, he wanted the guy to
spread
> the pile of dirt around and even it all out, right? So it would all look
> uniform and give no indication anything had been buried there. Right? What
I
> can't get is why the guy who used the back hoe didn't see where the grave
> was himself.
>
> JC
I understand your confusion, JC. Garrison must
have covered her body enough by himself so that
the heavy equipment operator wouldn't suspect
anything. I mean, if Garrison knew this guy, he
must have hoped that this guy would never suspect
him of murdering and then burying his own wife.
Once his wife turned up missing, I wonder if the
guy with the front-end loader mentioned this incident
to the cops? This mystery isn't getting nearly the
media coverage that it deserves, IMO....at least
not enough to suit me! I've been pretty busy lately,
but I'm trying to catch up with the trial and am posting
articles here as I find them.
Teresa
Teresa
His Ex-Wife Testifies That He Was Never Violent Man
Posted: 4:14 p.m. MST March 19, 2002
Updated: 4:30 p.m. MST March 19, 2002
EAGLE, Colo. -- Chuck Garrison, who says his wife accidentally died during a
violent argument, testified Tuesday that he buried her under tons of dirt
because he was afraid of going to jail.
Sharon Garrison's body was found buried in the yard of the couple's
Breckenridge-area home three weeks after being reported missing in October
2000.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Michael Goodbee showed jurors parts of
a four-hour police interview in which Garrison repeatedly denied knowing his
wife's whereabouts.
Goodbee tried to hammer home how calm and unemotional Garrison was during
the questioning, following his wife's murder. Goodbee said the tape exposed
three-dozen lies Garrison told after his wife's disappearance, including
whether he wanted authorities to find her.
"If I didn't want her body to be found, you'd still be looking, sir,"
Garrison said.
Garrison's lawyers called several witnesses Tuesday, including an ex-wife
who testified Garrison was never a violent man during their marriage.
The defense also called one of Sharon Garrison's ex-husbands, whose
testimony corroborated the defense's assertion that she was always
interested in money.
Prosecutors allege that Sharon Garrison's death was also about money --
money Chuck Garrison didn't want to lose if she filed for divorce.
Prosecutors pointed out that after Garrison realized his wife was dead, he
was more afraid of going to jail than sorry or remorseful about the event.
Jurors were expected to the get the case by Wednesday.
Teresa
Garrison Convicted Of Second Degree Murder, Heat Of Passion
Posted: 12:45 p.m. MST March 20, 2002
Updated: 5:28 p.m. MST March 20, 2002
EAGLE, Colo. -- The jury deciding the fate of Chuck Garrison, the man
accused of killing his wife and burying her in the lawn of their
Breckenridge home, reached a verdict Wednesday after deliberating for five
hours.
The jury found Garrison guilty of murder in the second degree, heat of
passion.
That conviction carries a sentence of eight to 24 years in prison, , but he
could get up to 48 years if there are aggravating factors, 7NEWS reported.
Garrison faced a charge of first-degree murder which carried a sentence of
mandatory life in prison, 7NEWS reported.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys wrapped up their closing statements
Wednesday morning, and the six woman, six man jury in Eagle got the case
shortly after noon.
Prosecutors claim that Sharon Garrison's death was premeditated, but Chuck
Garrison, 58, testifed that his wife's death was an accident, and he buried
her body because he was scared and didn't think investigators would believe
him.
Garrison has conceded his 10-year marriage was tumultuous, with both filing
for divorce and seeking restraining orders.
Prosecution witnesses have said Sharon Garrison, 49, feared her husband
would harm her.
Prosecutors told the jury during closing arguments that a tape in which
Garrison threatens to kill his wife was recorded by Sharon Garrison and
delivered to a friend the day she died.
On it, Garrison told his wife, "Maybe I'll have a trial but there won't be a
divorce."
Defense attorney Mark Johnson told jurors that Garrison was not a violent
man and that Sharon died after she attacked him.
Johnson says Garrison made the threatening statement, but only after his
wife taunted him.
Several defense witnesses, including Garrison's former wife, Rossalynn
Swift, testified on Tuesday they had never seen him violent.
Sandy Buford, who described herself as a friend of both Garrisons, said
Sharon Garrison was always preoccupied with money and shoring up her own
finances, something the defense has argued.
Sharon Garrison's former husband, Steve Kron, said she kicked and flailed at
him during a violent outburst over a business venture. He also accused her
of punching and using a belt on two of her daughters.
Garrison has said the night his wife died in September 2000, she swung at
him with a mallet and an antique miner's pick. An autopsy showed the fatal
wound was a round hole in her temple that went through her skull and into
her brain.
Sharon Garrison, 49, was reported missing by her sisters on Oct. 2, 2000.
Her body was found Oct. 17 wrapped in a tarp and buried under nine feet of
dirt in the yard of the couple's home.