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with Spellman, adding that he had not ever had any problems with Saltonstall’s farm manager. “I never had a conversation with Ranee Spellman.”
Under cross examination, the sheriff verified he’d told Kidwell that he wouldn’t get involved in a right-of-way dispute and that he’d advised her if she wanted the department’s presence at the scene, she would have to get a “no trespass” notice and then a warrant if Spellman came on her property.
“In your capacity as sheriff, do you have any jurisdiction over a right-ofway dispute?” Merril asked.
“No,” the sheriff replied.
Both sides offered conflicting testimony on Spellman's reputation: the defense that he had a reputation for violence and pugnacity and the prosecution that he had a reputation as a peaceful and law abiding citizen.
Only Trespass Conviction
Called by the prosecution, Trooper R. A. Baines testified that he’d run a criminal record check on Spellman and found only a 1974 conviction in Culpeper for trespass on which he was found guilty and fined $28.
The final prosecution witness, Commonwealth’s Attorney Douglas Baumgardner who began the investigation of Spellman’s killing, testifed that he was present during Kidwell’s statement to the police. Baumgardner said the defendant’s husband told police that both of Spellman’s hands were in front of his chest, slightly to the left side, six inches away from his body and outside his clothes just after the shot was fired.
In his final argument, Merril told the jury there was only one question: “Was this killing necessary? Was it justified under the law?”
In this society, “a human life is the most important commodity we have,” the prosecutor said. “We can never, ever kill to protect personal property, only to save a life...It must be an act of necessity.”
Killed From Anger
He told the jury that the dispute between Saltsonstall and the Kidwells had no bearing on the case. “Don’t convict her because you think Ranee Spellman was right and don’t acquit her because you think Ranee Spellman was wrong...Convict her because she killed out of anger and not out of necessity."
Merril noted that the law allows for malice, a necessary finding in second degree murder, to be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon. “To shoot someone at relatively point blank range with a shotgun—
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