Murder trial continues in 2019 death of 80-year-old woman
The murder trial of a former Springfield man accused of killing an 80-year-old woman in her home in January 2019 is underway, with testimony being provided over the past two days by family members, detectives and people involved in handling evidence related to the case.
Prosecutors with the Sangamon County State's Attorney's Office and defense counsel with the Sangamon County Public Defender's Office provided opening statements to the assembled jury Monday. The State's Attorney Dan Wright held that his team, which included Assistant State's Attorney's Derek Dion and Brittney Lehr, would attempt to prove David D. Smith, 58, of Lindenwood, killed Donna Lea Bricker, 80, of Springfield in her home in the 700 block of West Elliott Street on Jan. 6, 2019 in an act of "wanton cruelty".
Wright said that Smith's actions were "exceptionally brutal and heinous," as he is accused of stabbing Bricker with scissors, gagging her with an extension cord and binding her arms with a piece of cloth.
He said the evidence presented all pointed back to Smith as the one who killed Bricker, who lived alone in her home at the time of her death.
Assistant Public Defender Tawnya Frioli, representing Smith, said that while Bricker's death was tragic, Smith was not the one who committed the crime. She said that the state's case relied almost entirely on DNA evidence, which she noted did not provide the jury with all of the answers they were seeking.
Frioli reiterated Smith has maintained his innocence at each opportunity and that there were no eyewitnesses who saw Bricker's death and no video or images existed that showed Smith committing the crime.
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The jury also heard testimony from members of Bricker's family, including her daughter Debbie and her husband David Squires, who made the initial 911 call on Jan. 6 to law enforcement regarding Bricker's death. Squires said he had received a call from Debbie that morning asking him to come over to Bricker's house in order to check in on her, as her cousins told her they didn't see her come to services at Third Presbyterian Church that morning.
The doors were locked, so Squires ended up entering through the window to the kitchen and going into her bedroom, where he found Bricker lying on the bed. Squires' stepson, Jason, entered shortly thereafter and also saw Bricker's body on the bed.
The two left the house, with Squires and his wife asking for police to come out to the scene. Testimony was also provided by Officer Steven Alicea and Detective John Larson of the Springfield Police Department, along with a pair of paramedics who were on scene that day and determined Bricker had died.
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Larson said during his testimony that he found a washcloth from the scene in a trash can in an alley along North Walnut Street, with the cloth eventually being sent to Illinois State Police for further testing. A pair of gloves were also found on top of some garbage in the area, as well.
The jury heard Tuesday from another SPD detective who helped to receive surveillance video and cell-phone records that showed Bricker's last message came on the evening of Jan. 4, two days before her body was found. A message sent to her on Jan. 5 went unanswered.
Two Illinois State Police Crime Lab employees also testified to fingerprint evidence found at the scene and to the DNA of both Smith and Bricker being found on various items provided to them by SPD, such as the pair of scissors allegedly used to kill Bricker and the washcloth found in the alley shortly after the incident.
ISP's Jennifer Aper testified that 96% of the DNA on the scissors came from a major male contributor – a contributor that she said could possibly be that of Smith.
Smith had moved to Lindenwood – an unincorporated community just south of Rockford – in the time between Bricker's death and his arrest in March 2019. He had been released from prison days before the incident after serving time for aggravated battery of a senior citizen relating to a 1994 home invasion in Vermilion County.
Bricker was a long-time volunteer at Third Presbyterian and was the owner of a home daycare at one point. She was also a printer for the Springfield Education Association and worked for District 186, Fannie May Candies, Contact Ministries, Sparc, Building Blocks Preschool, Sangamo Electric and Allis-Chalmers at various points in her life.
The trial is slated to continue through the remainder of the week.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Testimony ongoing in David Smith murder trial