Woman testifies about finding body of grandfather in woman's first-degree murder trial

Sherwood Doyle's granddaughter recounted how she stumbled over his body on Aug. 6, 2019, after Kristina Nichole Hoffpauir tried to keep her and other family members out of the Plainview-area home where Hoffpauir had been staying with the 81-year-old man.

Jessica Runge was the last of four Doyle family members who testified Thursday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Hoffpauir, who has pleaded insanity. She had been called after two of her elderly aunts couldn't get into the house, she said.

Runge and her aunts — Sue Leonard, Eunice Reeves and Glen Odom — testified that the family was close. They saw or spoke to Doyle every day or every other day. When nobody had heard from Doyle in a few days, and he didn't answer his phone, his sisters began to call each other and go to his rural home.

Reeves testified that she went to her brother's house and got no response when she knocked. She saw yellow jackets nesting on the porch, something she said her brother would have taken care of immediately, and noticed a smell.

"Like something dead," she said. "Such a bad smell."

Under questioning by Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Lea Hall, Reeves said she spoke to Hoffpauir, who was inside the home. She told her several times that Doyle wasn't home and that he had told her not to let the family inside.

Odom also testified about the smell and Hoffpauir's insistence that Doyle wasn't home. She said she didn't believe Hoffpauir, so Runge was called.

Runge testified that she and Hoffpauir were "pretty much friends," although Doyle's sisters testified they didn't know her and didn't approve of her association with their brother. Runge said her grandfather would buy Hoffpauir whatever she needed or asked for, and she sometimes would stay with him at his home.

She said her grandfather often helped other women with money or a place to stay.

"I loved her to death," said Runge. "She was special to paw-paw, so she was special to me."

Doyle's sisters weren't as accepting of Hoffpauir, they testified. They said they didn't know Hoffpauir, but didn't like the relationship Doyle had with her.

Doyle had been dead for days when Runge found him, and Hoffpauir had been living inside the home. Runge testified she saw open drinks and Hoffpauir's drawing supplies all around the room where her grandfather's body was found.

Runge testified she knew of a window she could get through, but Hoffpauir pushed it shut when she began to open it. Hoffpauir told her again her grandfather was gone, but Runge said she knew Hoffpauir was lying.

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She asked about the smell, and Hoffpauir told her she'd killed a raccoon and put it in a freezer. Runge then went to the front door, which Hoffpauir opened slightly. Hoffpauir put her leg in the space and held the door closed, she said.

Runge said she might have threatened Hoffpauir and eventually pushed her way through. The two struggled slightly, and then Runge began walking through the dark house. While in one room, she tripped and fell.

"I fell right on his chest," she cried. "But when I did, it didn't register that it was him."

She ran back outside to get a flashlight, then ran back to the room.

"There was my paw-paw," she cried.

During his opening statement, before testimony began, Hall told jurors that Hoffpauir had beaten Doyle on his head with a pot, cinched a belt around his neck and then stabbed him in the chest with a screwdriver.

As he spoke, members of Doyle's family cried, and someone whispered, "Oh my God."

Runge testified his body was on a mattress by the window she had tried to get in and that Hoffpauir had to have been kneeling on his body or the mattress when they spoke. She said she ran out of the house, screaming at Hoffpauir that she'd killed her grandfather.

Hoffpauir was on the front porch of the home, but gradually moved into the yard. Body camera video from Cpl. Nicholas Bradford, the first deputy on the scene, showed Hoffpauir sitting on the ground while Runge and Owens yelled at her.

Owens told Bradford she had a hammer, and Hoffpauir yelled at her not to hit her in the head with it again.

Hoffpauir told Bradford she'd just woken up inside the house with Doyle's body "and a bunch of bitches screaming at me."

She also said she'd been waking up periodically for a week at the house with someone stabbing her in her head. She also began speaking with an accent, perhaps a British one.

Bradford took her into custody and placed her in his patrol unit, then called for detectives.

Sheriff's Detective Phillip Migacz testified about photos he took inside the house. One of the photos showed a dryer that was pulled away from a wall. The mattress where Doyle was found was behind the dryer.

On top of the dryer were pots and pans, some with blood on them. Migacz tried to testify about the blood and different places it was found around the room, but Hoffpauir's defense attorney Chad Guillot kept objecting to Migacz calling it blood.

Guillot said Migacz wasn't an expert witness, so the detective testified that what he'd photographed appeared to be suspected blood. When Guillot cross examined him, he asked if Migacz knew who the blood belonged to, and the detective said no.

The last witness to testify Thursday was Dr. Jessica Boudreaux, a board-certified general psychiatrist and board-certified forensic psychiatrist.

She interviewed Hoffpauir twice at the direction of 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard when he appointed a sanity commission in her case. She said Hoffpauir made multiple claims about being diagnosed with mental conditions and that she had been hospitalized at times.

Boudreaux testified she could not find any underlying psychotic disorders in Hoffpauir. She also said she asked for, but never received, documentation that would verify Hoffpauir's hospitalization claims.

Hoffpauir did have a history of substance abuse, she testified. Hall asked her if Hoffpauir's use of meth could cause problems that might mimic a mental-health disorder.

Boudreaux said yes and said continued use could cause sleep deprivation, hallucinations and other problems.

She testified that she found "some inconsistencies" in Hoffpauir's account of Doyle's death and in her behavior. Hall asked Boudreaux about Hoffpauir's foreign accent, or foreign accent syndrome.

Boudreaux said, while "really rare," the condition typically is the result of a neurological problem, not a mental one. She said Hoffpauir meets a lot of criteria for having post-traumatic stress disorder, but she didn't diagnose her with it because much of the trauma she claimed to suffer couldn't be documented and because Hoffpauir was eager to talk about her trauma.

Boudreax testified that was unusual.

The doctor, when asked by Hall, read from one of her reports that ruled Hoffpauir knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of Doyle's death. She said Hoffpauir took steps to conceal the crime and distance herself from it.

Testimony will continue on Friday morning.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Testimony begins in 1st-degree murder trial of Kristina Hoffpauir