LIMA — Markelus Carter denied killing Kenneth Warrington during an interview with police just hours after the 2009 murder.
“People are saying you did this,” retired Lima Police Detective Phil Kleman said to Carter during a videotaped police interview played before the jury at Carter’s trial Monday.
Carter responded, “No, no. There is no way.”
“Is there anything that could have happened between you and this guy? Words?” Kleman asked.
Carter responded, “No, no, no.”
The jury watched the interview by Lima Police Department investigators who were eyeing Carter as their prime suspect in the hours that followed the Feb. 23, 2009, murder of Kenneth Warrington. Warrington was shot to death outside 436 E. McKibben St., where a woman he had an affair with lived. She was Carter’s ex-girlfriend.
Carter began yelling and was visibly upset when Kleman started asking him if he killed Warrington.
“This is really upsetting to me, man, because I’m somewhere I should not be,” Carter said.
Carter, 46, is charged with aggravated murder and having a firearm under a court sanction. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said Carter killed the 53-year-old Warrington because Warrington was having an affair with Carter’s ex-girlfriend of more than a decade.
The jury also watched Carter tell Kleman he had a gun in the house he used to protect his children despite being a convicted felon. Felons are not allowed to have firearms and can be charged with another felony for doing so.
Carter told Kleman he last shot a gun in either 2006 or 2007. A short time later, Kleman took swabs from Carter’s hands to have tested for gunshot residue. Kleman also asked Carter the last time he washed his hands and he said the night before.
Carter was asked about any ammunition he had in the house. He said he had rounds for a .357 magnum revolver he bought from someone on the streets and .223 rounds for a modern sporting rifle he previously owned.
Carter was asked numerous times about other guns such as whether he had a 9 mm in the house. Several times he ignored the question and once he said he has owned a couple 9 mm guns through the years.
Later in the trial, a police crime scene officer showed pictures of a 9 mm handgun found inside Carter’s house at 122 E. Eureka St. That gun, however, was not the murder weapon, the officer testified.
Retired Lima Police Department Crime Scene Officer Ken Whitney also showed the jury a box of 9 mm Winchester ammunition with seven live rounds inside. Another crime scene officer previously identified 9 mm fired casings found near Warrington’s body that were manufactured by Winchester.
Whitney told the jury about pages of email between Warrington and Sonya Burkholder Hughes, who was Carter’s ex-girlfriend and the woman with whom Warrington had an affair that Carter had on his kitchen table. No explanation was given as to how Carter obtained the e-mail.
Whitney identified numerous photos of Carter’s house taken during the execution of a search warrant in the hours after Warrington was killed. Whitney also showed the jury camouflage clothing found in Carter’s house.
Carter’s attorney, Jon Rion, asked Whitney to display the clothing and show whether the top had a hood or pockets in front. The significance of that was a neighbor said she saw someone in a camouflage hoodie walking near the murder scene immediately after the shooting with hands in the pocket.
Rion questioned police procedure trying to make officers handling the crime scene appear sloppy. He showed a picture of an officer not wearing latex gloves while handling evidence and questioned Whitney about evidence that appeared in some pictures and not in others.
Whitney said some evidence was moved to take a better picture of it.
Rion also questioned Whitney on why officers who helped search Carter’s house were not listed in his report. Whitney said it was a simple error.
The trial will resume Tuesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court.
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