Ex-girlfriend says Myers took her to site where Behrman was found

MARTINSVILLE -- Witnesses testified Monday that John R. Myers II had knowledge of the area near Paragon, Ind. where hunters found the remains of murdered IU sophomore Jill Behrman in 2003.\nMyers' ex-girlfriend Carly Goodman told the jury that before Behrman disappeared, Myers took Goodman to the same clearing in the woods where investigators uncovered Behrman's remains.\nGoodman, who said she dated Myers for about six months and ended the relationship at the beginning of May 2000, said Myers drove her against her will to the clearing. Myers refused to drive her home until the couple finished arguing, she said.\nGoodman's testimony opened the second week of the murder trial of Myers, 31, of Ellettsville, who is accused of murdering Behrman after she disappeared while riding her bicycle on May 31, 2000. \nThe defense and prosecution clashed throughout Goodman's testimony. Myers' defense attorney Patrick Baker sat poised at the edge of his seat, quickly raising objections to at least half of Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega's questions before a nervous-looking Goodman could answer.\nSonnega was forced to navigate delicately through his questioning because Judge Christopher Burnham ruled last week that many of the details of Goodman's relationship with Myers -- including allegations of abuse and intimidation -- were inadmissible because they do not pertain to the Behrman murder case.\nWhen Sonnega asked Goodman to show the jury on a large map where Myers had taken her, Goodman, with the laser pointer in her hand shaking so badly it jumped across townships on the map, indicated the spot marked as the place Behrman's remains were found. \nAfter Goodman was dismissed, Baker argued that the arrows on the map, which pointed to significant locations in the Behrman murder case, were unfair and led witnesses to the answers prosecutors wanted them to make.\nBurnham acknowledged Baker's argument and said the arrows must be covered if subsequent witnesses use the map. \nA second witness, Richard Swinney, a Seymour, Ind. resident who is related to Myers by marriage, testified that Myers told him he had significant knowledge of the woods near Paragon and hunted there many times.\nThe third witness of the morning, Doug Alexander, of Carmel, Ind., who made deliveries with Myers in 2001, said Myers pointed out to him the spot on Maple Grove Road where Behrman's bicycle was found and later said that if he wanted to hide a body, he would hide it in the woods to the north. Behrman's remains were found several miles north of Maple Grove Road.\nWhen court reconvened Monday afternoon, jurors heard testimony from Myers' former coworkers.\nMatthew Colbert, who made deliveries for Bloomington Hospital with Myers, said he became suspicious of the defendant when Myers wondered aloud about the searches investigators were conducting for Behrman's remains.\nMike Franey, a Kroger employee who worked with Myers when he was employed as part of a late-night cleaning crew, described Myers as "cocky" when discussing a newspaper article about the March 2003 recovery of Behrman's remains.\n"John (Myers II) commented to me that the woods in the picture looked familiar to him, and he thought he had hunted there before," Franey said. "He was surprised (investigators) had not contacted him because he knew people they thought did the crime."\nAlso, tying in testimony from Joe Peden on Thursday that he had seen a white van driving up and down Maple Grove Road three times on May 31, 2000, James Cantwell, Myers' supervisor at Bloomington Hospital, told the jury Myers had access to a white Ford van for deliveries.\nMore trial testimony has revealed that previous suspect Uriah Clouse lived with Myers for a short time before Behrman's disappearance and that Alisha Sowders, also implicated earlier in the investigation, was once distantly related to Myers through marriage.\nIn March 2002, police and FBI thought they had a break in the case when local resident Wendy Owings confessed that she, along with two friends, Sowders and Clouse, had accidentally hit Behrman with their truck, wrapped her body in plastic and dumped her in Salt Creek, which was subsequently drained in the search for her. After the discovery of Behrman's body in Morgan County, Owings recanted her statement.\nJudge Christopher Burnham called an early end to the proceedings Monday when the prosecution ran out of available witnesses.\nProsecutors have called 43 witnesses in the first seven days of the trial, many of whom have received little or no cross-examination from defense attorneys for Myers, adding to the speediness of the trial, which is expected to last two to four weeks.