Prosecution rests its case in Myers trial

MARTINSVILLE — The prosecution in the trial of John R. Myers II rested its case Wednesday as defense attorneys began bolstering their evidence that another man was responsible for killing IU sophomore Jill Behrman in 2000.\nIndiana State Police Detective Rick Lang testified that Myers was not part of the original list of suspects given to Lang when he took over the investigation about three years after it began. FBI agent Gary Dunn, leader of the investigation of Behrman's disappearance for the first three years, had a list of six suspects.\nMyers' defense attorney Patrick Baker asked Lang to describe his criteria for being named a suspect. Lang said physical evidence against a person would make him or her a suspect. \nBaker asked Lang if there was any physical evidence against Myers. After a long pause, Lang said no.\nBaker submitted to evidence a copy of a supplement to a police report that Lang filed. The report included an interview from July 19, 2004, with Behrman's mother, Marilyn Behrman, in which she told Lang she thought her daughter might have been pregnant. In opening arguments, cross-examinations earlier in the trial and in outside statements to the media, Baker suggested Behrman might have been pregnant with an older man's child at the time of her disappearance and said this was motive for someone else to kill her. \nMarilyn Behrman and her husband, Eric Behrman, issued a statement to the media Oct. 19 saying they were "appalled" at Baker's accusations.\nEarlier in the day, the prosecution played part of an audio recording of an interview Lang and Indiana State Police Detective Tom Arvin conducted with Myers May 2, 2005. In the interview, Myers told the detectives he imagined Behrman's family was experiencing "pure hell." He told the detectives he would "lose his mind" if he were to lose either of his two daughters. \nWhat started off as a relaxed conversation between Myers and the two Indiana State Police detectives turned into a shouting match.\nWednesday morning, jurors heard only an edited portion of the conversation between Myers, Lang and Arvin. Portions of the recording that dealt with Myers' criminal history were edited out because Judge Christopher Burnham has ruled Myers' criminal history inadmissible as evidence. \nMyers was very talkative at the beginning of the tape, openly discussing his relationships with his family, former girlfriend Carly Goodman and two young daughters. He recalled how his father taught him to hunt, fish and work on cars and discussed that he had briefly considered marriage with Goodman before the two split up.\nWhen asked about what he knew of the Behrman case, "not a clue," was the only response he could muster. Lang and Arvin didn't buy Myers' story.\n"You have an excellent memory about everything else," one of the detectives said. \nMyers sat impassive in the courtroom as he listened to the year-and-a-half-old recorded conversation turn from ordinary interrogation to all-out accusation.\n"I know you're involved," one of the detectives said. \nThey likened Myers to a hot-air balloon ready to explode: "You were there. You know what happened."\nMyers responded to the detectives, saying the only knowledge he had of the case was what he heard from the media. \n"In God's honest truth, I have no clue about any of this," Myers said. "I had nothing to do, no knowledge, that's the bottom line."\nLang and Arvin also contested Myers on a statement he made to his aunt Debbie Bell shortly after Behrman went missing. When Bell asked if Behrman was still missing, Myers said: "Yeah, they haven't found the body yet." \nBell, along with Myers' grandmother Betty Swaffard, testified Saturday.\n"How did you know that she was dead?" one of the detectives asked about Myers' conversation with his aunt.\nMyers said it was simply an assumption. \nThe detectives misled Myers earlier in the recording, wanting him to believe his deceased father had implicated him in the murder before succumbing to cancer. Myers denied that he told his father anything. \nBefore the recording was played for the jury, Prosecutor Steve Sonnega presented Myers' 2000 work record from Bloomington Hospital, which showed that Myers was on vacation from May 29 through June 2. Behrman vanished May 31 of that year.