Prosecutor: Affluence may have led to couple's murder
URBANA — The only child of a Champaign couple slain in their home three years ago described her parents as comfortable financially due to years of hard work.
A prosecutor said their affluence may have gotten them murdered.
“They were self-employed, had a couple dogs, had a nice house and were doing nothing wrong. If anything, they were too friendly,” Assistant State’s Attorney Troy Lozar told the jury hearing the case of Crystal Myrick.
The 32-year-old drifter is one of three accused of the murders of Jeremiah and Sue Haigh, who were found stabbed and beaten to death in their home at 1702 Scottsdale Drive, C, on July 4, 2006. Authorities believe they were killed July 1, 2006.
Judge Heidi Ladd is hearing the case. Myrick is represented by Champaign attorney Walter Ding.
Lozar told the jury in opening statements that co-defendants Kenneth Sean Kelly, 32, and Russell Lee Pitcher, 52, are expected to testify against Myrick. Kelly already pleaded guilty to the murder of Jerry Haigh, 58, and is serving a 50-year sentence. Pitcher has yet to be tried.
Lozar told the jury that despite a “very thorough” job of looking for evidence, the Champaign police department could find no physical evidence to link the defendants to the crime.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” Lozar said, noting the house had been cleaned with bleach.
The police break in the case, he said, came from Myrick.
“She knows far too much to be an innocent, casual observer,” said Lozar.
Myrick implicated the co-defendants, who gave police “statements all over the place to start,” Lozar said.
But he said all three knew information that could be known only to people who were present and involved.
Lozar said the evidence would show that Kelly knew Jerry Haigh from being in the community and knew that he had money.
Kim Haigh Shackelford, the couple’s daughter, testified that her father was retired from the Air Force where he worked as a Vietnamese interpreter. Her mother, 66, was Vietnamese and along with her husband, became active in trying to help Vietnamese people in the community become self-sufficient. They were married 31 years.
They rehabilitated houses and rented them to Vietnamese immigrants and also made loans at below-market rates to Vietnamese immigrants “to help them stay off welfare,” Shackelford said.
They also both loved to cook and hosted many parties at their home, including a karaoke party the night before they were killed.
“They were comfortable. They worked very hard early in their marriage. They purchased everything in cash. They were very simple people who lived within their means,” Shackelford said.
In his opening statement, Lozar suggested that Kelly, Pitcher and Myrick tried to take property or extort money from the couple and when they didn’t go along with that, “violence erupted.”
Testifying after Shackelford was David Stratton, an Iowa City, Iowa, man who let the homeless Kelly move in with him in the summer of 2006. He’d known Kelly about a year.
Not long after, Stratton said he also allowed Myrick, who had a child with Kelly, and their child, to move in. And shortly after that, he let Pitcher, whom Myrick described as her uncle, move in.
Stratton said Kelly told him on June 30 he was “going to Champaign to see rich friends” and drove Stratton’s car over, returning the next day.
He said the previously broke couple both had cash after making that trip — enough to pay two months of his rent — and that Myrick was wearing a gold wedding band and a diamond pendant necklace he hadn’t seen before. She was also wearing clothing much nicer than the sweat pants and tank tops she normally wore, Stratton said.
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