| UPDATE; Jury deliberates in 1982 murder |
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By: Lisa Marchesoni
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Posted: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 1:21 pm
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Jurors deliberated about 70 minutes Tuesday before stopping for the night in a murder trial where a man is being tried for killing a co-worker in 1982.
The three man, nine-woman Circuit Court jury is expected to resume deliberations Wednesday in a trial where defendant Mac Ray McFarlane, 52, is being tried in the fatal shooting of co-worker Gene Stump, 28, of Smyrna.
McFarlane is accused of shooting Stump March 29, 1982 in a secluded area off Lamar Road in north Rutherford County. Stump’s body was found one month later. McFarlane pleaded not guilty.
Former wife Donna Burroughs testified first husband Randy McFarlin, who later changed his name to Mac Ray McFarlane, asked after Stump’s murder if she wanted to be “buried at the lake” with him.
McFarlin admitted he killed Stump in 1982 when they were married and lived in Smyrna, she said. She last saw Stump when he and McFarlin left to check the sights on his shotgun.
When she asked McFarlin what happened to Stump, McFarlin replied he left with hippies.
Burroughs was the last prosecution witness to testify in the fourth day of the trial against her first husband, who is being tried on premeditated and felony murder charges by a Circuit Court jury.
Outside the jury’s presence, Burroughs testified McFarlin shot himself in 1982 after being questioned by sheriff’s detectives in Stump’s murder. He was hospitalized several weeks and spent time at Parthenon Pavilion for mental treatment. She believes he spent more time in Parthenon Pavilion to avoid detectives.
Burroughs told jurors her husband drank Miller beer. He and Stump often went to bars and drank. The last time she saw Stump, he and her husband left with her husband’s long gun to check the sights. Her husband returned alone.
District Attorney William Whitesell asked Burroughs to describe her husband’s demeanor.
“He was very excited, almost giddy, happy,” Burroughs said.
The next morning, she saw Stump’s car outside and questioned her husband who said Stump left with hippies and left his car for his ex-wife. After she asked again, he replied, “Quit asking me about him. He’s never coming back.”
Her husband cashed Stump’s income tax check he said Stump gave him.
After Stump’s body was found, he instructed her to tell detectives her husband gave Stump about $200 to leave town.
McFarlin told his wife he killed Stump because he wanted his job. Other witnesses testified McFarlin was afraid Stump would implicate him in a robbery. Burroughs said her husband and Stump robbed Kwik Sak market in La Vergne.
Until they divorced in 1992, Burroughs said McFarlin made comments about killing Stump. After a few drinks at Red Lobster, McFarlin said, “you know I killed him.”
“I shot him in the back of the head,” her husband told her. “I took his boots.”
Later, McFarlin told her he tossed the boots away in the woods. She never told anyone until detectives questioned her in 2002 after her three sons were grown.
“The most important think to me was that I raise my kids,” Burroughs told the jury. “I know I would have been in danger.”
During cross-examination, defense attorney Luke Evans, who is representing McFarlane with attorney Chris Richardson, asked why Burroughs didn’t tell detectives about her husband and Stump leaving together to check the sights on his gun.
“I was fearful and scared,” Burroughs said, later adding her husband was controlling. “I was just afraid to tell anyone.”
Outside the jury’s presence, Burroughs told jurors her husband physically abused her hundreds of times, even choking her unconscious.
“I just wanted to raise my kids,” Burroughs said. “That was the most important thing.”
Whitesell asked Circuit Court Judge Don Ash to allow Burroughs to tell jurors she feared McFarlin so she lied in her 1982 statement. Ash permitted Burroughs to testify she was abused.
“Why are you scared of him?” Whitesell asked before the jurors.
“Through our whole married life, he was abusive in many ways, physically, emotionally and mentally,” Burroughs replied.
After the state rested, MacFarlane took the witness stand for the record to say he had been advised about his rights not to testify but it’s his decision to take the witness stand. MacFarlane did not say if he would testify.
Evans called Sgt. Charles Barnes, a former sheriff’s detective, to testify about his investigation of Stump’s murder and evidence lost in the case.
Barnes testified he searched for lost evidence but couldn’t find it.
Under cross-examination by Whitesell, Barnes said the missing evidence included a Miller beer bottle already tested for fingerprints, a pen, cigarette lighter with the name Gene used to identify him and Sump’s jeans and part of a shirt.
“Physical evidence doesn’t make much difference?” Whitesell asked.
“No sir,” Barnes replied.
Other physical evidence in the case included parts of Stump’s skull and photographs.
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Paul Newman said McFarlane was the last person to see Stump alive.
“He was the first person to see Gene Stump dead,” Newman told jurors.
Newman reviewed the evidence and testimony.
“Why should you find Randy McFarlin guilty of killing Gene Stump?” Newman asked, then answered, “Because Randy McFarlin killed Gene Stump.”
Evans said no one saw McFarlane kill Stump and no one recovered a murder weapon. Experts can’t specify when he died.
“None of the witnesses they put forward, who heard his confession for murder, and went to the police,” Evans said. “They have to prove he killed Gene Stump, not just killed him but had premeditation.”
Evans asked jurors to acquit his client.
Whitesell said McFarlane told his three wives and two friends in Kentucky he killed Stump. He intended to kill him.
“When you blow the back of someone’s head away, that’s pretty indicative of your intentions,” Whitesell said.
Whitesell asked jurors to find McFarlane guilty of murder in the first degree and felony murder and sentence him to life in prison.
“He’s had a free pass for 28 years,” Whitesell said. “It’s time he pay for what he did. It’s time that Gene Stump receives justice.”
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