Prosecutor Leigh Patterson told a jury from Bartow County on Monday morning that Sam Parker killed his estranged wife shortly before 1 a.m. on March 22, 2007, and hid her body a few hours later after visiting a lady friend to help set up an alibi.
The district attorney from Rome said the former LaFayette Police sergeant was irate that his wife was leaving him and he believed she was having an affair. "You don't walk out on Sam Parker," she said.
Ms. Patterson also told the jury, "If Sam Parker ever told the truth about anything, it's that he can hide a body where you can never find it."
The body of the 41-year-old Ms. Parker has never been found despite exhaustive searches. She was last seen on the night of March 21, 2007.
Earlier Monday, Public Defender David Dunn told the jury the state never found proof to show that Parker killed his missing wife.
He said the trial at LaFayette lasted over two weeks because most of the evidence from the state was TTMSLB - Trash That Makes Sam Look Bad.
He also said former Walker County deputy Shane Green "had something going" with Ms. Parker, but was not checked out as a suspect. He said the GBI and FBI zeroed in on the former LaFayette Police sergeant and also did not check out a neighbor's statement that she saw two men poking around the Parker garage soon after Ms. Parker was missing.
Public Defender Dunn said the state's star witness, former LaFayette Police Officer Ben Chaffin, was "the least reliable witness to ever take this witness chair."
The jury began deliberations around 2 p.m. after hearing the charge from Judge Jon "Bo" Wood of Walker County. After an hour and a half of talks, the jurors asked to see certain evidence. Judge Wood allowed them to see hard copies of bruises on Parker's arms that had been presented in digital form. The judge said there was no other evidence they could see.
The jury stopped for the day and will resume talks on Tuesday morning.
Public Defender Dunn said much of the state's proof was "scripted," including that of Chaffin, who first said he could not remember the contents of an early-morning call from Parker on March 22, 2007. He testified that Parker told him he had shot Theresa in the head and taken her body where it could not be found.
The attorney noted that Chaffin could have faced up to 28 years in prison on charges he faced in the case, but those are to be dismissed based on his testimony.
"He will walk back to Alabama and never be seen here again," the attorney said.
He said former deputy Green made so many cell phone calls to Theresa in the days before her death that it indicated "something was going on."
He told the jury that if his own wife found he had been calling another woman that much "I would be in trouble."
Attorney Dunn said cell phone records showed deputy Green in the same sector as Theresa at 2:30 a.m. on March 22, 2007.
He said the former deputy, who is now a supervisor at Walden Security in Chattanooga, put about 300 more miles than usual on his patrol car in the days before the disappearance and also filled up his vehicle three times the day she disappeared.
Prosecutor Patterson said Parker "had three days to clean up his mess after he killed his wife."
She said Parker placed her body on a rubber mat in the cargo area and that kept blood from getting inside the SUV. But he said two spots of blood did not get cleaned up and that was key evidence against the defendant - especially since one patch had his DNA along with Theresa's blood. She said, "He used the missing cargo mat to contain his crime scene."
The prosecutor said Parker was supposed to be at the home of his late father in Trion on March 21, 2007, but he arranged to do yard work at the couple's residence on Cordell Avenue in LaFayette so he could keep an eye on her as she moved out.
She said he took home the young man who helped him with the work, then told neighbor Virginia Cordell how angry he was with Theresa, saying, "I ought to shoot her between the eyes." He noted he had found that on a recent trip to Gatlinburg the lodge receipt said there were two adult guests.
Ms. Patterson said Ms. Parker headed from her new apartment in Fort Oglethorpe shortly before midnight to get another load of her items. She said at 12:34 a.m. Sam Parker made a call to her as she was nearing the house. He said he told her something to make her believe it was safe for her to go to the house.
She said Parker "knew that was the last night Theresa was going to be at the house" and he took the opportunity to pay her back for leaving him and allegedly having an affair.
She said Parker likely approached her from behind in a chokehold. She said that would explain why there were bruises on his right arm. "Theresa put up a fight for her life," she told the jury.
Ms. Patterson said Parker told GBI Special Agent James Harris that he was not at his home that night, but at Trion. But she said his cell phone "pings" were off the LaFayette tower.
She said after Parker killed Theresa and left her body in the trunk of the vehicle in the garage that he went for several hours to the home of Christy Bellflower.
She said when he left there he then drove her Toyota 4Runner to wherever he hid the body. She said that was between 5 a.m. and the time he arrived at 8 a.m. to go fishing with attorney Bill Slack. She said cell phone records show his location was first at the LaFayette tower and then at the Trion tower.
She said there were a series of calls from and to Theresa's phone from 6 a.m. to 6:37 a.m. that morning. She said, "That was Sam Parker using Theresa's phone." She said he was trying to find out who she had been calling.
One of the hang-up calls went to her fellow 911 dispatcher Rhonda Knox, who became concerned and asked two deputies to check her home. They went at 7:30 a.m. and could get no one to the door. They said Theresa's 4Runner was not in the garage, but Parker's pickup truck and patrol car were there.
Prosecutor Patterson said Ms. Parker was "a normal and responsible woman who came home to a nightmare like Sam Parker."
She said Ms. Parker "began her preparations for a new life, but Sam Parker began his preparations for murder."
She said, though Parker accused Theresa of having affairs with several men, co-workers at the 911 Center did not believe any of it.
Ms. Patterson dismissed Shane Green as a suspect and said the two men seen by the neighbor were actually Sam Parker and Cody Cordell doing the yard work.
She noted that in the days after her disappearance "Sam Parker stops asking about where she is, but he keeps asking, 'Who's the guy?' If she betrayed him, it's her fault, not his."
Ms. Patterson said Parker had made a number of statements over the years about knowing how to hide bodies and about killing people. She said he made chilling threats to Theresa and to prior wife, Keila Beard.
She said Ms. Beard finally went to authorities, but she said then-Chief Dino Richardson "let him get away with anything he wanted."
The prosecutor called Parker "a heavy drinker who was obsessive with his women."
She said Theresa Parker "almost made it to a new life," but he stopped her.
Parker, 51, is charged with murder, violating his oath of office, computer invasion of privacy and making a false statement.