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PrintCOLUMBIA — It's a story that stretches across several years and several states.
On Monday, attorneys will pick up where they left off in trying to sort out the complicated case of Tausha L. Fields. Proceedings in Fields' murder trial began June 21. Last week, jurors heard testimony from 19 state witnesses.
- Tracy Kemp, brother of murder victim Mitchell Kemp, talks to reporters with family members Tuesday night after a jury took nearly nine hours to convict Tausha Fields in the shooting death of her former husband Mitchell Kemp. Fields was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
- Defense attorney Paul Hood (left) offers up business records as proof to Judge Oxenhandler while court reporter Kristal Murphy enters the information into official record on June 29 at the Boone County Courthouse during jury deliberation for Tausha Fields' trial. She is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of her ex-husband Mitchell Kemp in 2004.
- Attorneys Richard Hicks (left) and Paul Hood (right) inspect evidence photographs at the jury's request for images that show Lexi, Tausha Fields' daughter, in August 2004 during jury deliberations for Fields' trial on June 29 at the Boone County Courthouse.
- Tausha Fields listens as her attorney, Paul Hood, delivers his closing argument to the jury during Fields's first-degree murder trial June 29 at the Boone County Courthouse.
- Tausha Fields, center, listens to testimony from Detective David Wilson with one of her attorneys, Kim Shaw, left, during trial on June 28 at the Boone County Courthouse. Wilson answered questions from the defense about her continuous contact with the authorities prior to her arrest.
- Defense witness Jami Bowden breaks down on the stand during Tausha Fields' trial on June 28 at the Boone County Courthouse while recounting an altercation in 2005 between herself and Greg Morton. Morton pleaded guilty in June 2009 to killing Fields' ex-husband Mitchell Kemp on August 24, 2004.
- Tausha Fields scribbles notes on a piece of paper during a short recess Friday during the fifth day of her first-degree murder trial at the Boone County Courthouse. The prosecution showed videos from the 2008 interviews between Fields and detectives during both the morning and afternoon sessions.
- Enforcement Officer Brandon Weber of the Boone County Sheriff's Department watched videos from the 2008 interviews between Tausha Fields and detectives during the fifth day of Fields' first-degree murder trial at the Boone County Courthouse on June 25. Weber was one of many in attendance during the afternoon.
- Boone County detective, David Wilson, testifies during the fifth day of Tausha Fields' first-degree murder trial at the Boone County Courthouse on June 25. The prosecution showed videos from the 2008 interviews between Fields and detectives during both the morning and afternoon sessions.
- Keith Jones identifies vacation photos while living in Florida with Tausha Fields during witness testimony in Fields' first-degree murder trial on Thursday at the Boone County Courthouse.
- Tausha Fields is charged with the death of her husband, Mitchell Kemp.
Fields (who is also referred to as Tausha Morton), 34, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the Aug. 24, 2004 killing of Mitchell W. Kemp, one of her former husbands.
Attorneys from both sides agree that Fields brought Kemp to the south Boone County property she shared with then-husband Gregory W. Morton. Morton then shot Kemp and Fields helped bury the body. The sides dispute the nature of Fields' involvement.
Morton, 42, pleaded guilty in June 2009 to fatally shooting Kemp. Charges against Morton were downgraded from first-degree to second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Fields.
Morton, who testified extensively on Tuesday and Wednesday, said he shot Kemp because he believed Fields' stories that Kemp had abused her and her then-1-year-old daughter, Lexie. He said the murder was Fields' idea, adding that he now doubts the stories Fields told him and believes Kemp died an innocent man.
Fields' attorneys painted a different picture, one of a woman petrified, willing to do anything to avoid the wrath of a jealous and violent Morton.
Other major witnesses included: Kemp's relatives and acquaintances; two of Fields' ex-boyfriends whom she dated in Alabama and Florida after the killing; and various law enforcement officers who dealt with Fields, Kemp and Morton before and after the killing.
Prosecutors ended week one of the trial by showing taped interviews between Fields and Boone County Detective David Wilson. The interviews were recorded in 2008, prior to Fields' arrest. In these interviews, Fields told Wilson and other investigators she had no involvement in Kemp's murder, which she said was all Morton's doing.
In opening statements, Fields' attorneys acknowledged that many of the things Fields said in those interviews were lies.
During the 2008 interviews, Wilson told Fields he needed to find a body in order to arrest Morton and bring closure to the Kemp family. In August 2008, Fields led detectives to the unmarked grave where she and Morton had buried the victim. DNA analysis proved the body found there was Kemp's, and an autopsy ruled the death a homicide.
Fields was arrested in early 2009 in Dickinson, Texas. She was later extradited to Missouri, where she pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Proceedings will resume 8 a.m Monday.
Fields' attorneys told presiding judge Gary Oxenhandler they plan to question Wilson, the state's latest witness, at that time. The defense hasn't yet announced if — or when — Fields will take the stand.
Morton is expected to be sentenced to 19 years in a separate hearing next week.
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