The trial for the murder of 22-year-old Hannah Wilson continued Monday morning on the fifth full day of proceedings.
Allowable Evidence
A judge ruled prosecutors cannot present evidence of Messel's prior convictions for violence against women during the trial. While jurors hearing the murder trial of 51-year-old Daniel Messel were at lunch Monday, Brown County Judge Judith Stewart denied the state's request to present evidence his past victims also had their hair pulled out and suffered blunt-force trauma like Wilson.
The judge is considering allowing testimony from Chelsea Sarnecki, a woman who says Messel attempted to abduct and sexually assault her a few years before Hannah Wilson died. Judge Stewart has previously denied this testimony, but the state is bringing Sarnecki, who is currently living in Texas, into town to testify.
Sarnecki will testify in front of the judge only sometime on Tuesday afternoon. If the information is deemed relevant, the judge will allow the jury to hear this evidence as well.
Messel Trial Day Five: Monday, Aug. 8
Monday morning the state called two witnesses to the stand. First was U.S. Marshall Jeremy Clinton, who reviewed the cell phone "ping" data from Messel's phone on the Thursday night and the early Friday morning hours that Wilson died.
Next on the stand was Detective Tom Egler with the Indiana State Police. Egler was responsible for collecting and analyzing surveillance footage from relevant areas, including in downtown Bloomington and sections of SR 45, near where Wilson's body was found.
The two witnesses for the prosecution today are establishing Messel's movements in the early morning hours of April 24. Cell phone data shows he was in downtown Bloomington at around 1:00 a.m., which is when Wilson was last seen or heard from.
The prosecution says video surveillance seems to show Messel following behind the taxi that took Hannah from Kilroy's Sports Bar to the corner of 8th and Dunn, where she was dropped off just after 1:00 a.m. That security footage appears to show Messel going down 8th Street a few more times after that, with the last sighting just before 2:00 a.m.
The prosecution will likely argue that this shows Messel's movements match the likely timeline of Wilson's death.
But the Defense has called into question how clear the surveillance footage is and whether it can accurately identify Messel's car.
The prosecution originally planned to wrap up their case at the end of Monday, but frequent objections from the Defense delayed the testimony of today's two witnesses, so the state is likely to wrap up on Tuesday.
