Trial underway in '03 Bridgeville killing
Karen Wilkinson/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 05/22/2007 04:26:33 AM PDT
EUREKA -- As a family watched a new “Simpsons” episode along with a friend in 2003, Thomas Arthur Applegate entered their Bridgeville home and shot two of them, killing one, District Attorney Paul Gallegos told a jury Monday.
During opening statements, Gallegos said there's evidence that Applegate, 45, used methamphetamine before traveling from Ukiah to Bridgeville, where he allegedly shot and killed Joey Patrick Church, 36, and wounded Church's friend, Ross Condemi.
Applegate has pleaded not guilty to one count of homicide, one count of attempted murder, one count of assault with a firearm and four special allegations -- three for personally discharging a firearm and another for personally inflicting great bodily injury.
Applegate's attorney, public defender Kevin Robinson, didn't make an opening statement.
The victim's daughter, Brandi, became visibly upset as she took the stand and described the day.
The 11-year-old girl, who was 7 at the time, said she returned home from a friend's house on May 4, 2003, and spoke with her father in their living room shortly before he was shot twice in the abdomen.
She testified about how she climbed out the front window of the house after her father was shot.
Gallegos said Applegate entered Church's home and asked if it was for sale. When he was told the whole town was for sale, he left, only to return later in the day, enter the house, ask the same question and open fire.
Applegate was arrested the next day after he beat and tried to kidnap a woman in a San Luis Obispo restaurant parking lot. He entered guilty pleas to the Southern California charges and was returned to Humboldt County in the summer of 2004.
When Applegate's home was searched May 8, 2003, Gallegos said bullets were found that matched those used on both victims. Also, five shells were found beneath a sofa the man slept on the night of the killing, Gallegos said.
Applegate was identified in a lineup by witnesses in Bridgeville. Robinson could not be reached for comment by deadline.
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