Kelsie Schelling's father testifies during Donthe Lucas murder trial
Feb 9, 2021
Doug Schelling, the victim’s father, testified Tuesday that he purchased an apartment in Denver which he planned to rent out until his daughter moved in during October 2012 when she returned to Colorado from California.
“She knew I worked hard and expected her to and to try to save as much money as she can,” he testified.
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Kelsie Schelling visited her dad in Holyoke, “The Saturday before (Feb. 2) I changed the oil in her car and we had a visit that afternoon. We always write the mileage down,” he testified.
“I knew nothing about the defendant at all,” he said, pointing out he did not know that Lucas was living with her for a time in the Denver apartment.
The first time he learned of the baby was when Kelsie Schelling sent him a photo of the ultrasound Feb. 4.
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That Friday, Kelsie Schelling's mother, Laura Saxton, “called me and said, ‘I think we’ve got some problems.’ She (Kelsie Schelling) didn’t call me back and it just wasn’t right — she always got back, you know,” he said.
He met Saxton and their son Colby at the Schellings' Denver apartment.
“It looked like she was planning to come back home,” he said.
When the family later cleaned out her apartment, Doug Schelling testified he noticed a scuff mark on an end table. A bed that had been new in October, “looked like it was busted out — the boards were broken through,” he said.
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At the point he received the text picture of her ultrasound, on the late morning or early afternoon of Feb. 4, “she told me Donthe,” was the father and “she said the relationship probably wasn’t going to work out and she would have to do it on her own and I said we would be there for her,” Doug Schelling testified.
Doug Schelling teared up when he testified that Feb. 4 was the last time he talked to his daughter.
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Neal Saxton, Kelsie Schelling’s stepfather, said he traveled from Yuma to Pueblo on Feb. 11, 2013, to try to help find her. He met up with her brother Colby and a friend.
“Somehow we arranged with the police to do a welfare check at Donthe’s house to find him,” and it was the first time he had met Lucas. “There were several cops there at the same time and they went in and talked to Donthe first,” he said.
Later Saxton also asked Lucas questions.
“What stuck out most to me was he said she had come down at 3 or 4 in the morning — of the fifth (of February). They went to his grandma’s house, slept a little, got up early in the morning and went to the hospital."
Lucas went on to tell Saxton, “She came out (of the hospital) and said she lost the baby,” Saxton testified.
Lucas told him that they were driving around, ended up at Walmart and they got in a fight.
“She basically kicked him out of the car and she took off,” Saxton said. “He didn’t know why she lost the baby.”
“He was fairly calm. I remember saying to Colby, ‘if I had this many cops asking questions I would be pretty nervous,’” Saxton testified.
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After redirect questioning from Tameler during which he asked Saxton if he had told anyone with the district attorney’s office about his conversation with Lucas he said he believed his wife, Laura Saxton, had told them.
Following a sidebar conference among attorneys, the Judge ordered the jury not to consider any testimony based on Neal Saxton’s testimony about his conversation with Lucas.
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Pueblo Police Officer Melissa Jacober testified she was asked by the victim’s brother Colby to help them check on the welfare of his sister with Lucas’s relatives.
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“She was irritated that we were there and kind of short tempered,” Jacober testified. “She told me she had already been contacted three times by officers and that she had no idea where Kelsie was and did not know how to get a hold of her.
"As far as I knew no Pueblo officers had been at her house in the last three days.
Jacober testified that Lucas indicated the last time he saw Kelsie Schelling was on the fifth of February. She came to town to see him at 3 a.m.
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Lucas reportedly told Jacober that he wanted to take Schelling to St. Mary Corwin hospital to verify the pregnancy because it was close to his home. He said she insisted they got to Parkview hospital.
“He tells me he does take her to Parkview hospital,” she testified.
“He said he does not go back with her to the doctor’s office. He said he waits in the waiting room.
"She comes back out and says, ‘I am not pregnant,’” Jacober testified.
Lucas did not say anything about Schelling having a miscarriage, Jacober reported.
“He basically told me at 9 a.m. that morning they ended up at Walmart,” Jacober testified. “They got into a fight, she threw him out of the car and he had to call his mother to come pick him up.”
Lucas said he assumed she had returned to Denver and went back to work.
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Under cross-examination Jacober said it was her understanding Kelsie Schelling’s Chevy Cruze was recovered at St. Mary Corwin hospital. She also testified under redirect examination that Lucas never mentioned to her that he was the one who dropped her car off at St. Mary Corwin.
