Donthe Lucas trial for homicide of Kelsie Schelling resumes with CBI agent testimony
Feb 24, 2021
Prior to the two-week recess, jurors heard from Jessica Martin, a woman who’d learned of Schelling’s disappearance online and then befriended Lucas, became intimate with him and fell in love with him.
On Wednesday,
Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Kevin Torres, who also testified earlier in the case, was called as an impeachment witness and testified that he was introduced to Martin in either June or July of 2016 when CBI was contacted about a possible tip in the Lucas case.
Torres said Martin reported a tip, which she’d heard from a psychic, that there were possible human remains near the Pinon rest stop north of Pueblo. Torres said that some remains were found in the area but that they were just animal bones.
Torres testified he had conversations with Martin at numerous points in CBI’s investigation into Lucas, though he never asked her to collect information or be an informant in Lucas’ case.
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Torres said Martin told him Lucas and “Dominic” then spoke about the $50,000 reward Schelling’s family was offering for information leading to her recovery.
He said Martin told him Dominic stated the reward was a “lot of money” that he and Lucas could potentially split if he would reveal where Schelling’s body was.
At that, Torres said Martin told him Lucas became angry and eventually “threw Dominic out of the house.”
Deputy District Attorney Michelle Chostner asked Torres about other statements Martin allegedly made to him over the course of the investigation.
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Toward the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, the court heard from Lucas’ former basketball coach at Northeastern Junior College and the man who would have been Lucas’ coach at Emporia State College had Lucas ever shown up.
Eddie Trenkle, Lucas’ coach at Northeastern Junior College, testified that he coached Lucas for two years from the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2012.
He said Lucas was a promising player but had struggled with his grades. He was placed on academic probation and later dropped out of the school.
Trenkle testified that Lucas’ coaches reached out to Division II schools where Lucas might potentially transfer and found a wanting suitor in Emporia State College in Kansas.
The former coach there, Shaun Vandiver, said he’d worked out a plan for Lucas to attend Emporia State for a year to get his grades up to get him eligible for basketball the following year.
It was all arranged, Vandiver said, but Lucas never showed up.
“He never responded to my phone calls or text messages and from that point on, after a week or maybe even two weeks I just knew it wasn’t going to happen,” Vandiver said.
“So he never attended Emporia State.”
Tameler made a point to ask both Trenkle and Vandiver if the schools for which they coached in 2012 were typically steppingstones to a career in the NBA. Both confirmed they were and are not.
The final witness called to the stand Wednesday was Richard Johnson Jr., who works in human resources operations for Schelling’s former employer, Floor and Décor.
Johnson confirmed that Schelling began her employment with the company in October 2012 and that her last recorded hours came on the day of her disappearance, Feb. 4, 2013.
He testified that, according to company records, Schelling clocked out of work at 8:41 p.m. that evening.
She never worked another shift for the company.
