A (SMITH): Edward Williams came to my apartment that morning.

Q: Right. That's what I'm trying to get at.  Was it Edward Williams and he made a telephone call?

A: Yes.

Q: He dialed the number himself?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you see the number he called?

A: No.

Q: Do you know what that number was?

A: No.

Q: Now, at that time and the placing of that telephone call, had you ever met Tommy Zeigler?

A: No.

Q: Had you ever talked to him?

A: No.

Q: Did you know at that time what his voice sounded like?

A: No.

Q: So, then would it be a fair statement, Mr. Smith, that you have no way of personally knowing that was Tommy Zeigler you talked to on the telephone?

A: Yes, that would be a fair statement.

Mary Ellen Stewart was the state's last witness with personal knowledge of what happened on Christmas Eve.  In her brief direct testimony, she told Eagan that she had been a customer of the furniture store for about three years, and that in April or May she had called Zeigler when she fell behind on some payments.  The next day, she said, she had returned a call from Zeigler.  He had told her that he was interested in buying some illegal guns, to circumvent a supposed new law that would prevent the sale of handguns.1  At that time he had asked her about "Smitty"—her son-in-law, Frank Smith.

She also confirmed that Edward Williams had come to her home late on Christmas Eve, that he had been very upset, and that he had made several telephone calls.  She did not remember when they had left her home to go to the sheriff's office.

Hadley tried to establish a motive for her unfavorable testimony against Zeigler, asking her about an incident in 1975 when Zeigler and Curtis Dunaway went to her home and tried to repossess some of her furniture; she told Hadley that Zeigler had tried to take pieces that she had bought elsewhere.

_______________________________________

1   No such law ever existed.