Prosecution witnesses testify as first degree murder trial of rural Monona man gets underway in Allamakee County

by Bob Beach

Following the completion of jury selection last Thursday, the prosecution began presenting its case Monday, November 14 in the trial of Christopher Craig Thompson of rural Monona, who faces a first degree murder charge stemming from  the October 2, 2010 shooting death of his live-in girlfriend, Angela Marie Gabel.
In his opening statement, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Andrew Prosser described Thompson’s home life with Gabel as “not good,” saying that Thompson drank a lot, and that when he drank, he got mean. Prosser told members of the jury that they would hear Thompson’s own statements, in which he told investigators that Gabel had given him “the finger” and that he had “had it” when he shot Gabel in the head from the porch of their home as she sat in a car parked in the driveway. Prosser said that Thompson then approached the car and shot Gabel again. He described Thompson’s actions as “premeditated, deliberate and malicious.”
After Thompson’s attorneys announced that they would reserve their opening statement until the prosecution had finished presenting its case, the prosecution called its first witness, Sierra Frederick, Gabel’s 18-year old daughter.
Frederick testified that she resided with Thompson and Gabel at the time of her mother’s killing. She said that Thompson was typically away working for Design Homes during the week and that when he returned home on the weekends, he would drink a 24-pack of beer or more and he and her mother would argue.
Frederick testified that on the night of October 2, 2010, she was attending her Homecoming dance in Monona. She said that at around 11:30 p.m. she received a call on her cell phone from her mother, who “sounded scared.” Frederick testified that she left the dance immediately and went home, where police cars were already outside the rural Monona home. She said that she didn’t learn until later that night that her mother had been killed.
Under cross-examination, Frederick testified that her mother was outgoing and outspoken and that arguments between Thompson and her mother “went both ways.” Frederick also testified that the rifle allegedly used in the shooting belonged to her mother and that Thompson and her mother sometimes used it for target practice from the porch of the house.
The prosecution next called to the witness stand Clayton County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher Larry Crowbaugh, who received the 911 call from Thompson following the shooting. Crowbaugh said that Thompson had told him that he had shot his girlfriend. The prosecution then played a recording of that 911 call, during which Thompson sounded very upset and said, “She gave me the big F finger and I [expletive] shot her.”
The prosecution’s next witness was Allamakee County Deputy Sheriff Clark Mellick, who testified that he was off-duty on the night of October 2, but that he had been called in after the Allamakee County dispatch center received the report of the shooting. He said that when he arrived on the scene, Allamakee County Deputy Sheriff Steven Wilkes told him that the shooting victim was dead and that Thompson was in the house with the couple’s eight-month old son. Wilkes also told Mellick that he had been in contact with Thompson by cell phone. Mellick said that Wilkes again contacted Thompson by cell phone and that Thompson agreed to exit the house with the child, which he did. Thompson was then taken into custody and transported to the police station in Waukon.
Before hearing Mellick’s account of the subsequent interview with Thompson, the prosecution called Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) criminalist Victor Murillo, a crime scene investigator specializing in firearms and tool marks, to the stand. Murillo testified that he arrived on the scene at approximately 7:30 a.m. October 3, where he photographed the scene and collected evidence, including the rifle allegedly used in the shooting. Murillo testified that the bullet fragments recovered from Gabel’s body are consistent with the rifle recovered from the scene, but due to the degree of fragmentation, it’s impossible to say definitively that the bullets that killed Gabel were fired from the rifle recovered.
During cross-examination, the defense entered into evidence several photos from the scene taken by Murillo showing a number of beer cans - 13 on the kitchen counter and several others in the living room and outside the house near the porch.
As its final witness of the day, the defense recalled Mellick to the stand, who testified that he had been present during an interview with Thompson conducted by DCI Special Agent John Turbett. The defense then entered into evidence a video recording of that interview and presented it in its entirety to the jury. During the approximately two and a half hour interview, Thompson confessed that he had shot Gabel with a .22 caliber rifle from the porch of his home as she sat in her daughter’s car in the driveway. “I didn’t even aim,” Thompson said near the end of the interview. “It was impulsive, I didn’t even use the sights, and I hit her.” Thompson said that he went over to see if he could “save her” after firing the first shot, but instead “put her out of her misery because there was no helping her.”
The trial was scheduled to continue Tuesday, November 15 with the defense team’s cross-examination of Mellick, after which Prosser said he intends to call the medical examiner who conducted Gabel’s autopsy as a witness before resting the prosecution’s case. The defense will then begin to present its case to the jury.