TIMING
The prosecution placed the murder of the Hartigs on Thursday, April 5, 1990. Next-door neighbor Marianne Davis, whose son, James, discovered the bodies of the Hartigs, regularly got home from work between 4 and 5 p.m. She would have been aware of the commotion caused by the murder of the Hartigs if the murders happened while she was home. She did not hear or see the commotion. Although not stated in her affidavit, Marianne Davis told us that she recalled seeing the Hartigs' riding mower sitting out and his garage door standing open when she got home from work. Therefore, the murders must have happened before she got home from work.
The prosecution presented evidence, in the form of testimony from alleged accomplice Butch Wolcott, that he and Tyrone and Gary and Joey traveled to Atwater shortly after Gary St. Clair's mother, Beverly Rupp, and several other of his relatives, picked up his step-brother, Johnny Trandafir, Jr., to go to dinner to celebrate Beverly Rupp's birthday. This testimony was supposed to bolster the credibility of Butch Wolcott by showing that he remembered the day they went to Atwater. However, Beverly Rupp's birthday is not April 5th but April 6th.
Beverly Rupp and Johnny Trandafir, Jr., and others recall that Beverly and her relatives stopped at Bonnieview to pick up Johnny on April 6, 1990 and not on April 5, 1990. The event which Butch Wolcott testified immediately preceded the supposed trip to Atwater did not happen on April 5, 1990, the day of the Hartig murders. Moreover, Butch testified that they left for Atwater around 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. Joey Dalesandro gave the same testimony. This would not have given them enough time to drive from Alliance to Atwater, to find the Hartig home, and to commit the murders before Mrs. Davis got home from work.
CONTINUED:
THE ALLEGED ACCOMPLICES
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