my impression was if you were standing on the edge of hell, when i walked in and i saw her laying down with the arrow in her back, it was my first impression was, it was a dead kill shot, because it looked like it went right through the heart. if it wasn t, it was very, very close, but it was dead on. i mean, 90 degrees, straight in. that s what you told the police? that s what i told the police. so if it had gone off by accident, it would have had to have hit that fridge, somehow hit at such an angle that the arrow that s right. in a strange coincidence, came out perfectly, but it would have been exactly. the right height also, the right height, the right angle. and i can tell you, if i was going to murder someone with a crossbow, i d darn sure make sure it goes in on an angle.
statement. the prosecutor declined my request. hou howes insisted his memory was correct. in august of 2008, ken creamer appeared for one last chance to say it was an accident, to appeal for the court s mercy and then it was the judge s turn. i can t read his mind but obviously at some point along the way, mr. creamer has convinced himself that was the case, that, in fact, it was an accident. obviously, the jury did not believe this particular killing was an accident. having sat through the entire trial, quite frankly, neither does the court. the sentence, life, no parole. decision made. everyone can be certain, can t they? we were preparing to leave the man behind the glass when he broke into a moment of unguarded emotion. he was remembering the minutes
and just because it s an accident, that it s unlikely, that it s a freak accident does not mean that it s murder. to the jury, the choice seemed relatively straightforward. i don t think anybody on the jury really wanted to say this man did it. of course, for the jury, and these members of the jury that gathered to talk about it, there were a number of questions to consider. as they talked in that jury room, they struggled to figure out how an accident might have played out. his statement that he threw this christmas bag, unbeknownst with the weapon in it, and it discharged. where did it hit the refrigerator, for example? and how did it land? we did have the weapon in our jury room, and some of the men tried to get a feel for how it loaded up and then it takes a
as for that friend, sue cotton, who testified earlier that she d lectured ken about getting rid of the crossbow did you tell her, i don t want to just throw it away or something like that. there was never a conversation with her. she just flat-out lied to everybody here. in fact, said creamer, he thought his wife had already given the crossbow away. but surely the neighbor, a man with an impeccable reputation, was telling the truth when he said he saw evidence that creamer staged the crime scene to make it look like an accident. no, said creamer, that was not the truth. the neighbor must have been seeing things. did you move the crossbow at all in any way after anna was struck? i never touched it. the case is now totally in your hands. so now the question would be handed to the jury. the memories were conflicting, but the facts were like lightning striking twice. had ken creamer persuaded the
but, still, justice crawled. the boy adjusted to a new life with anna s family, a family that came to believe firmly in creamer s guilt. and for 2 1/2 years, he sat in jail waiting to answer the question. how do you plead, guilty or not guilty? not guilty. this was june 2008. the commonwealth evidence will show this was no accident. and this, the prosecutor, tabitha anderson. here s your time line, september 2005 the defendant buys the crossbow. less than 30 days later anna creamer takes an arrow to her chest. and she goes to the hospital. less than 90 days after that, she takes an arrow in the back,