the family s crossbow back in october. that time police say it accidentally struck anna creamer. lightning striking twice, a person could understand, actually. but this? resuscitative efforts were attempted, but she was pronounced deceased at the house. detectives put creamer in a police car, he said good-bye to his son and said he d be back. the detective drove him down to the station. i appreciate you coming down. am i in any trouble? no, you re not. we re just talking. he said under the direction of his wife anna was cleaning up the garage, picking out things to save and items to throw away or give away and rearranging and then he picked up this one bag, didn t know what was in it, he said. he kind of throw it off to the side. i heard you right, so you threw the bag, you heard the sound of the crossbow going off immediately. yeah. okay. i heard sound, and i didn t really know what was happening. an accident, said ken
so mystically deadly as if the fear of it has come down through centuries in our genes and attached itself to a defendant named ken creamer. january 8th, 2006. early morning. sunday. a case that seemed to call for a passionate closing from prosecutor patrick connolly. the defendant took this crossbow, and he took this arrow. this crossbow. he loaded it, and with it in there and his wife on a treadmill, he stood behind her and fired directly into her back with malice, with premeditation, with deliberation, and he did it willfully. and you, each and every one of you know it s the truth. to which defense attorney
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 jury that such a thing was possible? jurors take aim at the truth as they wrestle with the crossbow. some of men tried to get a feel for it. and, the verdict the jury finds the defendant when the crossbow incident continues.
and there it was. the gotcha in the prosecution s case. here was an extremely credible witness, a military officer, whose memory strongly suggested that when howes stepped outside the garage that day to talk to the police, ken creamer still inside, moved that crossbow, staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. powerful evidence. assuming the jury would decide to trust neighbor howes military-trained memory and that forensic firearm s expert s evaluation of the crossbow. but would they? ken creamer takes the stand. would jurors trust him? i heard a poof sound, and i turned around quick and my wife was already on the floor. when the crossbow incident continues.
ken creamer killed his wife anna. of that, there was no doubt. shot her with a crossbow, right here in his garage. and the shock of it was, he d done it before. just didn t kill her that time. so the charge that put him in this place, first-degree murder, is no surprise. 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