Part 1
At a preliminary hearing wringing wet with pathos, Armory murder suspect Scott Ansman today was portrayed by a parade of witnesses as a desperate father-to-be who went shopping, almost wantonly, for a hit man in the weeks before JoAnn Harris’s violent death last Aug. 24.
Contradicting the National Guard sergeant’s earlier assertions that Ms. Harris merely was an acquaintance and her pregnancy was a one-time fluke, no fewer than three of the10 witnesses said the defendant asked them if they knew of anyone who could do harm to the victim.
Sgt. Ansman’s alleged inquiries and offers ranged from a quickly dismissed $50 bid for a hit job to more elaborate requests.
Only prosecutor Joe Markus put on witnesses, and defense attorney Ron Powell, in his first courtroom appearance, declined to evaluate the day’s activities.
The 35-year-old Sgt. Ansman was animated at times, shaking his head in disagreement with stunning testimony of the moment, occasionally despairing and lowering his head into his hands. By the end of the draining day, he was crying when he was escorted back to confinement.
His wife, 7-month-old son and his sister-in-law were in the courtroom for the opening testimony.
Trajectory of the Testimony
The day’s narrative spanned widely, from whether Ms. Harris would voluntarily undergo an abortion, to an alleged attempt to poison the woman by placing Visene in her tea, thereby presumably killing the fetus, to doing away with both mother and child.
After listening to witnesses for 4 1/2 hours, Judge Antonio Barreto Jr. announced at 4 o’clock that Sgt. Ansman, jailed for more than half a year, would be bound over for trial.
His arraignment was set for Thursday, Feb. 14.
Held without bail since the crime, he is charged with two counts of murder, the second having been added later to cover the death of the fetus. He has pleaded not guilty, maintaining that he struck Ms. Harris only in self defense after she attacked him.
The defendant could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted.
Far Apart
The ultimate lonely family scene played out in the seventh floor courtroom at the Airport Courthouse. Only three persons were in the audience, two of them the mourning and widowed mothers of the victim and of the suspect, Martha Lou Harris and Marilyn Ansman.
They sat at opposite ends of the back row. They do not know each other, and they have not exchanged any words.
From observation, the testimony was hardest on Mrs. Ansman, who walks with a cane. Gasping at times over testimony that shocked her, she was so overwhelmed at the end of the morning session, when one of her son’s co-workers broke down on the witness stand, she stayed behind to compose herself.
Silence on Official Report
While the subject of drug use spasmodically entered the testimony, Mr. Markus, the prosecutor, declined to comment on the toxicology report that allegedly attests that Ms. Harris had undefined drugs in her system at her death.
Based on prosecution-only witnesses, what seemed clear from daylong testimony was that the killing of Ms. Harris, by multiple blows from a baseball bat, was not a random occurrence but the climax to a series of darkly mysterious scenarios involving the defendant and various parties.
Methodology
Assorted witnesses described the suspect as asking them for a seagoing boat that could reach Catalina to bury the military accoutrements of his late father-in-law (who actually is alive), for boxes so he could line his car with the cardboard for unknown purposes, to an alleged offer of “$600 to $1000” to injure or kill Ms. Harris.
National Guard Sgt. Erik Hein, the defendant’s closest co-worker and probably the most crucial person on the witness stand today, produced one of the more bizarre interludes.
One day last summer, he said Sgt. Ansman suggested that since he knew Sgt. Hein was a Jew or had Jewish family members, “did I know anybody who could kill someone? I said ‘No, but there are some Italians in my family. They might be interested.’ I was kidding of course.”
It was the only vague departure from the dominant tone of the day.
Searching for Aid and Comfort
So disturbed was the sensitive Sgt. Hein by the defendant’s workday conduct in mid-summer— after learning the married man had gotten a woman pregnant — he went to his superiors in quest of spiritual counseling for the suspect.
But they directed him to Culver City police. His superiors accompanied him to the Police Station, where he was extensively interviewed about a fortnight before the murder.
Sgt. Hein indicated that he spilled all the hushed dialogues he and Sgt. Ansman had shared in recent days.
So shaken was the National Guard training officer in the opening minutes of his testimony that he broke down on the witness stand, just after saying police asked him to wear a bodywire.
Abrupt Ending
Sobbing silently but profusely, he was unable to continue, at which point Judge Barret called for a mid-day recess.
Sgt. Hein testified at length about how “erratic,” “desperate” and “out of character” Sgt. Ansman acted in his daily job at the Armory last July and August, presumably just after learning Ms. Harris was pregnant.
When the afternoon session convened, Sgt. Hein said he did not want to wear a bodywire for two reasons: Out of loyalty to a fellow officer and because he feared for his life.
It was not made clear whether he ever did wear the wire.
(To be continued)
