Larissa Schuster Trial, Day 18, 11/15/07

Judge Wayne Ellison took the bench at 9:30 a.m. He first addressed a motion previously raised by the defense, regarding questions the prosecution can ask Larissa Schuster. The revised motion now lists specific information. The defense does not want the prosecution to ask questions that assume James Fagone's statements to police and the court during his trial as fact. The judge said he will use the motion as a guide when ruling on objections.

The jurors entered the room at 9:38 a.m. Testimony resumed at 9:40 a.m. Defense attorney Roger Nuttall began asking Larissa Schuster about her conversation in which she said Fagone confessed to killing her estranged husband Timothy Schuster. On July 12, 2003, Larissa Schuster said her physical state was one of exhaustion. She said she was awake for around 24 hours. She was extremely physically drained at that point.

9:42 a.m. That afternoon she called her employee Leslie Dobbs. She called her, she said, because she was overwhelmed with the things she needed to do to get out of town the next day. She asked Dobbs to help her locate a truck. Dobbs came to the lab. She did not tell Dobbs the true reason she needed a truck. They tried to find a man who Dobbs knew had a truck. The man's name was Rudy. He was not able to help them. This was around mid-afternoon. Later they decided to look into obtaining a U-Haul. She said there was urgency getting the truck, because she would leave the next morning at 6 a.m. 9:45 a.m. , "I felt like the time span I had to get this done was extremely short." Nuttall asked if she thought about calling the authorities and ending it.

9:45 a.m. "hindsight is 20/20. I made some bad decisions that day. I was overwhelmed with what was going on in my life that day. And that's the decision I came up with." Larissa Schuster said she and Dobbs went to Dobbs house and called the U-Haul rental company. They obtained a rental. She said she got a phone call from Det. Kiirkhart, at the Clovis Police Dept. She wanted him to have a journal her husband had been keeping regarding their divorce. She met him at Herdon and Blackstone, in the Pinedale area. She told the detective about this journal during the interview she had with police that previous Friday night into early Saturday morning. When she went to meet with the detective, the U-Haul was kept at Dobbs home until she cold pick it up later.

9:49 a.m. Q. Why didn't you tell him about what you had learned from James? A. "I was scared. I've looked back, I know I made some decisions that were not right, I thought I'd be detained at that point." She said she still had to be on that plane with her husband the next day. She didn't want to disappoint her son. Nuttall asked her if she thought about what she'd tell her son about his dad. "I remember thinking briefly about it, it just wasn't something I could do at that time."

9:51 a.m. What was uppermost in her mind was her son's trip that he had planned. She did not want to disappoint him. She said he would have been devastated. When she met with Det. Kirkhart she gave him the journal. After that, she went home. She knows she was being followed. That circumstance did not deter her in any way. When she went home, she said James showed up a little later, but she can't remember for sure. At this point in time, today, looking back on that day, she said it's difficult to remember what happened and in what order. At some point she talked to James Fagone in terms of arrangements . She said she mentioned that she secured a truck, and he'd have to meet her at the lab. When she was at the house, she was aware she was being watched. She said she noticed an odd vehicle. She knew what vehicles were supposed to be there, and which were not. She said again it did not deter her from doing what she said she needed to do. She said she went straight to Dobbs house. She said she picked up the U-Haul rental from her. This was in the late afternoon. She said the return had to occur at 7 p.m. She was concerned because she didn't have much time. If she wasn't able to accomplish that on Saturday, she said she wouldn't be able to go on the trip. Objection. Rephrase.

9:58 a.m. Nuttall asked her if she remembered telling Dobbs about a story regarding Roger Weber that day. She said she vaguely remembers telling her about a rototiller. That story, she said, was in no way true. Weber testified in the trial. Her relationship with Weber was friendly. They dated a few times. He never lived at her home on Vermont Ave. He did visit the home on several occasions. James Fagone's family is once again in the courtroom. Timothy Schuster mother and brother are also in the room. On the opposite side of the same row, Larissa Schuster's parents are seated. From going to Dobbs house, she went to the lab with the U-Haul. She said James was already there. She said there were other people there with him. At that point, on July 12, she saw the barrel at the lab earlier in the afternoon. She said it was in the warehouse. She said there were ice coolers and shipping boxes stacked around it. She said when she got there with the U-Haul, she said James Fagone had already got into the lab and deactivated the alarm. She said she and James removed the boxes and coolers to move the barrel. She said she was in a hurry because she still had a lot of things to do, "there was a flurry of things going through my mind, yes, I was in a hurry."

10:03 a.m. She said she doesn't know who actually put the barrel in the U-Haul. She said it was James and the people he brought with him. She said she went to her office to do some other things. She said James had two other people with him. She believes James drove the truck. In the context of everything that was going on, she said James didn't know where to take it. She suggested it could go only temporarily to her storage unit, but he had to promise her it would be moved to another location where it could not be found.

Testimony continued at 11:03 a.m. During the break James Fagone's family suggested that James would never have allowed anyone to drive his car. They also say when they believe Larissa Schuster is lying, she looks directly at her attorney, and when they believe she's telling the truth, she looks at the jurors. Others in the courtroom have observed that she tends to look at two jurors in the back row when she's speaking. Nuttall displayed photos of CCRL for the court. Larissa Schuster described the various items in the lab, including tables where testing would be conducted. She also identified cabinets where chemicals were stored. Photos of her personal office were displayed. A small cabinet containing acids was displayed. She said it was an understanding in the office, if acids were purchased that didn't fit in a small cabinet, they'd be kept in their box, and placed in the cabinet when there was room. A picture of hydrochloric acid was displayed. Larissa Schuster said it was extremely important to keep the glassware clean. She said she experienced the reason firsthand in a previous lab where she worked. She said there was a lawsuit dealing with contamination within a study. She said the contamination was a result of reusing glassware that had not been cleaned properly. Larissa Schuster said each person who is assigned a project, it's their responsibility to make sure the glassware has been cleaned. Historically in her business, she said that is a priority. In this case, she recalled hearing evidence from witnesses talking about the fact that in the spring of 2003, Larissa Schuster caused to be purchased a good deal of hydrochloric acid, and sulpheric acid. When she purchased that acid, she ordered it by phone. When it arrived at the business, she said she didn't receive it, someone else at the lab did. 11:27 "did you purchase that acid, so you could dump your husband's body in a barrel and pour acid inside? No I didn't purchase it for that reason." She said she wouldn't purchase it for the whole world to see, if that was the purpose. She said the acid was purchased for the purpose of cleaning the glassware. She said when she first started the lab in 1997, she had taken the opportunity to do a massive glassware cleaning. She said she had onsite a bulk amount of acid already in the facility that she was renting, and was given to her new company. She said one of her employees and she would mix three parts to one, to clean the glassware. The combination of hydrochloric acid and another acid would be used. She said they don't do that every year or every month. She said it's an occasional procedure. She said it's fairly time consuming. She said simply washing isn't sufficient in the long term, because when you have multiple people sharing glassware, contaminants can be left behind. She said she planned to do the mass cleaning of the glassware when she returned from her trip with Tyler. Nuttall asked if the fact that there was a previous move of her location, play a part in her desire to do additional cleaning. She said it did. She said these types of procedures, using the solution for cleaning, were suggested as part of quality assurance. She said she was involved in quality assurance organizations. Nuttall said 18 bottles of hydrochloric acid, and six bottles of sulpheric acid were purchased. He asked why they were purchased in relationship to the cleaning. She said the hydrochloric was purchased. She was contemplating a more exhaustive procedure for some of the glassware, using the sulpheric acid. She said she hadn't done all the research on that procedure yet. She said the acid would have produced 50 liters of cleaning solution.
Prosecutor Dennis Peterson began cross examination in the afternoon. He asked Larissa Schuster about the amount of acid she used over the many years she worked as a biochemist. 3:13 p.m. "I really can't tell you exactly how much we used in 2001." She said she really would not want to make an estimate on that. She was then asked how much acid she used at the lab in 2002. She continued to reply, "I really don't know." She said the studies varied so much. She said hydrochloric acid was also used for instruments. She said she doesn't remember what all was going on that year. Peterson reminded Larissa Schuster that in 1988, she purchased only one bottle of acid that year. In 2003 before Timothy Schuster's murder ,Larissa Schuster purchased close to 20 bottles of hydrochloric acid. In 1988 one bottle of sulpheric acid was purchased. A woman testified earlier in the trial about the amounts of acid purchased over the years. She said when she worked for Pan Ag a different distributor was used. She said the methods are very specific, developed by a chemist at sponsored companies. Peterson looked at her and then looked away exhausted. Larissa Schuster explained to the jurors the purchasing of chemicals. Peterson asked if there was some other chemical venders were used. She said she didn't recall. VWR Scientific is a possible other supplier of acid. Peterson said all of the bottles labeled in her lab said Fisher Scientific. Peterson asked her why she changed an entry. She said she was considering putting the barrel in her storage unit at the time. Peterson asked her about a check Larissa Schuster wrote to Leslie Dobbs some time around the time the barrel was 3:30 "you weren't trying to cover up something? Absolutely not." Peterson then asked Larissa Schuster about her relationship with James Fagone. She said sometimes James was at the lab after he quit working at CCRL. Peterson moved on to the interview Larissa Schuster had with Clovis Police. He asked her if she recalled being asked if she had gone to an address where Timothy Schuster had moved after he moved out of the Vermont Ave. address. The term Woodlawn was apparently used. She told police she had never been to that location 3?41 "that was a blatant lie. That was a dishonest statement." Peterson reminded her that she testified to breaking into his house earlier and taking back community property. "I wasn't the master planner in that. I just wanted to retrieve some items, specifically some items that were my grandmothers