FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County jurors heard a 15-year-oldboy testify Wednesday that his father held a gun to his head more than once and threatened to kill him.
A prosecution witness changed his story, saying that he had previously lied first to police and later during a bond revocation hearing afterhe had been threatened with being charged as an accomplice.
Terry Hayes, 40, is on trial facing chargesof aggravated assault on a family member, terroristic threatening, endangering the welfare of a minor and felon in possession of a firearm.
Hayes is accused on Jan. 19 of threatening to kill his then-14-year-old son while holding a gunto his head while the two were at Hayes' residence on Black Oak Road outside of Fayetteville. They fled into the woods after hearing that sheriff's deputies were in route to the home and later went to Terry's Towing, then Hayes' Fayetteville towing business.
The boy first told deputies that the allegations were not true, then later said that they were.
Hayes also faces trial charges of intimidating a witness and terroristic threatening. Hayes is accused on June 23 of calling and threatening a witness.
The trial before Washington County Circuit Judge William Storey began Wednesday and is expected to conclude today. If convicted, Hayes would face sentencing enhancements because of convictions and for committing offenses in front of a child.
Deputy Prosecutor Dustin Roberts said during opening remarks thatHayes' longtime girlfriend, Theresa Coleman, moved out on Hayes in early January and she and Hayes' son were living together in Prairie Grove at her mother's home at the time of the alleged incident.
Defense attorney Jim Rose said that Coleman will testify for the defense and that Hayes will take the stand today.
Son testifies
The boy testified thathis dad called him on Jan. 19, told him to pack up his stuff and then picked him up and took him to Hayes' residence.
Hayes called Coleman, who had raised the Hayes' son as her own, and was arguing with her about coming back home, the boy testified. Hayes said he would kill her, his son, himself and others if she did not come back, the son testified.
Hayes' made his sontell Coleman that he had a handgun to his head and would kill him, the boy testified.
She called 911, and Prairie Grove police responded while she was still on the phone with Hayes. And then, after they realized Hayes was not there, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to Hayes' home. By the time deputies arrived, Hayes and his son had fled into the nearby woods, where they were able to avoid authorities after Rick Frazier, who worked for Hayes at the time, picked them up.
The son testified that he had hidden a rifle in a barn before leaving with his dad into the woods.
The son admitted on direct examination that he had told an ex-girlfriend that he felt like saying that he made the whole story up about his father in order to get out of a facility where he was staying.
The ex-girlfriend testified for the defense that Hayes' son told her "a couple of times in personthat it was not true and he just wanted to go home."
Changing stories
Frazier had told sheriff's deputies that he sold a handgun to Hayes and that he had removed two guns from Hayes' barn before it was searched by police. He also testified in a bond revocation hearing that he had accompanied Hayes on a trip to Texas when he had to convince Hayes not to run away from authorities to avoid prosecution.
Frazier testified Wednesday that he had lied about all of this before because he had been threatened with being charged as an accomplice.
"I was in a lot of fear. It's indescribable," he testified. "I wanted to do anything possible to get out of it."
He said under crossexamination that he knows he can get into more trouble for perjury than as an accomplice but said he was telling the truth Wednesday because he "cannot carry around the thought of hurting someone else."
He also said that the boy did not act scared oras if anything was wrong when he picked the two up from the woods near Hayes' residence. He never discussed with them what happened, he testified.
He also provided an alibi for Hayes on the witness tampering charge, saying that he called Tracy Martin, the boy's mother, late on the night before the case was set to go to trial in June. He pulled from his pocket the cell phone that Hayes is accused of making the threatening call from and said it's been in his possession since about two weeks before he made that call.
Martin testified that she is positive that she talked to Hayes because she recognized his voice.
She testified that Hayes asked her, "Are you sure that you want to do this because I am going to kill you over that [expletive] boy?" Skunk shooter
The son testified that Hayes fired two shots from the front porch while on the phone with Coleman. A detective testified that he recovered two empty .45-caliber shell casingsfrom the porch.
William Henson, who said he's known Hayes for four or five years, testified that some time between Christmas and New Year's Eve that Coleman called him and asked him to kill a skunk on the property.
Henson testified that he fired two shots from a .45-caliber handgun from the porch and killed a skunk and did not try to retrieve the shell casings.
Deputies testified that they found shotguns shells and a couple of .45-caliber magazines in atruck on Hayes' property.
Henson said that the truck had belonged to his late father and that he had the only keys to the truck, which had been left in the same spot on Hayes' property for more than three years - parked in front of a garage door.
News, Pages 1, 3 on 09/24/2009