CONWAY — A police investigator testified under cross-examination Wednesday that a now-dead man reported having seen capital-murder defendant Richard Conte in Duck Creek, Utah, the weekend Conte is accused of killing two men in Conway.
Sgt. Rick Brown, who works for the Department of Public Safety in Nevada and who in 2002 worked for the sheriff’s office in Nevada’s Douglas County, made the statement after repeated questioning from defense attorney Jack Lassiter.
Brown was testifying in the trial of Conte, a former emergency-room physician accused of murdering Conway businessman Carter Elliott, 49, and Timothy Wayne Robertson, 25, at Elliott’s Shady Valley home the weekend of May 18-19, 2002.
After showing Brown a record of his conversation with the man, William Pringle, Lassiter said, “Did he tell you he saw Dr. Conte [in Duck Creek] that weekend in May?”
“Yes, sir,” Brown then replied.
Conte had a remote cabin in Duck Creek.
“I believe he said he saw Dr. Conte drive his truck” two or three times that weekend. “But he doesn’t specify which truck,” Brown added.
Brown testified that, based on what Pringle had said, Conte and Pringle talked at a later date that summer.
Conte, 63, and Elliott were ex-husbands of Lark G. Swartz, previously known as Lark Gathright-Elliott. She filed for divorce from Conte in April 2002 after a marriage of less than a year. She was married to Elliott, her first husband, for 18 years.
Prosecutors have depicted Conte as a scorned lover who viewed Elliott as a romantic rival and who drugged and kidnapped Swartz about a month after the killings. Conte was imprisoned for the kidnapping until August 2011, when he was charged with the slayings.
Also Wednesday, the prosecution advanced its depiction of Conte as an avid gun collector who invented wild tales of foreign adventures to impress Swartz and evoke her sympathy.
Swartz’s brother-in-law, Dr. Kevin Clark, testified that he had known Conte since they were in medical school together.
Clark, a surgeon in Florida, said Conte had told him “that he was a contract killer” and showed him medals indicating “he was part of the Delta Force mission in Iran in 1979.”
On or about April 17, 2002, Clark said, Conte called him to say he had been shot repeatedly while he was trapped under a sport utility vehicle in Afghanistan. He said Conte related that he did not want doctors there to remove the bullets and instead, upon his return to this country, went to Clark’s medical office to have them removed.
Upon his arrival, Clark recalled, Conte was dressed “in full battle fatigues” and was wearing a helmet.
Clark said he took Conte to a hospital where he removed “eight or nine bullets.”
“It looked like they had been inserted through a small incision” and were not the result of having been shot, Clark testified.
Clark also said family members tried to call Conte late on May 19, 2002, the day the men’s bodies were found in Conway. Conte later returned the call from his Duck Creek phone number, Clark said.
Swartz’s brother, Richard Gathright, testified that Conte’s callback that Sunday came about 45 minutes after family members tried to reach Conte.
Prosecutors also introduced into evidence numerous guns, magazines, clips and other weaponry, as well as several boxes of condoms that investigators found in Conte’s home in Carson City, Nev., in 2002.
Other evidence included notes Conte had made about where Elliott lived and Internet searches he had made for information about Conway.
Prosecutors also introduced an e-mail in which Conte told Swartz that he had swallowed his wedding ring and a St. Christopher medal during the Afghanistan attack.
Also Wednesday, both of Elliott’s adult children testified under cross-examination that he sometimes kept large amounts of cash at home. His son said he had seen his father with $10,000.
Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland has waived the death penalty in the case. If Conte is convicted of capital murder, he would serve life in prison without parole under Arkansas law.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/17/2013