GREENWOOD -- Aaron Cutsinger threatened to kill Leanora Rippy two weeks before her body was found on a road on remote Sugar Loaf Mountain, according to testimony Monday.
Scott Van Horn, who was living with the woman's parents' and Rippy last year in Boles in Scott County, testified on the first day of Cutsinger's trial in Sebastian County Circuit Court that Cutsinger had sent text messages to him to pass along to Rippy.
The profanity-laced messages said Cutsinger wanted Rippy and her son Slayde Carey, then 2, to burn in hell and that they should watch their backs, Van Horn testified.
Cutsinger, 26, of Hartford is being tried for first-degree murder in the Sept. 19, 2015, death of Rippy, 23, and the attempted first-degree murder of Slayde, who authorities believe was being cradled by his mother when they were run over multiple times.
Slayde survived and was found about a quarter-mile from where his mother was found.
Van Horn told the jury of six men and six women that he began receiving the text messages after Rippy refused to allow Cutsinger to be with her son.
Cutsinger, who had taken a liking to Slayde, was allowed to take him to a fast-food restaurant in Waldron, Van Horn said. But Van Horn said Cutsinger called Rippy minutes after arriving there, saying that Slayde had thrown a tantrum and for her to come get him. Van Horn said he drove Rippy to Waldron to retrieve her son.
Van Horn said the relationship between Rippy and Cutsinger, which started in the summer of 2015, began to fall apart at that point in August 2015 and the text messages arrived shortly after.
Garrett Mixon of Hartford testified that he, his mother, his wife and his daughter were driving up Sugar Loaf Mountain Road when he noticed a diaper in the road. At the same time, his wife Jessica saw the naked toddler sitting in grass taller than his head about 4 feet off the road.
Garrett Mixon said he noticed the boy was dirty, had a scrape that covered his left side and bruises and cuts. He said he thought the toddler was in shock.
Mixon called 911 and, although the dispatcher told him to stay there with the boy, the Mixons took Slayde to the Hartford Fire Station where they met medical and emergency personnel.
Concerned the boy might have been a survivor of a vehicle accident, searchers headed up the mountain to see if there were others who needed help. Rippy's body was found in a small washout in the roadway.
Barling investigator Ray Moore, a member of a multiagency Metro Crime Scene Unit, testified that it appeared a vehicle went off the road just downhill from where Rippy's body was found. He noted the direction of travel from the way the roadside saplings were bent.
Sebastian County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott Houston said in his opening statement that the state contends Cutsinger, after an argument with Rippy, had initially driven away, leaving her and Slayde stranded.
Houston said Cutsinger's anger grew as he drove away and he turned around and drove back up the road. When Rippy saw Cutsinger driving toward her, Houston said, she and Slayde moved off the road into the roadside underbrush, but Cutsinger drove off the road and hit her. He turned around and ran over her again, Houston said.
Sebastian Count sheriff's investigator Anthony Sacco testified that he found a piece of trim off a vehicle fender that was broken off when the vehicle went through the trees.
After Cutsinger was developed as a suspect from statements by Van Horn, Sacco said, he and Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck drove to Cutsinger's neighborhood, parked near his house and looked at Cutsinger's pickup through binoculars. Sacco said the front wheel well fender on the passenger side was missing a small piece of trim like the piece found at the scene on Sugar Loaf Mountain.
In his opening statement to jurors, Cutsinger's attorney Leonardo Monterrey, who is pursuing an insanity defense for his client, told jurors that Cutsinger suffered from a "pot of emotional and psychological" problems.
Among them were severe aggression, poor judgment, major depressive disorder, severe substance abuse, addiction to alcohol and drugs, impulsivity, suicidal ideation, a history of high-risk activities, borderline personality disorder, autism and attention deficit disorder.
When Cutsinger picked up Rippy at her home, Monterrey told jurors, he intended to break up with her because she wouldn't allow him to see her son and because he wanted to join the Navy, but she didn't want him to.
They argued on Sugar Loaf Mountain, after which he threw out her bags she brought with food, clothes and baby supplies and drove off.
He continued to drive up Sugar Loaf Mountain Road to turn around, then sped back down the gravely and rugged road at 40 miles an hour, lost control and hit Rippy and her son accidentally, Monterrey said.
He said Cutsinger got out of his pickup, checked and decided that Rippy and Slayde were dead and drove down the mountain, not calling for help but buying a sandwich for his father before driving home.
Testimony continues at 9 a.m. today.
State Desk on 11/08/2016