Jury hears no show witness deposition

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Even though she never showed up in court, a witness for the prosecution in the second Hamilton Avenue murder trial was heard before a jury today.

Joyce Snorten is the first witness in the trial to connect James Stewart to the worst mass murder in Indianapolis history.

Prosecutors have been unable to find Snorten, but they used words from her deposition earlier this year to bolster their case in court on Tuesday.

In that deposition, Snorten pointed the finger at Stewart.

She said he told her he had been with Desmond Turner the night of the killings on Hamilton Avenue three-and-a-half years ago.

The relatives of the victims were glad to hear the testimony, even if it wasn’t in person.

“She is, in a way, his friend and maybe she didn’t want to come in and testify against him,” said Mario Albarran, a relative of the victims. “Or maybe she was intimidated. I don’t know what reason she wasn’t here was, but we heard her testimony.”

But a relative of Stewart who knew Snorten said she thinks she knows why Snorten didn’t show up to testify.

“Because she’s lying,” said Katina Simpson, Stewart’s aunt. “I mean if something like this happened, if I knew something about it, whether he’s my nephew or not, and if he told me something like that, I’m standing my ground. I’m going to be here because this is serious. Seven people lost their lives.”

Testimony from a woman who never took the witness stand wasn’t the only thing unusual about the day in court.

Jurors left the courtroom Tuesday morning to come see the home and the neighborhood where the killings occurred.

That is similar to Desmond Turner’s trial, in which judge Robert Altice came to see the scene of the crime.

Altice made the decision about Turner’s guilt himself; there was no jury involved.

Prosecutors plan to present more witnesses who will say Stewart told them he was involved.

Those prosecutors hope to finish presenting their case sometime this week.