Wesley Earnest testifies, denies killing his wife: Earnest says no one can vouch for his whereabouts at the time of his wife’s death. [The Roanoke Times, Va.]

Apr. 2--UPDATED April 2: Defense rests; FBI expert says hair found in wife's bathroom not Earnest's

BEDFORD -- Former school administrator Wesley Earnest testified Thursday that on the night prosecutors say he killed his estranged wife in Bedford County, he was at home in Chesapeake, sick with a mid-December allergy.

Taking the witness stand on the eighth day of his murder trial, Earnest said he left work at Great Bridge High School on Dec. 19, 2007, and went home to nap, getting up to eat dinner at a restaurant before returning home for the night.

"I get these seasonal allergies, not that I would complain or that people would hear me complain," he said. "If I get a little rest in, it helps me bounce back.

"I considered going to the wrestling match [after school] but because my throat was hurting, I decided to get some rest instead."

Earnest's testimony in Bedford County Circuit Court brought withering scorn from Bedford Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz, who is trying to convince jurors that Earnest left work about 4 p.m. Dec. 19 and drove to Forest, killing his wife, Jocelyn, sometime after 7:30 p.m. and leaving a suicide note near her body.

Krantz noted that, according to Earnest's testimony, no one saw him between 4 p.m. Dec. 19 and about 8 a.m. Dec. 20, when he went back to work.

"No one can vouch for your whereabouts, can they, Mr. Earnest?" Krantz asked.

Earnest replied: "I suppose not." He noted, though, that "people who served me at the restaurant saw me."

"Are they here?" Krantz asked.

"No, sir," replied Earnest.

That was also his reply when defense attorney Joseph Sanzone asked him bluntly if he had killed his wife.

[ Primer: Key players in the Wesley Earnest murder trial ]

Wesley, 39, and Jocelyn Earnest, 38, married in 1995, but their relationship had soured by 2004, according to testimony. Wesley Earnest began an affair that year with Shameka Wright of Campbell County, and in 2006 Jocelyn Earnest filed for divorce. The divorce proceedings turned ugly when Wesley Earnest ran into financial problems, borrowing more than $125,000. Jocelyn Earnest did little to ease the monetary pressure on the man she called her "cheating" husband.

Prosecutors allege Wesley Earnest killed Jocelyn with a .357-caliber revolver so that he would gain sole possession of their contested assets and climb out of debt. In a week of testimony, jurors heard that Wesley Earnest's fingerprints were found on the typewritten suicide note; that the box the revolver came in was found in his girlfriend's home; and that Wesley Earnest had borrowed a friend's pickup truck days before his estranged wife's death and bought four new tires for the truck under a fake name before returning it.

Prosecutors contend Earnest drove the truck roughly 200 miles from Chesapeake to Forest to kill his wife and replaced the tires in case he had left tracks.

Prosecutors also had Wright testify that, though she and Earnest normally spoke via cellphone in the evening, she could not reach him the evening of Dec. 19. On Thursday, Earnest said he lived in southern Chesapeake where the cell reception was bad.

In court Thursday, Wesley Earnest had praise for his dead wife, saying she could never be replaced. Early on, he said, he had even hoped to save their troubled marriage. He said he did not hear of her death until the day after, Dec. 20, and "it was devastating."

However, he also portrayed her as a cold fish who spent ever increasing hours at her job at Genworth Financial, ignoring his romantic overtures and driving him into the arms of Wright. "She just didn't seem to have it in her to be affectionate or demonstrate her love," he said of Jocelyn Earnest. "There was no intimacy."

In earlier testimony, friends and co-workers of Jocelyn Earnest portrayed her as bubbly, always warm and affectionate.

Earnest said that even before 2004, his wife had given him permission to have sex with other women as long as he returned to their home. Krantz suggested that part of Earnest's testimony did not square with previous testimony from a friend of Jocelyn Earnest's who said Jocelyn was angered and hurt when she caught him in bed with Wright at the Earnests' Smith Mountain Lake home.

Krantz portrayed Earnest as a constant liar, using earlier testimony to call into question his truthfulness. For instance, his colleagues in Chesapeake testified that Earnest told them he was worth millions, though in his divorce papers he cast himself as desperate for money. He also told his co-workers in Chesapeake that he was not married and bristled when they suggested they knew otherwise, they testified.

And while he was professing his love to Wright, Krantz noted, he was writing letters to Jocelyn Earnest telling her that he wanted to reconcile. When Krantz asked him why he had bought four new tires for the truck under the fake name Tom Dunbar of Roanoke, Earnest denied doing so: "I didn't give him a false name."

Sanzone ended the day by telling Judge James Updike that he has only one more witness to call, an FBI agent who will talk about fingerprints.

That means closing statements could come as early as today, unless prosecutors choose to put on what is known as rebuttal evidence.

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