4.Karen Halbach — Direct
109 linesCOURT CLERK: Please raise your right hand.
KAREN HALBACH, called as a witness herein, having been first duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
COURT CLERK: Please be seated. Please state your name and spell your last name for the record.
KAREN HALBACH: Karen Halbach, H-a-l-b-a-c-h.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY ATTORNEY KRATZ:
MR. KRATZ: Good morning, Mrs. Halbach. Thank you for agreeing to testify on -- on such short notice. I have a couple of easier questions for you and I have some difficult questions.
The first questions that I need to talk to you about regard your daughter, Teresa. Could you tell us, please, first of all, how many -- um, many children you've had?
KAREN HALBACH: Five.
MR. KRATZ: And where, within those five, um, did Teresa fall?
KAREN HALBACH: She was -- She was the second oldest.
MR. KRATZ: We've heard from your son, Mike. Uh, do you have any other sons?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I have. My oldest is a boy.
MR. KRATZ: His name?
KAREN HALBACH: Tim.
MR. KRATZ: What does Tim do for a living?
KAREN HALBACH: He's an attorney.
MR. KRATZ: And you have two other daughters; is that right?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: We've heard from one of them in this trial; is that correct?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: What's her name?
KAREN HALBACH: Katie.
MR. KRATZ: And how old is Katie?
KAREN HALBACH: Fifteen.
MR. KRATZ: And you have a younger daughter?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: And what's her name?
KAREN HALBACH: Kelly.
MR. KRATZ: How old is Kelly?
KAREN HALBACH: Thirteen.
MR. KRATZ: Is -- When your oldest daughter, um, Teresa -- we have a -- a picture up here in court -- was killed, how old was she?
KAREN HALBACH: Twenty-five.
MR. KRATZ: Tell the jury about, um, your relationship with Teresa? And I'll -- How often would you talk to her?
KAREN HALBACH: Um, at least once a week. She'd come over a lot on the weekends to spend time with us and her two sisters. Um, she took pictures for us. She did our family picture, and she was always taking pictures of the girls and around the farm. She liked to take pictures a lot.
And we'd spend a lot of time together. We'd go out, out to eat, or -- it seems like the kids were always over on a Sunday afternoon, and we'd talk, sit around the island in our kitchen and talk a lot. We did spend a lot of time together.
MR. KRATZ: Was Sundays a day that the family would typically get together?
KAREN HALBACH: Yeah. Yes.
MR. KRATZ: In fact, the Sunday before Teresa -- Teresa's death, a Sunday, the one day before her death on the 30th of October, do you recall all getting together for a birthday party that day?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes. It was my father's birthday on Halloween, but we got together that Sunday before and celebrated his birthday at his house.
MR. KRATZ: Okay. So Teresa was actually killed on your dad's birthday?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: I think you told us, um, Mrs. Halbach, that Teresa lived close to you in -- in physical proximity. Who owned the property in which she lived?
KAREN HALBACH: My husband and I do.
MR. KRATZ: And do you know at the time of her death who she lived with?
KAREN HALBACH: Uh, with a friend, Scott Bloedorn.
MR. KRATZ: Sometime on the 3rd of November of 2005, did you receive a telephone call from a gentleman by the name of Tom Pearce?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I did.
MR. KRATZ: Could you describe that call for the jury, please?
KAREN HALBACH: He called about one o'clock in the afternoon and he told me he was worried about Teresa because, not only had she not shown up for work Tuesday or Wednesday, but he had tried calling her on her cell phone, and it said the voicemail was full, and that concerned him because her cell phone was her business phone. She used that. It was easiest for her. And then I -- I said that concerned me, too. I was worried about her then, too.
MR. KRATZ: Were you familiar with the, uh, phone? Uh, that is, the, um, cell phone that Teresa had?
KAREN HALBACH: A little bit I was.
MR. KRATZ: You -- you've been asked and, in fact, after, uh, Teresa's death, investigators asked you to go through and actually find some things at her residence; is that correct?
KAREN HALBACH: Right.
MR. KRATZ: I'm going to show you two exhibits. One is Exhibit No. 379 and one is Exhibit 380.
MR. KRATZ: Mr. Strang, have you seen these?
MR. STRANG: I've seen them. All three. I've seen all three, yeah.
MR. KRATZ: (By Attorney Kratz) I think there's a stipulation, uh, Mrs., uh, Halbach, meaning there's an agreement with the attorneys, but I just want you to tell the jury what Exhibit 379 is, please?
KAREN HALBACH: It's a receipt for her cell phone that she bought.
MR. KRATZ: And what is Exhibit No. 380?
KAREN HALBACH: It's the contract for her cell phone.
MR. KRATZ: With what carrier? What, uh, wireless carrier?
KAREN HALBACH: Cingular.
MR. KRATZ: I'd like you to turn to the back page of the contract, and on the very bottom do you see that it indicates what kind of a cell phone she had?
KAREN HALBACH: Right.
MR. KRATZ: What does it say?
KAREN HALBACH: It's Motor V3.
MR. KRATZ: Motorola V3?
KAREN HALBACH: Yeah.
MR. KRATZ: All right. Do you know that to be, uh, something called a RAZR -- Motorola RAZR cell phone?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: Now, had you seen your daughter, Teresa, with that cell phone before?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I have.
MR. KRATZ: You've also heard evidence about Teresa owning something that's generically called a -- a -- a Palm Pilot. I'm sure the Palm Pilot people would be happy that we're calling it that. But it's a personal data assistant. Were you familiar that she owned one of those?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: I'm showing you another exhibit.
MR. KRATZ: Mr. Fallon, what's that exhibit number, please?
MR. FALLON: Three-seven-eight.
MR. KRATZ: (By Attorney Kratz) Three seventy-eight. Can you tell the jury what that is, please?
KAREN HALBACH: It's a receipt from a Palm Pilot from Target.
MR. KRATZ: On the, um, top of the receipt, does it indicate the date in which she bought that Palm Pilot or that Palm Zire 31, and does it indicate November 15 of 2004?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: During the course of the investigation, the missing person's investigation, and later, uh, what you unfortunately found out was a, uh -- a murder homicide investigation, were you asked to provide samples -- biological samples from yourself, something called a buccal swab, um, a sample of your DNA?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I was.
MR. KRATZ: And did you provide that for investigators?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I did.
MR. KRATZ: Mrs. Halbach, were you also asked to assist investigators, if you could, and have your children, Mike and other children, helping with, um, trying to determine cell phone records and -- and things like that? Do you remember that being asked of you?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes, I do.
MR. KRATZ: Your, um, daughter, Katie, who we've heard from, um, were you familiar with Katie's relationship with your daughter, Teresa?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: Would you describe that? What -- what you noticed about that relationship?
KAREN HALBACH: Um, Teresa was very close to both of her sisters. Um, you know, they spent a lot of time laughing and picking on each other. Uh, it kind of became tradition, Teresa would come over Sunday after -- Sunday night, and three of her favorite TV shows were on that night, and they'd watch it together and laugh and have a good time. You know, she took them shopping.
MR. KRATZ: All right. When you heard that Katie knew about Teresa's clothing, when she knew that she owned a pair of Daisy Fuentes jeans, do you have any doubts that, uh, they were close enough that she'd know that?
KAREN HALBACH: Oh, yeah. Teresa, um -- The girls would go over to Teresa's house and they would try on her clothes, because if Teresa had jeans that wouldn't fit her, she'd give them to the girls. So I'm sure Katie knows she had them.
MR. KRATZ: All right. There's been at least some suggestion that on, perhaps, the 2nd or 3rd of November, that your daughter, Teresa, may still have been alive. May have been accessing her cell phone. After the 31st of October, Mrs. Halbach, um, did you ever hear your daughter, Teresa's voice again?
KAREN HALBACH: No, I did not.
MR. KRATZ: Is Teresa -- or was Teresa the kind of girl that would have taken off, or would have left, or would have, um, vanished without talking to you, or talking to her family?
KAREN HALBACH: No, she would not.
MR. KRATZ: The last difficult area of inquiry I have with you, Mrs. Halbach, has to do with notification. That is, um, how you've been notified of, um, this investigation. At the beginning of this case I told the jury that it was my responsibility as a district attorney to meet with you, and to meet with your family, and to tell you about the evidence that's been found in this case. Do you remember me saying that?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: Do you remember those things happening in this case?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. KRATZ: The physical evidence, no matter how disturbing it's been to you, have you been, and your family been, kept informed throughout this investigation, uh, of all the developments, do you feel?
KAREN HALBACH: Yes.
MR. STRANG: Your Honor, this is needlessly difficult and it's -- the case is not about Mr. Kratz.
THE COURT: Court agrees.
MR. KRATZ: Judge, I would move the admission of the three, uh, exhibits that have, uh, been identified by Mrs. Halbach, and, um, with that, I would pass the witness to Mr. Strang.
THE COURT: Any objection to the exhibits?
MR. STRANG: Your Honor, I have no objection to the three exhibits, and I'm not going to make Mrs. Halbach answer any questions.
THE COURT: Very well. The exhibits are admitted. Ma'am, you are excused.
Uh, members of the jury, at this time we'll take our, uh, lunch break and, uh, resume at one o'clock. I will remind you, as usual, not to discuss the case among yourselves during the lunch hour. Uh, then, counsel, we can resume with the next State witness at one o'clock?
MR. KRATZ: We'll do that, Judge. Thank you.
(Recess had at 11:56 a.m.)
(Reconvened at 1:04 p.m.; jurors not present.)