RALEIGH – State prosecutors would like the jury to believe Grant Hayes is a monster.
After a lengthy jury selection process, they kicked off their case against Hayes this week -- in the murder of former Kinston resident Laura Jean Ackerson – with some disturbing imagery about when investigators found her body in Texas.
“There, our worst fears are realized, because there under the scorching Texas sun, in water that’s 89 degrees, there lies Laura Ackerson’s torso,” Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger said in his opening statement. “It’s been split in half. And, there have been cuts to the neck, and around the hip area.”
He continued, “You’ll hear that detectives take that severed torso and continue their search, and the next day, they find part of Laura’s leg. And then, further upstream, they find Laura’s decapitated head. Pay close attention to the testimony about Laura’s head, and how it looks completely different from Laura’s torso. Some days later, another part of Laura’s leg is discovered.”
Zellinger said Hayes was so consumed by the hate of his ex-girlfriend and mother of two of his children that he, assisted by his wife Amanda, wanted to make it so it was like Ackerson never existed.
On Thursday and Friday, prosecutors called to the stand Ackerson friend and business partner Chevon Mathes and self-described Ackerson best friend Heidi Schumacher.
Before Ackerson disappeared in July 2011, she had been preparing for a custody hearing Aug. 15 with Hayes regarding their children. Mathes said Ackerson hoped to gain custody of their sons, and part of that process involved a psychological evaluation of Ackerson and Hayes by a court-appointed psychologist.
“She said they were both supposed to get a psych eval -- hers was done, and he had kept postponing his, and that it hadn't been done, been completed,” Mathes said. “And, she believed she was going to get her kids back at the hearing.”
Mathes said Ackerson was happy when the psychologist returned her evaluation.
“She was very excited, and she was saying, 'I got the psych eval back -- I'm not the crazy one,' she just told me,” Mathes said. “'I'm not the crazy one.'”
Schumacher, who knew Ackerson since they worked at a Raleigh-area Applebee’s seven years ago, said Ackerson told her she feared what Hayes might do.
“Approximately two months before her death, she told me she was very worried,” Schumacher said. “And she said, 'Heidi, if anything happens to me -- if I commit suicide, or if I go missing or if I get into a car accident, Grant did it.'”
WRAL reported Friday Schumacher testified she went to the residence of Ackerson and Hayes in 2008 because she was worried for her friend, and found Hayes leaving while Ackerson tended to what Schumacher believes was a broken nose.
The defense, which made its opening statement Thursday, maintains Amanda Hayes – who they paint as emotionally unstable -- killed Ackerson during a fight, and Grant Hayes only participated in dismembering and disposing Ackerson’s body to cover up for his wife.
“This case is about a man covering up his wife’s actions,” defense attorney Will Durham said. “On July 13, Amanda Hayes killed Laura Ackerson, during a fight. It wasn’t something that was planned, but it was something that happened.”
Referencing a conversation Amanda Hayes is supposed to have held with her sister, Durham said Amanda Hayes all but confessed to the crime, saying, “I hurt Laura, and now she’s dead.”
Testimony resumes Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Wake County Justice Center.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.