Rickman trial

It's an investigation that ultimately hinges on whether the shooting was done in self-defense or if it was premeditated murder. Atlanta Police Detective Summer Benton has a name, a job and, some would say, an attitude made for television.

Summer Benton : The Hat Squad [laughs]. We're very proud of our hats. We have winter fedoras, but you're not allowed to wear a fedora until you've solved your first homicide case. In her 16 years on the job, Detective Benton has been the lead detective on 65 homicide cases. But it was the shooting death of Will Carter Jr. As Benton investigated, video cameras from the reality show "Inside Homicide" were rolling.

The TV crews were embedded with the Atlanta Police Department and were following the action that night:. Cop: You know a little about what's going on? Benton: OK so he's on the bed…there's a gun in the dresser drawer … and you've got spatter on the back wall and it's pretty high up which tells me the victim had to have been standing.

The shooter was Victoria Rickman, a year-old divorced mother. She and Will Carter, also 30, met through mutual friends and dated for three years. They bonded over their kids; Will had a daughter and Victoria a son, who were about the same age. Britni Morgan : …he was good around his daughter and she admired that about him. Rickman's friend, Britni Morgan, says at one point Victoria, a marketing consultant, and Will, a local businessman, moved in together and got engaged.

Britni Morgan : …she wanted to have a family … be married again and have that for her and her son. But the relationship went off the rails. The couple had a lot of arguments and began living apart. And then, just after midnight on Sept. Victoria admitted shooting Will with a. At first Det. Benton says she was giving Victoria the benefit of the doubt. But then she called Will's father. Benton: Hi is this Mr.

I've got some really bad news. William Carter Sr. Erin Moriarty : When she said this was a self-defense case, what was your reaction? I mean, it's like, "No, it's not, either. Will's father told Detective Benton that a year earlier the couple was fighting and his son showed up bleeding.

But Rickman told police that Will had tried to force her to have sex and that she used a hammer to fight him off. Will was arrested for sexual battery and simple assault. She got furious with me and said, "You can't tell me what to do. Eventually, Rickman declined to press charges and the case against Will Carter Jr. And then in May , four months before Rickman shot Will, there was an incident captured by Victoria on her cellphone as she tried to enter Will's house:.

Get the f out of here. I'm scared of you. Stop it. I'm gonna call the fing police. This time, Victoria Rickman was the one arrested and charged with battery. Those charges were pending at the time of Will's death. Detective Benton took into account what Mr. Carter had told her, and then the medical examiner discovered Will had three bullets to his back. After that, Benton no longer believed this was self-defense.

Summer Benton : What we truly believe happened is that he was standing and he was not facing her at the time. Summer Benton : We believe he was standing next to the bed facing the window when he was shot in the back three times, which then one of those shots filled his lungs with blood, which caused him to cough, causing the blood spray pattern on the wall next to the window.

And then we believe he fell back … onto the bed … As he's lying on the bed … she is then finishing him off … firing more shots into his chest and his head. Summer Benton: There were no signs that she had tried to scratch him. Her nails were pristine. He had no scratches on his body. Rickman was given a rape exam. It showed she had intercourse, but there were no signs of internal injuries. Hospital records noted bruising on Rickman's arm and leg, but that's not what Det.

Benton told a prosecutor on that TV reality show. Prosecutor: Any indication from the hospital of any injuries to her at all? Benton: There's nothing. She has no scratches, no bruising…. By midday on Sept. Summer Benton : I advised her that's she's being arrested for murder, and she simply says, "OK. No screaming up and down, "I'm innocent. I didn't do this. They consoled each other and wondered -- as they had many times before -- about Will's fatal attraction to Victoria.

He just wouldn't listen to anybody about this. But if Victoria had personal demons, so did Will. Years earlier, Will had been arrested several times for property damage and drug use. Caro Carter : I was extremely proud of Will … he never gave up … He didn't give up on anything. But Rickman insists Will was still the dangerous one. And only four months before the shooting, Victoria reported to police that Will had beaten her and she had documented it with photographs showing the bruises.

Britni Morgan : I think the constant abuse that she was going through … she just could not take it anymore. Rickman went to court for a restraining order but the office was closed. A deputy sheriff working there spotted her bruises. Later, for her own protection, he gave her a gun. Kevin Leonpacher : He encourged her to use that gun when it came to Will Carter. Victoria Rickman : To be honest, no, I don't really think I've done anything illegal ….

Jail officials would not let "48 Hours" interview Rickman face to face, but Moriarty spoke to her via an inmate video calling system:. Victoria Rickman : Everything was done for a TV show and there was no real investigation.

Rickman stuck to the story she told police -- that she was fighting off Will who had raped and beaten her:. Victoria Rickman : Unfortunately, I have been … humiliated … dehumanized by the system publicly without my consent.

Victoria Rickman : ……he had relapsed and was intoxicated. And it was a very, very, very serious situation. But no one will ever know if that's true because Detective Benton never requested a toxicology report.

She says she didn't know it was her responsibility because this was her first homicide case in DeKalb County, which had a different set of procedures. Summer Benton: I had no idea that you have to specially request a victim's tox and blood alcohol. So even though they had taken his blood and held onto it, at some point they then disposed of it. Summer Benton : From my understanding, it was. So it was never tested to see if — he … had been drinking or was on any type of -- prescription meds, illegal meds, I mean, or illegal narcotics, anything like that.

But Rickman does not believe that was a casual oversight. She thinks it was something far more sinister:. Victoria Rickman [to Moriarty]: I think it's huge that she … did not do a tox screen, knowing she was getting rid of evidence that was pertinent to my defense and to my innocence. Benton may not have believed Rickman, but there was that one law enforcement officer -- Cobb County Deputy Sheriff Rick Price -- who did.

Months earlier, Price had spotted a black eye and bruises on Rickman that time he met her at the courthouse. It was one of Price's personal guns, and the deputy even brought Rickman to a gun range to practice, says Atlanta Police Detective Kevin Leonpacher. Kevin Leonpacher : And lo and behold … she's used that very gun to shoot and kill Will Carter. And right after the shooting, Rick Price was the first one she called. He told her to call Kevin Leonpacher : … when the phone records came back we found out that just before she called , Victoria called Rick and it was about a two-minute phone call.

Summer Benton : She was extremely good at getting the men to give her whatever she wanted. Early that evening, Rickman told Scarr she wanted to be alone and asked to stay at his mother's house. Assistant Brown County District Attorney William Griesbach said the case was difficult to prosecute because no body was ever found.

Defense attorney Eric Stern said the verdict would be appealed because mention kept coming up of a verdict that found Rickman innocent by reason of mental disease or defect in the slaying of two loggers. The jury for the latest trial was selected in Ozaukee County because of pretrial publicity in Brown County. Rickman testified earlier he could not understand why his wife of almost eight years jumped out of their car on an Appleton street corner and vanished after telling him she had to "get my head on straight.

He also said that, while no one else reported seeing or hearing from his wife after her disappearance, he received three telephone calls from her within three weeks after she left. Rickman also denied under cross examination that he had illegal sexual contact with a minor in a group he advised. Rickman's testimony indicated that, despite tension created by financial problems, there had been no talk of divorce or separation between him and his wife.

However, numerous witnesses said the couple had a rocky marriage and Ronald Rickman talked often about divorce. But others said they were a happy couple and Yvonne Rickman never mentioned marital problems. Rickman testified the couple went to Appleton so that Rickman could appear in Outagamie County Circuit Court on a worthless check charge and his wife could buy school clothes for their daughter.

Rickman said after his wife grabbed two sports bags and left the car, he drove around a corner and parked the car, then returned to the spot where she got out, but she was gone. In-laws told authorities they had no reason to doubt Rickman's story until they learned he was once accused of killing the two loggers in Portage County.

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The viruses that cause colds, the flu and COVID are spread the same way — through droplets from the nose and mouth of infected people. In most cases, we know about these men and their families or the information is fairly easy to find.

The names of the architects and contractors for the building are frequently mentioned in the newspapers. But, who were the men who did the actual work of putting the stone upon stone or crafting the beautiful woodwork?

Their names are harder to find. The idea for a Mennonite College came largely from a group of leaders, including David Goerz, in the early s. They envisioned a grand building fit for a place of higher learning. The businessmen of Newton were also enthusiastic about the idea of a college near to town. Little did anyone know how long it would take to finish this project. They had designed the Clark Hotel and the Hoag House.

The excited committee met with the architects and described their desire for a splendid building on the empty Kansas prairie north of Newton. Discussions with the Varney Bros seemed to stall at one point and no usable plans were produced. Ed Slater, a local man, was chosen as contractor and work began. Almost everyday, young Hazel Rickman would walk across the prairie, cross Sand Creek and bring lunch to her father, Patrick Rickman.

Perhaps she sang while she walked or simply enjoyed the sound of the birds. Rickman was one of the stone masons working on the new college building.

Perhaps she brought lunch for her other relative, Joe Rickman. In later years, Hazel remembered this time fondly. Varney Bros, Architect. The home of the First National Bank. Demolition in the late s. Slater was also the contractor for the brick and stone work for the Clark Hotel, built in , and Pat Rickman was likely among the skilled laborers in the crew. Clark Hotel, N. Main, Newton, Ks. Architect Varney Bros. Rickman also worked with another contractor, Ed Fox. The newspaper reported that the two worked together to repair the base blocks at the Ragsdale Opera House.

Over the winter the stones had became water soaked, froze and then crumbled. Newton Daily Republican , July 2, Throughout the s, there was a great demand for skilled stone masons. Newton Daily Republican 12 March Newton Daily Republican 11 October Many a building stands today as a monument to his skill and industry. Joseph Rickman was twenty-one years old when he came to Kansas with his mother, Mary Rickman Anderson , to homestead alongside his stepfather, David, sisters; America, Lucy and Tennessee, and brothers; Wayman, Jefferson, and Nathaniel.

Unfortunately, Joe appears in the newspapers more frequently for fighting, usually with Arthur Childs, than for his work. His name may not appear in the newspapers for his skill as a stone mason, but Joe Rickman was one of the many who used skill and hard work to build the city of Newton. Joseph C. On July 10, , the Newton Daily Republican began coverage of the trial.

Newton Daily Republican , July 10, The charged carried the possibility of the death penalty. The jury selection was completed at pm on July 10, and consisted of Adam Kramer, E. Brown, A. Brubaker, W. Sloan, William Dalton, George H. Kline, Charles Barnard, E.

Smith, Linsey Harlow, J. Matlack, J. Stone and F. Charles E. Harvey County Attorney, Charles E. Branine spoke for 16 minutes, describing the details of what happened the morning of February 14, At yonder table sits a man for whose life a fight is now going on, Pat Rickman, one of the best men in Harvey County, even if his skin be black.

The resulting despair led him to become insane. Cornoner James McKee reported on his findings. Williams had sustained 5 scalp wounds and a bullet wound.

The bullet passing through the right lobe of the liver.