Testimony concluded today (Thur) in the 1st Degree Murder trial of Christian Goyne Yarns, with the state calling its final witnesses to the stand. Among them was Dr. Steven Baskerville, an Emergency Room physician who treated Shelby Woizeschke. He testified that Woizeschke sustained multiple bullet wounds and underwent emergency surgery to stabilize her so she could be transported by air to a Sioux Falls hospital.
State Medical Examiner Dr. Dennis Klein told jurors Woizeschke sustained two bullet wounds to the chest area and one each to a shoulder and thigh. Klein confirmed autopsy results showing the cause of death was homicide.
Mathew Burns, a special agent with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, testified that he spoke with Goyne Yarns who initially said he was at work at the time of the shooting and was in a restroom because he wasn’t feeling well, in contrast to a later statement from Goyne Yarns indicating he had left work before the shooting took place. Burns also testified he drove the same routes as the perpetrator in the case, both to and from the scene, and that time stamps on parking lot surveillance video are consistent with that.
Defense attorneys didn’t call any witnesses but argued there isn’t enough DNA evidence in which to find the defendant guilty and that there’s no way to tell for sure who was actually in the pickup that was involved in the incident, stating that the keys had been left in it and that anyone could have been driving it.
Closing arguments in the trial will be held Friday, with instructions then going to the jury, at which point deliberations will begin.
(courtesy KUOO in Spirit Lake)
