March 28, 2024

State rests case against Supino

Defense to call witnesses

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WATERLOO — Jasper County Attorney Mike Jacobsen and First Assistant County Attorney Scott Nicholson rested their case Tuesday, handing the floor to the defense in the double murder trial of Theresa "Terri" Supino.

The 54-year-old is charged in the March 3, 1983 murders of her estranged husband, 20-year-old Steven Fisher, and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Melisa Gregory, at the former Copper Dollar Ranch northwest of Newton.

Following 9 days of testimony at the Black Hawk County Courthouse, prosecutors presented their final piece of evidence Tuesday morning — the actually camper trailer in which Gregory was brutally murdered with Fisher lying in a similar condition outside.

The state secured and transported the trailer to Waterloo. Jurors walked to a location near the Black Hawk County Courthouse, and had the opportunity to examine the outside and inside of the murder scene. Jurors spent approximately 20 minutes inside the garage which housed the trailer in Waterloo with Supino, attorneys, Iowa 5th District Court Judge Terry Rickers and sheriff deputies present.

Halferty said during testimony Monday investigators in 1983 returned the trailer to former CDR owner Hal Snedeker. After he began reviewing the case in 2003, Halferty and then-Jasper County Sheriff Mike Balmer tracked the trailer to a new owner in southern Iowa. The camper was still in use and had been altered since the murders. Cabinets hanging over the bench where Gregory was found were replaced with a metal deck hanging 4 inches lower than the removed interior. It was not seized from the new owner until Jan. 2014 —purchased by the department for $250.

Judge Rickers said Friday the trailer has been cleaned since the 1983 murders, but prosecutors hope to give the jury a sense of the size and space the killer would have been forced to navigate during the attacks. The state has called nearly 40 witnesses to the stand, ranging from Iowa DCI agents to forensic specialists to family and friends of the victims and defendant.

The defense is scheduled to begin calling witnesses Tuesday. Approximately 12 people are expected to take the stand on Supino's behalf, including her brother Carlo Supino Jr. — the family member with whom she was staying at the time of the 1983 murders.

Prior to court proceedings, attorneys estimated the case would be sent to the jury for deliberation by Friday.

For updates and archived stories on the Copper Dollar Ranch murders, go to newtondailynews.com, follow @NewtonDNews on Twitter and Facebook and see full recaps of trial-related events from Waterloo in the Newton Daily News print edition.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com