Father of murder suspect says son was sorrowful after shooting

CAIRO, Ill. -- Testimony continued Thursday in the case against a Cairo man accused of killing his wife, with the man's father taking the stand in his son's defense.

Chauncey Hughes Sr. told an Alexander County, Illinois, jury his son, 30-year-old Chauncey Hughes Jr., was in "sorrow, pain, crying" when he spoke with him on the telephone the day after the shooting.

"I guess everybody was still stunned, pretty much," the elder Hughes testified Thursday. "I didn't know what to say."

Hughes Jr. is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 1 shooting death of his wife, Heather Davis, 22.

The elder Hughes said he found out about the shooting when his daughter called him that night.

"She asked, 'Was it true?'" Hughes Sr. said. "She had heard, and so I called his mom, and I didn't get an answer."

Hughes Sr. said he went to his son's home, where he learned what had happened.

He said he could not reach his son that night, but he spoke with him by telephone the next day, when the younger man -- who had left town after the shooting -- asked his parents to pick him up in Paducah, Kentucky, so he could turn himself in.

The trip from Paducah to Illinois State Police District 22 headquarters in Ullin, Illinois, took about 35 to 40 minutes, during which Hughes Sr. said no one spoke much.

"He did a lot of crying, and we probably said eight words during that trip to Ullin. ... I wanted to ask a lot of questions, but I couldn't," he said.

Hughes Sr. told public defender Zach Gowin his son said little, "other than he was sorry, it was an accident, and he was crying."

"Chauncey being my son, and he is grown, when I looked at him, he had hurt and sorrow written all over him," he said.

Whether Hughes Jr. fired the shot that killed Davis is not in dispute. The question attorneys for both sides are trying to answer is whether he intended to kill her when he pulled the trigger.

In court Wednesday, Alexander County State's Attorney Jeff Farris pointed to Hughes Jr.'s conduct in the wake of the shooting as evidence he meant to harm or kill his wife.

Prosecution witnesses on Wednesday testified Hughes Jr. did not call 911 after the shooting, instead going to his grandmother's house and then leaving town.

On Thursday, Gowin questioned witnesses who described the defendant as quiet, upset and tearful in the days following the shooting.

Illinois State Trooper Brian Watkins said the defendant sobbed during the three-minute ride from District 22 headquarters to the nearby Tri-County Justice and Detention Center.

"He appeared to be upset," Watkins testified Thursday.

Gowin played a video for the jury showing the inside and outside of Watkins' patrol car as Hughes Jr. was being transported. Muffled, largely incoherent moans and whimpers could be heard from the back seat, where the defendant was riding.

Testimony for the prosecution wrapped up before lunch Thursday, with much of it centering on procedural matters involving the collection and storage of evidence.

Jurors also heard from an Illinois State Police crime-scene investigator who said a single spent bullet was found embedded in a baseboard in the living room of the home Davis and Hughes Jr. shared.

The path of the bullet through Davis' body, the angle at which it entered the wall and the location of a spent shell casing found on the other side of the room suggested Davis was bent down or squatting, with her right arm raised, when she was shot, the investigator testified.

Also on Thursday, Gowin asked a juror be excused after inadvertently viewing photographs of Davis displayed in a digital picture frame at a local restaurant.

Four jurors went to lunch at the restaurant, but only one said he had seen the photographs scrolling through the frame, and he told Circuit Judge Mark Clarke he did not recognize any of the people pictured.

Gowin expressed concern the juror might see a photograph of Davis' face that had been entered into evidence, connect it to the images of her in happier times and feel sympathy for her or animosity toward his client.

Rather than excuse the juror, Clarke ordered the photograph be excluded from the evidence sent to the jury room, which would eliminate the risk of the juror recognizing her as the woman he'd seen in photographs at the restaurant.

He also ordered the jurors not to eat at that restaurant again until after the trial.

Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Friday morning.

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