Defense rests its case

MINDEN -- A jailer from Indiana testified Wednesday a Carson City man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend's father admitted to the killing while in jail.

Deputy Mark Schutter, a jailer with the Knox County Sheriff's Office in Indiana, told jurors he spoke with Christopher Fiegehen while having him sign a waiver of extradition to Nevada.

Schutter told jurors that after Fiegehen was told the charges he faced in Nevada, Fiegehen replied, "It must be for the two people I killed."

Schutter was the last prosecution witness in the trial, and Fiegehen's attorney is expected to begin his defense today.

Fiegehen, 24, is accused of stabbing Al Chorkey, 50, to death and shooting Lorelle Chorkey in the head and chest in the couple's Johnson Lane-area home in the early morning hours of Feb. 10. She survived.

Fiegehen was arrested April 9, 2002, by Vincennes University campus police in southern Indiana after a nationwide hunt.

Richard Young, Fiegehen's attorney, attempted to prevent the jury from hearing Schutter's testimony, but was overruled by District Judge Dave Gamble.

Young argued that Schutter's testimony should be inadmissible because Schutter failed to read Fiegehen his Miranda Rights as he delivered the waiver for extradition.

Miranda rights are to be read any time a law enforcement officer is soliciting information, Young said.

"A waiver of extradition is a legal document," Young said. "(Schutter) had an obligation to warn (Fiegehen) ... that what he said can and will be used against him. Presenting a waiver is eliciting information," he said.

During cross-examination, Schutter confirmed what he said in a report he filed shortly after the incident.

"You just told him he was charged with one count of murder and one count of assault and he said, 'It's for the two people I killed'?" Young asked Schutter.

"Yes, sir," he responded.

Prosecutors then rested their case.

In other testimony Wednesday, Vincennes University security guard John King said he stopped Fiegehen and three other men while on duty at the campus about 10:30 a.m. April 9, 2002.

He said the men came in two groups of two across a trestle bridge that spans the Wabash River between Indiana and Illinois.

"There are two 'no trespassing' signs," he said, "and a lot of vandalism" at the bridge.

Campus security is paid to patrol the bridge, which is federal land, he said.

King smelled alcohol on the breath of one man and called for backup.

Assistant Chief of Police James Jones of the university responded with two other department officials.

Jones said three of the men were soon identified as Vincennes University students.

The last man eventually produced a driver's license, which Jones said identified Fiegehen as a murder suspect being sought in a warrant.

He secured Fiegehen in handcuffs behind his back, he said.

"He made a statement to me about 'You're going to be famous,'" Jones said.

When he put Fiegehen in his patrol car to take him to Knox County Jail, Fiegehen told him,"You don't know who you have," Jones said.

Jones found two knives on Fiegehen.

Two Mobile, Ala., residents also testified Wednesday about working with Fiegehen in February 2002.

Chrissi Moore, who worked at her family's restaurant in Mobile, said her brother hired a server who told them his name was Jack Jackson.

She said the server, whom she identified in court as Fiegehen, told her he owed some money for racing accidents he had been in and that was his reason he left California.

"He said he would be on the road for two to three years," she said.

Fiegehen worked at the restaurant for about two weeks and then disappeared, she said.

James Walker, also of Mobile, said the morning of March 8 he found Fiegehen in tears. Fiegehen told him that his father had had a heart attack, Walker said.

He dropped Fiegehen off at the Amtrak station and gave him nearly $50 in cash.

"I gave him all the money I had," he said.