Timothy Pate murder trial begins in Carter County

ELIZABETHTON — The first-degree murder trial of Timothy Pate began Monday, with prosecutor Janet Vest Hardin and defense attorney Don Spurrell giving the jury very different versions in their opening statements of who killed 78-year-old Lonnie Townsend in April 2012.Hardin described Pate as a cold-blooded killer who used a claw hammer to bash the skull of a good friend for just the cash Townsend had in his wallet. She said Pate was so cold-blooded that immediately after dumping Townsend's body on a mountain in Unicoi County, he used the money he took from Townsend's wallet to take his family to Florida on vacation.With the jury looking at a photo of Pate sunning on a sandy beach, Hardin told the jurors "he sits on a beach in a lounge chair while his friend's body rots on a mountain."Spurrell told the jury a very different version of Townsend's death. He said Whitney Harris suffered from a very serious mental illness and she had used a 22-ounce framing hammer, which he called "a powerful instrument of destruction," to kill Townsend while he relaxed on a couch in her living room. Harris is also facing a first-degree murder charge in Townsend's death, but will be tried separately. Spurrell described his client as a lover rather than a hater. He said Pate "had a blind love for the mother of his children," and at another point he said "Timothy Pate has a very complex pathological attachment for Whitney, the mother of his two children." One witness from the first day had a different version of Pate. His ex-wife, Jennifer Pate, said Pate had once asked her to take his children by Harris into her home because "he was not able to take care of them."Both sides told the jury that Harris' testimony will be a key to the trial. Hardin said Harris' testimony will show a woman who grew up in a terrible background and who cooperated in the murder because of her fear of Pate. She told the jury that as soon as she was in police custody she cooperated to tell the entire story and even led investigators to Townsend's body on Spivey Mountain.Spurrell painted a far darker picture of Harris for the jury. He said her mental illness made her a person who is "incredibly manipulative" and someone who gets extremely irate. "To describe Whitney Harris as a person who gets irate is to describe Donald Trump as arrogant. … It is an understatement," he told the jury.He had a different theory about why Harris so quickly cooperated with investigators. He said it was her opportunity to get her version of the story out. Spurrell said the videos of the interviews show she was thrown "softball" questions.Spurrell also hinted to the jury that there will be one subtle scene on the video in which Harris reveals with her body language what she did not with her oral answers.The state's version of the motive for the killing is simpler. Hardin described Pate and his family as falling into extreme poverty at the very moment their second child is born. She said Pate had fallen far behind in rent payments on the trailer they lived in, as well as their electric bill.At the same time the baby was born, Pate lost his job as a mechanic at South Roan Service Center. The business owner, Richard Bennett, testified Pate was fired because his use of bath salts and other drugs had made him unsafe to work on cars.Hardin portrayed temptation coming to Pate in the form of his friend, Townsend. Bennett testified that Townsend often showed his wallet had a large amount of cash in it. He said that on the day he disappeared, Townsend had remarked that he was going to make a payment of $900 that day.Bennett said he thought Townsend must have more than $900 in his wallet. She told the jury that was the reason Pate invited Townsend to his home on the day of his disappearance, although Townsend readily agreed to come to the Pate home because he had been there so many times before.The trial continues this morning with testimony from the investigators.