“Did you kill Amy [Shakena] Varnell?” asked Atiba Spellman’s Defense Attorney Paul Rounds.

“Yes,” Spellman said.

“Did you kill Michael [Odikro]?” Rounds asked.

“Yes,” replied Spellman.

When asked why, Spellman said “I lost control of my emotions.”

Spellman was the first witness called by the defense on Tuesday. Rounds questioned him about the events that occurred throughout night of the slayings.

Spellman responded to most of the questions with little more than “I don’t know.”

He said he remembers leaving Carver Hall, to find out where Varnell was.

Spellman also admitted to calling his boss at the Ames Tribune and told him his car had broken down in Waterloo, even though he was still in Ames.

When Rounds asked why he had lied, Spellman said he knew his boss would offer to pick him up, and he “wanted to find Amy.”

Spellman said he remembers driving Alonte Lopez, Varnell’s son, to Odikro’s apartment to “show him where his mother really was.”

He drove Lopez home, and drove back to Odikro’s apartment.

Later in the questioning, Spellman admitted that at 2:10 a.m., he walked to the door of Odikro’s apartment. He said when Varnell answered the door, she had only a blanket covering her.

“I was surprised at what I saw,” Spellman whispered.

Spellman said he grabbed for a necklace she was wearing, which he had bought for her. Spellman said she spat in his face and slammed the door on his right hand.

“I just snapped, I don’t know how I felt,” Spellman said.

Spellman said he “plowed through the door” and saw her bent over picking something up by the couch. He said he saw that she had a knife and that they “began to struggle.”

“By that time I was out of control,” Spellman said.

Throughout questioning, the defense focused on Spellman’s emotional actions. Whether or not Spellman committed murder, which requires forethought, is now under question.

During the questioning, Assistant County Attorney Tim Meals focused on the negative aspects of Spellman and Varnell’s relationship. During the defense questioning, Spellman said he had been cut by Varnell that night and other times during their relationship, even showing different scars to the courtroom.

Spellman admitted that he did know about a no trespass order for both Varnell’s and Odikro’s home, issued earlier in the year.

He admitted to having sat outside Odikro’s apartment after seeing Varnell’s car in his garage for more than two hours.

Morning

The prosecution rested its case Tuesday morning, calling its last six witnesses to the stand before lunch.

Tyquon Veasey, who used to live with Varnell’s sister, said that he ran into Spellman at a gas station a few weeks prior to the killings. Veasey said Spellman said he had seen Varnell’s car at Odikro’s apartment, first asking Veasey to call and talk to her, and then saying he’d “kill Michael with his bare hands.”

Veasey said he called Varnell to warn her, saying Spellman was “shaky, jumpy, and I could tell he was mad.”

Kristin Baum, criminalist specializing in DNA at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations and a member of the Crime Scene Team, said she matched DNA samples from both victims and Spellman with blood found at the crime scene and Spellman’s car.

Baum said she found three complete matches of Spellman’s DNA inside the apartment: On a light switch, on the cabinet below the sink, and on a brown and white T-shirt, which she said was out of place lying in the corner of the kitchen.

There were also a multitude of partial matches to Spellman, one of which was mixed with Varnell’s on the refrigerator handle, and another on the front step in a sample where all three persons’ DNA was found.

As Baum explained each individual sample and their results, the prosecution presented pictures to show to the jury: Blood splattered walls, fresh snow with crimson trails running through it, smeared fingerprints on a light switch, a doorframe with wide red splotches and even a picture of Varnell’s nude body on the floor, blood coating her entire body. As the picture hung on the overhead, Baum calmly explained how it appeared Varnell had either rolled through the blood or been covered in a blanket that spread it evenly over her body.

Special Agent April DeMarco of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, testified that she conducted processing of Spellman’s car after he was apprehended in North Carolina.

DeMarco was responsible for transporting the vehicle to the lab, photographing for evidence and making observations of the state of the vehicle and potential evidence inside.

DeMarco said she noticed that the driver’s side floor mat appeared to be scrubbed clean in comparison to the rest of the vehicle. She said she also found reddish-brownish colored stains in other parts of the car.

She confirmed the substance was blood and then sent the vehicle to Iowa authorities.

DeMarco also said she got a mouth swab willingly from Spellman to establish a DNA profile, and took pictures of a fresh v-shaped cut on the heel of Spellman’s right hand.

After the prosecution rested its case, the defense made a motion for an acquittal, claiming there was lack of evidence that demonstrated the premeditation of the crime and the prosecution didn’t have a sufficient case for first-degree murder. The motion was denied.