One witness, two times testifying. Both for the prosecution in Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely's corruption trial.
The state re-called Debbie Davis to the stand, and it was clear she was not too happy about it. She could be seen rolling her eyes in between some of the questions and getting defensive at times.
Davis is the chief clerk at the Limestone County Sheriff's Office. She acted as the custodian of records for the department, handing over all of the receipts and documents subpoenaed by the state.
But now, the state claims Davis withheld one piece of evidence.
Last week during direct questioning, the state asked Davis if Blakely had ever returned any of the money he was given for his 2014 work trip to Las Vegas. Davis said she could not remember.
However right after that, during the defense's cross examination, Davis said she did remember Blakely writing a $945 check to reimburse the law enforcement fund, and that she had the receipt as proof.
Now, the state is having a hard time understanding how Davis suddenly remembered halfway through her testimony that Blakely reimbursed $945 to the law enforcement fund.
The state implied that Davis kept this evidence from them, but Davis said why would she try to hide a receipt that shows the sheriff repaying the law enforcement fund. The state responded with 'that's a good question, why would you?'.
After two and a half hours of back and forth questioning, Davis stepped down from the witness stand.
The state called special agent Rob Stewart as a witness. He's the case agent that works for the Attorney General's office and led the instigation into sheriff Blakely.
The state began questioning special agent Stewart, basically going over each charge Blakely is facing and having Stewart confirm the evidence. It acted almost like a summary of everything the jurors have heard for more than a week. He will resume his testimony Tuesday morning at 9:00 am.
After the jurors were dismissed for the day, the defense brought Alicia Sanders to the stand for an early testimony. She is going out of town and will not be able to testify later in the week with the rest of the defense's witnesses.
Sanders works in HR for the Limestone County Commission and distributed paychecks during the period of time where sheriff Blakely was overpaid due to an accounting error. Her testimony will be read to the jurors at a later time.
