By Al Camp
The Chronicle

     OKANOGAN - The end of the first week of the murder trial of two Spokane residents accused of killing a Tonasket woman in March of last year brought opening arguments and the first witnesses.
     Okanogan County Prosecutor Karl Sloan told the jury that he planned to show that "Tonasket" Tansy Fay-Arwen Mathis, 30, helped stab to death Michelle Kitterman, 25, the night of Feb. 28 to March 1, 2009.
     Sloan said he would show that David Eugene Richards, 34, introduced Mathis to Brent "Hollywood" Lane Phillips, 29, as someone who could help take care of a problem for Mathis' friend, Lacey Kae Hirst-Pavek, 34.
     Mathis and Richards are joined for the trial on charges of aggravated first-degree murder or, in the alternative, first-degree murder with premeditation, first-degree manslaughter of an unborn child, tampering with evidence and first-degree kidnapping.
     Kitterman was 11 weeks pregnant, allegedly by Hirst-Pavek's husband, Dan Pavek.
     Phillips, also from Spokane, will testify sometime next week after entering a plea agreement to reduced charges of first-degree murder-premeditated murder, first-degree manslaughter of an unborn child, tampering with evidence and first-degree kidnapping.
     Phillips allegedly will testify to beating and choking Kitterman before Mathis stabbed her with a weapon allegedly supplied by Richards, Sloan said. Phillips also will testify he stabbed Kitterman, who a coroner's report said died from a stab wound to her back that punctured her heart.
     The coroner's report will show Kitterman suffered 39 stab wounds to her abdomen, palms, thighs and back before she died on a private driveway near Stalder Road about 14.5 miles southwest of Tonasket in the North Pine Creek area, testimony Friday said.
     The state recommended a sentence of 26 years for Phillips. That is in the middle of a sentencing range. Phillips will be sentenced May 11.
     Tony Frey, who represents Richards, and Steve Graham, who represents Mathis, gave opening statements in which each described different versions of what happened.
     They both agreed that the defendants could be found guilty of no more than using methamphetamine the night of Kitterman's death.
     Frey said Richards had nothing to do with a conspiracy to kill Kitterman.
     Graham said Phillips attempted to rape Kitterman on Stalder Road and killed her when she resisted.
     Sloan said he planned to call a variety of people who would testify to the planning and carrying out Kitterman's killing.
     Sloan said Kitterman was pregnant by Hirst-Pavek's husband, Dan Pavek or, as he was referred to by witnesses, D-Boy.
     Pavek was scheduled to testify Friday afternoon but was not at the courthouse. A material witness warrant was issued March 23 with bail set at $25,000.
     Sloan said he would introduce testimony that would show that Hirst-Pavek, as she learned more of her husband's infidelity, became more and more agitated.
     That agitation led her to ask others for ways she could solve the problem of her husband having a child with Kitterman.
     Along the way Mathis lent a friendly ear, Sloan said, and allegedly agreed to find people in Spokane to solve the problem.
     To that end, Hirst-Pavek allegedly helped purchase a cell phone for Mathis and rented a four-wheel drive vehicle from Sunrise Chevrolet in Omak, where Hirst-Pavek had worked.
     Sloan said Hirst-Pavek had been placed on administrative leave at the dealership, where she prepared paperwork for car purchases, allegedly due to her pestering other employees about the affair.
     Sloan said testimony would show that Phillips was referred to the "Taxman," or muscle often hired to collect debts.
     Testimony would show that Kitterman, Mathis and Richards smoked methamphetamine before heading south late Feb. 28, allegedly for a night out at the bingo casino in Okanogan, he said.
     Instead, they stopped on Stalder Road, with Mathis getting everyone outside by saying they couldn't smoke drugs in the rental car, Sloan said.
     "You will hear testimony to some fairly disturbing things," Sloan told the jury.
     That would include Phillips saying he choked Kitterman, who fell onto the ground semi-unconsciousness where Mathis allegedly stabbed the pregnant woman in the abdomen as she screamed and tried to resist the attack.
     Mathis allegedly then told Phillips to finish it, and he will testify he stabbed Kitterman several more times, Sloan said.
     The murder weapon, described as an ice pick that resembled a file with a handle, allegedly fell apart in the attack, Sloan said. Part of it fell in the driveway where Kitterman was stabbed and the rest was tossed away as Mathis and Phillips drove from the scene.
     The first witness, Sheriff's Detective Mike Murray, testified Friday afternoon that it appeared that Kitterman was attacked near the entrance to the private driveway from Stalder Road.
     People heading to church on Sunday, March 1, found Kitterman's partially clothed body about 175 feet up a private driveway from Stalder Road.
     Sloan said an autopsy showed that Kitterman suffered multiple bruises, abrasions and bleeding in her brain from a severe beating.
     Her baby, estimated at 11 weeks, died due to Kitterman's injuries killing her, Sloan said.
     Frey spent less than 10 minutes to tell the jury that Richards was not at the killing, that he'd never been to Okanogan County and his only connection was that he sold drugs and Mathis was his supplier.
     Frey said Phillips killed Kitterman.
     "We know that, he's admitted it," Frey said.
     Frey said every time he'd spoken to Phillips, his version of what occurred changed. Phillips said last summer in a statement that Richards was present for the killing.
     Now Phillips said he lied, that Richards was not there.
     Phillips allegedly told others in the jail he'd be dealing for a lighter sentence.
     "There's reasonable doubt at very level," Frey said. "You can expect different stories and you will have to decide."
     Graham said Phillips killed Kitterman after she allegedly spurned his romantic advances that night.
     "Her life was taken by the state's star witness, whose name is Hollywood," Graham said. "Miss Mathis had nothing to do with this killing."
     Graham said Mathis' attempt to help Hirst-Pavek was to buy off Kitterman, to have her leave Pavek, for 28 grams of methamphetamine, a currency she was familiar with using to solve problems.
     Mathis initially asked Richards to go with her to Tonasket to buy off Kitterman, as she was carrying valuable meth and wanted some protection, Graham said.
     Richards at the last second backed out, with Phillips volunteering to accompany Mathis, Graham said.
     Phillips allegedly became increasingly "stranger and stranger" as he consumed more and more meth the night of Kitterman's death, Graham said.
     Graham said Phillips flirted with Kitterman, and that if there was a conspiracy to kill her that a more secluded area would have been chosen.
     Graham said Stalder Road was remote but that people did live in the area and was by no means a secluded location.
     Graham said Mathis said she needed to use the bathroom and that was the reason the vehicle stopped.
     Phillips then attempted to rape Kitterman, who resisted, he alleged.
     "This was a crime of passion," Graham said. "This murder was done by sexual rage by the state's star witness."
     All three attorneys' versions appear to pivot on the believability of Phillips.