By Al Camp
The Chronicle

     OKANOGAN - "Tonasket" Tansy Fay-Arwen Mathis, who is in the third week of a murder trial with co-defendant David Eugene Richards, testified Tuesday afternoon about what occurred when Michelle Kitterman died last year.
     Mathis, 30, said she planned to come to Republic and Tonasket with Richards, 34, as a protector since she had a large amount of methamphetamine to sell. She also was going to visit Kitterman and her husband in Tonasket.
     Kitterman, 25, was about 11 weeks pregnant when she was found dead March 1, 2009, on remote Stalder Road about 14.5 miles southwest of Tonasket.
     Mathis and Richards are each charged with aggravated first-degree murder or, in the alternative, first-degree murder with premeditation, first-degree manslaughter of an unborn child and first-degree kidnapping. If convicted they face a sentence of life in prison.
     Brent "Hollywood" Lane Phillips, 39, testified earlier in the trial after accepting a plea agreement March 29 to the reduced charges of first-degree murder-premeditated murder, first-degree manslaughter of an unborn child, tampering with evidence and first-degree kidnapping.
     A fourth defendant in the killing, Lacey Kae Hirst-Pavek, 35, Crumbacher, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Hirst-Pavek, who is out of custody on $250,000 bail, allegedly hired Mathis to find people to rough up Kitterman, who was pregnant by Hirst-Pavek's husband, Danny Pavek.
     Hirst-Pavek had her trial date pushed back last week from May 4 to July 6.
     Mathis said she grew up in the Tonasket area, attended Tonasket High School and worked at a packing shed and as a Spanish-speaking interpreter at the county courthouse.
     She has seven children who are age 14, 12, 10, 5, 4, 3, and 6 months (she gave birth while in jail).
     "Have you struggled in the past with methamphetamine addiction?" Mathis' attorney Steve Graham asked.
     "Yes, I have," she said.
     Mathis said she knew Richards for several months prior to Kitterman's death, she met Phillips and had been friends with Danny Pavek since she was 12 years old.
     She knew Kitterman and Hirst-Pavek through Pavek.
     Mathis said she'd asked Richards to be her protector as she traveled through Republic to Tonasket to sell methamphetamine. She could not use her two boyfriends since she'd had a falling out with them.
     Those boyfriends also knew Richards and would not be jealous of him, she said. Mathis said she offered Richards dope and meals to go on the trip.
     "I came to Tonasket to drop off drugs with four people and to talk to Michelle Kitterman," Mathis said.
     As Mathis was preparing to leave Feb. 28, she found Richards was passed out at another house.
     "So Phillips showed up unexpectedly?" Graham said.
     "Yes," Mathis said. She later said she trusted Phillips since she'd seen him at Richards' residence.
     Mathis said she made the trip in a four-wheel drive SUV rented by Hirst-Pavek.
     When Mathis and Phillips arrived, they did not find Pavek, who was supposed to receive methamphetamine, but did find Kitterman, Mathis testified.
     Mathis, who said the trio smoked meth, said Phillips wanted to act like the man, the dope man, and sat close to Kitterman on a couch. He also asked Kitterman to go to a casino.
     Mathis said she stepped away to call one of her boyfriends, Steve Pina, who told her to get out of the residence. She and Phillips then left, only to receive a call from Kitterman, who said she wanted to go to the casino after all.
     They returned and headed south before turning off U.S. Highway 97 and going west on Pine Creek Road.
     They eventually ended up on Stalder Road, where they drove up and back down a private driveway before Mathis said she got out to relieve herself.
     Mathis said Phillips "wanted to get his game on" with Kitterman and got out to load a pipe with methamphetamine.
     She said Phillips then grabbed Kitterman out of the vehicle, got her shirt up and tried to fondle her.
     At this point Kitterman's twin sister, Danielle, left the courtroom, followed shortly by another relative.
     Phillips took Kitterman to the ground and hit her, Mathis said, who said she heard puncture wounds.
     Phillips told Mathis to get back in the vehicle, and then Kitterman screamed and cried out Mathis' name, Mathis said.
     Phillips again told Mathis to get back in the vehicle and made a veiled threat of knowing where they'd dropped off her daughter, Mathis said.
     Graham asked if Mathis tried to stop Phillips.
     "I tried to stop him but all I had was a box of doughnuts," she said of things in the rented vehicle. "What am I going to do with that?"
     County prosecuting attorney Karl Sloan, on cross examination, asked Mathis if all she had to fend off Phillips was a box of doughnuts.
     "I tried to help Michelle but I was not in a position to put myself between her and Mr. Phillips," she said.
     Mathis said Kitterman made a gurgling sound as Phillips tossed her onto the side of the road.
     "You never did go back and check on her?" Sloan said.
     "No, I did not," Mathis said.
     "Do you know the term 'taxman?' " Graham said.
     "I did not hear of it until all this came around," Mathis said.
     Sloan quizzed Mathis on why she did not notify law enforcement about the attack, even after being stopped and questioned by sheriff's Detective Mike Murray about a month after Kitterman's death. He asked her about cleaning the SUV shortly after Kitterman's death.
     "I was in shock," Mathis, who said she did tell Brian Hohman on March 15.
     Sloan asked if Mathis was so afraid of Phillips, why he traveled back to Republic in the back seat with her daughter. Sloan also had Mathis tell of her arranging with a single woman to take Phillips back to Spokane for a "50 bag," or a $50 bag of methamphetamine.
     About a month after Kitterman's death, Mathis was stopped by Murray and a deputy about five miles east of Tonasket on state Highway 20. She agreed to return to Tonasket and answer questions initially about the molestation of her young son.
     That conversation turned to her own alleged molestation when she was 8 years old, something she said she never told her parents, she said during examination by Graham.
     That put her off about talking with Murray, she said.
     "If you trusted Mr. Murray would you have told him?" Graham said.
     "Yes," she said.
     The trial is to resume late Wednesday as attorneys and Chelan County Superior Court Judge T.W. "Chip" Small go over instructions to the jury. Small indicated the final evidence could be entered and closing arguments could come Wednesday or Thursday, followed by instructions and the jury beginning deliberations.
     On Tuesday morning, Rene Peak and Jeremy Peak were called again to the stand, where they said they knew Richards for 11 or 12 years.
     Rene Peak said she'd never heard of Richards as a taxman.
     Jeremy Peak said Richards normally was not a taxman, someone who used muscle or intimidation to collect debts.
     "I do know David was motivated by money," Jeremy Peak said. "He was always finding ways to make money."
     Tuesday afternoon testimony started with Spokane police officer Sandy McIntyre testifying about responding to a call about a fight where Richards was found to be a victim of a burglary.
     She said the person who did the burglary was apprehended.
     She also said it was "a pretty intense scene" when she arrived, as there apparently also were two people chasing another person involved in a fight.
     Phillips, who is slated to be sentenced May 11 to a state-recommended 26 years, returned to testify that he never talked directly to another inmate, Robert Storm, at the jail. Phillips denied telling Storm about the death of Kitterman, or Richards.
     Phillips initially gave a statement to police that Richards was present for the murder.
     Three minutes later Storm, who was moved from prison in Shelton to the county jail several weeks ago to testify, said Phillips told him in July he killed Kitterman.
     "Did he say why he lied about David Richards?" Graham said.
     "He told me if he placed David Richards at the scene of the crime he'd get less time," Storm said.
     "Did you speak to Jason VerValen?" Sloan asked of another inmate.
     "He told me he told him the same thing," Storm said.
     Storm, who is serving a sentence for residential burglary, first-degree theft, first-degree trafficking in stolen property and second-degree possession of stolen firearm, said his prison life was interrupted to testify.
     Graham pointed out that Storm did not benefit from telling of the conversation, and that his being at the trial at the request of Anthony Frey, attorney for Richards, stopped him a couple weeks short of completing a General Educational Development certificate.
     Storm admitted he had access in jail to newspapers.