That article is frustrating lol. So the truck was found - was there any forensic evidence on it other than a dent? And there is a claim that there was an insurance policy but no one can actually find it? Sounds like he’s guilty, but it also sounds like there should have been slam dunk proof that was easy to procure and they didn’t bother to.
Also, she died at exactly 3:18?? Was she wearing a watch that broke upon impact?
I’ll try to answer some of your questions, then give some of the highlights of the case, which will probably answer some of the others.
We actually had 10 jurors throughout the trial, but as we went into deliberation, the judge released numbers 9 and 10, which surprised all of us. The bailiff then told us that they were alternates and weren’t needed any more.
The insurance policy was never brought up by the prosecution, except when they played a video of the defendant being interrogated at the police station. They asked him if his wife had any insurance policies, and he said he thought that she did, but wasn’t sure, and that he thought he had a policy on her through his employer for $150K or so. The state never mentioned it again or entered it into evidence. The defense tried to make an issue of it in their closing argument by asking why the state hadn’t introduced any insurance policy, but there was no requirement for them to do so.
I’ll try to recall some of the highlights and evidence in the case, but I’ll break it up into several posts so it will be more readable.
Patricia Rothermich was walking in a street near her home when she was apparently hit by a vehicle. There were no witnesses to the accident, but window washers working on a home nearby thought they heard a noise like a truck hitting a speed bump. The street is in a semi-rural area with a nearby horse pasture, and all of the homes are set back from the road and have high fences or hedges along the road.
A woman driving by noticed something at the side of the road and stopped. She found the victim still alive and called 911. Another woman stopped shortly after and also rendered assistance. Paramedics and ambulance arrived at the scene and treated her, but she died on the way to the hospital.
Investigators at the scene noticed what appeared to be white paint transferred onto the victim’s pants, and also found, among other things, pieces of 3 black zip ties.
Officers went to the victim’s home, but no one was there. Finding the door unlocked, they went inside to see if they could find a phone number or other means to contact someone. While they were there, the husband, Sherman Lynch, returned home.
Mr. Lynch was surprised to see officers in his home, and told them that he had just been to Costco. They drove him to the hospital, where he was told his wife had died. Other neighbors and family friends were there, and they all said that his reaction was “different.” He was over the top emotionally and had difficulty standing. He kept repeating over and over again, “What am I going to do?” Interestingly enough, the first neighbor to arrive testified that the first thing he said was “What have I…What am I going to do?” He said he didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it did stick in his memory.
The husband said that he had started out on a walk with his wife, as they often do, but after walking a short distance he felt like he was starting to get diarrhea, so he returned home. After going to the bathroom, he felt a little better and decided to go to Costco to get some of their chili (always the first thing I want after a bout of the runs). He drove around the neighborhood and found his wife, and asked her if she wanted anything from Costco. According to his story this was about 3:30. She said she didn’t, so he went to Costco and filled up his Astro minivan, then went into the store. They didn’t have the chili, since it had been recalled, so he bought some milk and returned home, where he found the officers waiting.
The police asked the public for help in locating any unusual vehicles in the area. There were several reports of various landscaping or construction vehicles. Someone saw a red truck. Someone else saw a white landscaping truck with a company name and the witness remembered part of the phone number. Somebody else saw a different white truck, but none of the leads had enough to follow up on. They also examined the defendant’s white Astro van, but determined that it did not have any damage that would indicate it had been involved.
I should have mentioned earlier that the wife had been walking on the left side of the road, facing traffic, and had been struck from the rear. The investigators determined based on the location of the body and the marks and smears on the road that whoever had hit her would have had to cross the road into the wrong lane and hit her straight on at 25-30 mph. There was no indication of any braking or skid marks.
From the wounds on the body and the paint on her pants, they determined that they were looking for a white truck or van, or some other high profile vehicle, because some of the impact wounds were too high on the body for a smaller car, but they had not mentioned any of this to the defendant.
The morning after the incident, the husband was interviewed on TV, and pleaded with the public to help find a white truck with damage on the front, and for whoever did it to please come forward.
After the TV interview police received a call from a woman who said that she was Mr. Lynch’s girlfriend. She was astonished to discover that he had a wife (although even after the fact he told her that she wss really only his landlady–more about that later, maybe).
She also told police that she had accompanied him several weeks earlier to an auto auction lot where he had purchase a beat-up used white pickup truck. He told her that he had planned to give it to his son for his 15th birthday so that he could learn to drive.
She took police to the auto auction where they obtained paperwork showing that he had indeed purchased a 1993 white Chevy pickup, which also include a VIN number and other information. She then took him to a residence near the home of the defendant where she said he had stored the truck.
The owner of that house said that he had indeed rented the garage as storage space to Mr. Lynch, who was a Sea Scout leader, and that the kept a boat trailer and other scouting stuff there. He had recently stored a truck there, but the owner had asked him to move it because he had purchased a new car and needed the space. He noticed as he was driving away that the hood popped up because it wouldn’t latch tight.
About the same time, police received another lead from a nearby resident. His house was a ways back from the road and there was another abandoned house behind his, even further back.
While walking his dogs, he had noticed a pickup truck covered with a staked-down tarp, and a couple of days later had noticed the truck had been moved to the garage of the abandoned house, after someone had removed the boards covering the garage door opening.
Upon responding to the scene, police found a 1993 white Chevy pickup, with the same VIN number as the one purchased by the defendant. It had body damage on the front and the hood, in places that matched the wounds on the victim. After taking the truck back to the police station they found part of a broken zip tie at the bottom of the radiator pan, and holes in the hood that looked like they could have been drilled for something to tie the hood down.
They also noticed that parts of the truck had been spray painted to cover up rust spots. Samples of paint from the truck and the zip tie fragments from the truck and the accident scene were sent to the crime lab.
Would you be surprised if I told you that the pieces of the zip tie matched up perfectly, down to the microscopic level, and that the paint from the pants was matched up to not only the 3 layers of factory paint on the truck (primer, color coat and clear coat), but also the the spray paint?
After the truck was located, detectives asked Mr. Lynch if he would come down to the police station and answer some questions. We saw the video of the interview during the trial (at least most of it).
The detective started out by clarifying that he wasn’t under arrest but just to avoid any problems later on, he read him his Miranda rights. He started out asking general questions such as his name, address, etc. and then started asking about the events on the day of his wife’s death. Three separate times during the interview he was asked, “Do you own any other vehicles?” “Have you ever owned a white pickup truck?”, etc. and he denied it every time.
Finally the detective said, “Your girlfriend Nancy Scott told me that she went with you to buy a truck, and that you stored it at Mr. Ostler’s residence.”
“Oh, that truck…” He then told how he had intended to give the truck to his son, to learn to drive, etc. BTW, from the photos of the truck, it was so beat up (interior and exterior) that no one in his right mind would give that to a kid to learn on. One quote that struck me, as to the reason he was buying a truck for his son (and I wrote this down in my notes), “If you hit something with a truck, you’re not going to get hurt very much.”
The detective then asked him where the truck was now. He said that after he was asked to remove it from the garage, he started to drive it home. While he was on the freeway, the transmission died and he drove it to the side of the road. Another motorist stopped to help, and said he was a mechanic. Mr. Lynch said that he decided he didn’t want any more to do with the truck, so he told the motorist (“I think his name was Chuck something or other”) that he could have it, and he signed the title over then and there. No, he didn’t know Chuck’s last name or phone number.
At this point the detective said, “Mr. Lynch, I have the truck.” The tape was stopped at that point, but we later found out (after the trial) that Mr. Lynch then asked for a lawyer and clammed up.
While this interview was going on, police were executing a search warrant on the home and van of the defendant. Inside the van they found several tarps, a bucket of orange metal stakes, which matched one found on the ground where the truck had been staked out, and 5 cans of Rustoleum white spray paint (any guesses on whether it matched the paint on the truck and the pants?)
They also found a box for a cordless electric drill and a receipt for it dated that very morning, and a trailer hitch designed to be bolted on to the front bumper of another vehicle so that it could be towed (also with a receipt dated that morning).
That’s all for now, but I’ll be back a little later with more (if you’re interested)
keep it coming! I’m hooked.
Who testified for the defense? Were there character witnesses? did Lynch testify?
The defense called no witnesses, and Lynch never took the stand. The gist of their closing argument was, “Gee, it sure looks bad for my client, doesn’t it. The state has all these stacks of pictures and evidence and it seems pretty overwhelming. But think of the things they’re not telling you. Why didn’t they follow up on the other trucks that people reported? Why didn’t they introduce any evidence of an insurance policy. It seems like they made up their minds early on that my client was guilty and then ignored any evidence that didn’t fit their theory.”
Very dramatic and emotional, but not very convincing.
You remember from my earlier post that Mr. Lynch said he was at Costco when the accident occurred. He said that he drove around and found his wife around 3:30 (wonder why he didn’t call her cell phone? She had it with her).
One problem with this is that the 911 call came in at 3:18. He had a gas receipt from Costco with the time of 3:44 (and he was seen on the surveillance tape pumping gas at that time). He had a receipt for the milk (the only item he bought) stamped at 3:55.
Assuming the victim was struck at 3:18 (although it would have had to have been at least several minutes prior to that), there is a 26 minute gap between that time and the gas pump time. The detective stated that he drove the route from the accident scene to the place where the truck was hidden, to the Costco store at least a half dozen times, and his average time for that route (while always following the speed limits) was 14 minutes. There would have been plenty of time to drive to the hiding place, switch vehicles and drive back to the Costco store within 26 minutes.
The other thing that struck us as jurors was the 11 minute difference between the gas pump receipt and the milk receipt. Now, I don’t know if you have ever shopped at Costco (or Sam’s Club or another similar store), but I can’t even begin to imagine leaving the gas pump, parking the van, going into the store and looking around for chili, asking about the chili and being told it was recalled, picking up some milk and going through the checkout in 11 minutes.
He would have had to run in, scoop up the milk and run to the checkstand. Now maybe the clocks on the 2 registers weren’t in sync with each other, but it makes you wonder.
In addition to the evidence about the truck, the girlfriend also testified about other aspects of their relationship.
She had met Mr. Lynch at the church they both attended and had been dating for about 6 months. Although she had fixed dinner for him on multiple occasions at her home, she had never been in his home. That troubled her a little bit.
When they picked up the truck and she followed him to the house where he parked in the garage, she asked, “Oh, is this where you live?” and he replied that no, he didn’t live there, but merely rented storage space in the garage.
Later, the church published a membership directory which listed his address, so she drove past the house to see where he lived. She didn’t stop, but merely drove past. A few days later she drove by again and saw his van parked there as well as another car. Then she saw him walking down the road with another woman.
She drove past and made eye contact with him, but didn’t stop. She immediately called his cell phone, but he didn’t answer. Then he called her a couple minutes later. She asked who this woman was, and he told her it was his landlady. She lived in the house and rented space in the basement to him. For some reason she was concerned that he hadn’t mentioned that before.
On the morning after the victim’s death, he appeared on TV pleading for people to come forward with information about his wife, Patricia Rothermich. For some reason the TV station identified him as Sherman Rothermich, instead of Sherman Lynch, even though they had each retained their own names after the marriage. Not surprisingly, this was also disturbing to the girlfriend. She called and asked him for an explanation.
He told her no, it wasn’t his wife but was his landlady, but that her friends had asked him to pretend to be her husband to save her from the scandal of having a man living in the same house with her. That’s when she called the police.
The victim’s daughter also testified that she had been asked by Mr. Lynch to write an obituary, which she emailed to him. When she saw the obituary in the newspaper, she noticed that the part about being survived by her husband, Sherman Lynch, had been removed.
After Mr. Lynch had been arrested, his family members and some of the wife’s family members, and some neighbors were cleaning up the house and deciding what to do with the possessions. His son was going to move the van, but didn’t have a key for it. Then he remembered that his father had a key hidden behind the license plate. He bent back the license plate and found the key, but also found the title and transfer documents for the 1993 Chevy pickup (so much for signing over the title to “Chuck”).
That’s most of the evidence that was presented, so I’ll leave it at that for now.
If I feel up to it later on, I may come back and post about some of the jury experiences.
If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them.
This is all so fascinating and tragic. What makes a man start fires? It seems so insane to just kill your wife like that. Sad, sad, sad.
I hope FBG comes back to talk more about what he saw on the interview video, but every time I hear or read about a case like this the upshot is that the murderer 1) isn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the marquee; B) watches way, way too much L&O from the bad guy’s point of view; and iii) doesn’t watch nearly enough CSI (or, alternatively, does, but doesn’t get it).
I’ve come across a lot of people like this in my line of work. Not murderers, mind; just people who are constantly trying to see what they can get away with.
Dumb. As. A. Skunk. (the murderer, not the girlfriend). What did he THINK would happen after he ran over his wife and it was in the news and everything?
Here is a video interview from one of the local TV stations the day following the accident. I don’t think this is the same one we saw in court, but it is interesting.
Very interesting and tragic account! Please, post more.