JUST IN: Brown County Jury finds Dean guilty of murder

UPDATE: A Brown County jury Thursday morning found John Michael Dean of Mount Sterling guilty of murder in the first degree in the June 2019 death of Rebecca Niewohner. Full story to follow.

QUINCY — The prosecution says John Michael Dean put a gun to the head of his girlfriend, Rebecca L. Niewohner, on June 14, 2019, pulled the trigger and killed her.

The defense says Niewohner was battling depression issues and shot herself that night, and Dean chose to claim he shot her to protect Niewohner’s daughter from the fact her mother committed suicide.

Now it’s up to a 12-person jury, consisting of seven men and five women, to decide which story they believe.

The jury began deliberations at 11:11 a.m. Wednesday in Brown County Circuit Court. Closing arguments were Wednesday morning in the eighth day of the first-degree murder trial. Dean, 42, of Mount Sterling allegedly shot Niewohner, 44, with a .45-caliber handgun, then tried to kill himself by shooting himself under his chin. Dean and Niewohner had been living together for approximately two years.

Dean appeared in court Wednesday, dressed in a black suit, alongside attorney John Leonard. He sat quietly and showed no emotion during nearly two hours of closing arguments. He didn’t turn to look at his parents, seated in the front row, until after Judge Charles H.W. Burch announced the court was in recess.

State’s attorney: Tracjectory of bullet not common in suicides

Brown County State’s Attorney Michael Hill spoke first for about 15 minutes about what he called “a simple case.”

Hill said the handgun was tested for DNA. The trigger and the grip had Dean’s DNA. No DNA from Niewohner was found. He also said the trajectory of the bullet, which entered her skull above her right ear and exited in her left temple, was down and forward — a path uncommon in suicides, according to the testimony of a state pathologist.

Carolyn Woodward, Niewohner’s mother, and ex-husband Kraig Niewohner both testified Niewohner did everything left-handed. A bullet entering the right side of Niewohner’s head could not have been fired with her left hand, Hill said. Most of the gunshot residue found on Niewohner was on her right side.

“The physical evidence does not lie,” Hill said. “The DNA, the gunshot residue, it all supports that this man (Dean) shot and killed (Niewohner).”

Hill then said the most damning evidence were the words of Dean when he called a friend, Jeremy Huston, on the night of the shooting. Huston claimed Dean said, “Becky’s gone. I shot her. I killed her. Now I’m going to join her.”

Defense shows few text messages showing heated texts between Niewohner, Dean

Leonard began his 75-minute closing argument claiming local authorities thought the case was a “slam dunk” because of Dean’s phone call to Huston. However, Leonard said he remembered two old sayings his parents often used — “Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees” and “Haste makes waste.”

He said information extracted from Niewohner’s cellphone, starting in 2018 and ending the day before the shooting, showed only three or four heated texts exchanged between Dean and Niewohner when they were vacationing with Dean’s family in Hawaii in 2019.

“That’s the best (the defense) could find,” Leonard said. “You will see countless references by him to her as babe, love of my life and sweetheart.”

Testimony earlier in the week, however, revealed Niewohner was planning to leave Dean.

Leonard said Dean returned home on June 14 after spending a day working at a local oil change station in Mount Sterling and cleaned up around the pool and mowed his yard. He also received a text message from his father about a work-related issue.

“And then the defense wants you to believe that all of a sudden, he snapped and shot her,” Leonard said. 

Defense claims police officer made several mistakes in investigation

He said Dean emptied the contents of his pants pocket on the kitchen counter and grabbed a beer after working outside, upsetting Niewohner.

“She was shaking and upset, and (Dean) gave her a smart-aleck remark (when she picked up the gun off the counter),” Leonard sad. “He said, ‘Put the gun down. You’re not going to do it.’”

Leonard claims Nathan Rauch, a former officer with the Mount Sterling Police Department, mishandled the investigation on several fronts. Leonard claims Rauch allowed an ambulance crew to enter the home before the gun, which was on the kitchen counter, was put away safely.

Leonard then claimed Rauch took the gun outside the home and put it in his car.

“Five people touched that gun before it got to the crime lab,” Leonard said. “The DNA analysis is worthless.”

He also claimed Rauch said his audio and video equipment didn’t work that evening. It was later determined that it did work.

Bottle of medicine to help with bi-polar disorder found unopened

Leonard said Brandon Norris, chief of the Mount Sterling Police Department, testified that Rauch later altered his original police report. Rauch claimed that he asked Dean on the evening of the shooting, “Did you kill her?” Dean reportedly nodded his head in the affirmative.

Leonard noted in testimony given earlier this week that Burch reminded Rauch he didn’t have to testify.

“Suddenly, (Rauch) couldn’t remember a thing,” Leonard sad. “He lied about his report. He lied about the video equipment. He lied about the gun, and he lied on the witness stand.”

Leonard said six bottles of medicines were found in Niewohner’s dresser drawer. One contained lithium carbonate, which he said is prescribed for people with bi-polar disorder. The prescription was filled May 22. The seal on the bottle was unbroken.

“She wasn’t taking the medicine that was prescribed to her,” Leonard said.

Instead, she was taking CBD oil bought from Jenny Terstriep of Quincy.

Ten months after Niewohner death, Dean says she killed herself

Dr. George Nichols, a forensic pathologist with more than 20 years experience as Kentucky’s chief medical examiner, testified he believed Niewohner’s death was a suicide because of the existence of a “contact gunshot wound.”

The defense believed Niewohner used her right hand to swat at the gun when Dean pointed it at her head.

“When a gun is pointed at your head, you don’t swat at it,” Leonard said. “You move your head. There is no evidence that she did any defensive maneuver.”

Leonard said officers from the Illinois State Police canvassed the neighborhood and found no evidence proving prior hostility between Dean and Niewohner. 

Leonard then read to the jury a series of messages on Facebook Messenger between Dean and a friend, Brett Bulva. Dean was at his parents’ home in Mount Sterling on house arrest on April 17-18, and on April 17, his mother asked if Niewohner had committed suicide.

“He put his head down and said no,” Leonard testified.

However, the next day, Dean contacted Bulva and said, “I need your advice.” He told Bulva he had to “keep a secret” and what he was about to tell him was “eating me up.”

Dean then wrote that he didn’t shoot Niewohner. He grabbed a bottle opener in the kitchen, and when he turned around, she shot herself.

“She looked me straight in the face and pulled the trigger,” Dean wrote. 

Text messages showed Niewohner was depressed

He then wrote that he panicked and called Huston, claiming he shot Niewohner. He told Bulva he was the only person he had told about the shooting, but he didn’t know if he could tell his family.

“Tell the truth,” Bulva wrote back. “Tell your lawyer. Is it worth going to prison?”

Dean later wrote, “Do I tell what happened and hang my girl out? I feel f***d up that I covered for her.”

After telling the story to his parents, Dean wrote to Bulva, “Mom feels better. I feel like I threw her under the bus. Dad didn’t say much. I think he’s pissed.”

Leonard then read to the jury a series of text messages, starting in 2013, from Niewohner to several friends. Among them she wrote:

• “I am just a piece of (crap).”
• “My anxiety and depression is kicking my ass.”
• “I can’t stop crying. I am struggling with relationships.”
• “I have had three really rough days. I went cold turkey off my medicine.”
• “I hate people, mostly family.”
• “I’ve been having really bad migraines.”

Hill: Niewohner was doing everything she could to resolve (her issues)

Finally she wrote on June 11, three days before her death, “I need help. My mind is so f****d up I don’t know what to do. I hate living.”

Hill spoke for about 10 minutes, rebutting Leonard’s argument. He didn’t believe Dean’s claim that he wanted to hide Niewohner’s suicide from her daughter.

“We mislead our children about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny,” Hill said. “Not ‘I just killed your mother.’”

Hill also discounted the seriousness of Leonard’s claims that Niewohner was depressed.

“She was doing her best to cope,” he sad. “Becky may have had mental health issues, but she was doing everything she could to resolve them by reaching out to friends. You won’t find a single (text message) that says, ‘I’m going to kill myself.’”