Marc Thomas Sylvester in court on Tuesday. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette.

Good morning court watchers,

This is John Ensslin, legal affairs reporter for the Gazette.

This morning, I’ll be live blogging from the first-degree murder trial of Marc Thomas Sylvester.

Sylvester is accused of killing Jennifer C. Warren, 35, with a high-powered rifle in February 2009.

Today’s testimony will feature an interesting confrontation.

A woman named Elizabeth Marie Angel is on the witness stand.

Sylvester’s public defenders contend that Angel had more of a motive to kill Warren than their client.

In testimony so far, Angel has denied any role in the killing.

She did admit beating up Warren in a confrontation in a motorcycle garage the day before Warren’s murder.

She was sentenced to probation for her guilty plea in that assault.

This morning the jury listened to an expletive-laden tape recording of a series of conversations Angel had with her husband Jason, who was in jail at the time on an unrelated charge of attempted murder.

On the tape, Angel complains that her husband had been unfaithful to her. She tells him about the confrontation she had with Warren, whom she suspected had been sleeping with her husband.

“She was on her (expletive) knees saying what a (expletive) she was,” Angel said. “I could (expletive) take her life.”

That conversation occurred on Feb. 9^th, the day that investigators discovered Warren’s body in a ditch on the edge of a remote field in eastern El Paso County. She had been shot in the head with a high-powered rifle.

There had been testimony earlier in the trial that Warren had snitched on Jason Angel and landed him in jail.

Elizabeth Angel had testified that Sylvester had called her on Feb. 9 to say, “the (expletive) will not talk again,” referring to Warren.

When she asked what he meant, she said Sylvester cut her off and hung up.

 Today, jurors listened to a tape from Feb. 10 when Elizabeth Angel told her husband what had happened.

Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

Jason: Why would the (expletive) weirdo call and tell you he did it?

Elizabeth: I don’t know…

Jason: I’m tripping…What’s he going to say when he gets arrested? Is he going to bring you into it?

Elizabeth: He’d better not.

Jason: Who is this (expletive) weirdo anyway?

Elizabeth: I don’t (expletive) know….

 Jason: Did he rape her or some (expletive?)

 Elizabeth: I don’t know. I don’t know.

Jason: I think you should say something before he tries to bring you into it…I think you should go to the (expletive) police. Who the (expletive) is he anyway? She (Warren) didn’t deserve that (expletive.)

Elizabeth: I know that.

Jason: As long as you didn’t (expletive) do it with him.

Elizabeth: No I didn’t.

Jason: Then you should just go to the cops. They’re going to find out….This guy’s a (expletive) idiot….You better take a lawyer with you….Why the (expletive) did he do that (expletive.)

 Elizabeth: I don’t know. I don’t know.

Jason: …Do you think they’re going to arrest you?

Elizabeth: I haven’t done anything.

Jason: I hope not. I told you I didn’t like that (expletive) weirdo. I’m going to (expletive) him up when he gets in here.”

Elizabeth Angel testified that she was in the process of talking to a lawyer when police contacted and interviewed her.

The trial has recessed for lunch. I’ll end this live blog here.

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