Witness says party scene still messy when she awoke
The prosecution worked to build its case Thursday in the trial of two people charged with tampering with evidence in connection with a party at their Edenville Township property at which Bullock Creek High School junior Trent William Ripper drowned in 2009.
Clayton Ervin Gibbs, 51, and Dana Lianne Gibbs, 49, each face one count of tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The Gibbses own the Edenville Township property at Water and Curtis roads where the party occurred in June 2009.
Midland County Prosecutor Mike Carpenter called four former Bullock Creek High School students, Kylie Gillette, Alyssa King, Maria Violette and Megan Volner (formerly English), to testify about the events of that night and the early morning hours the next day.
All four said they saw Dana Gibbs at the party at least one time that night, but none saw Clayton Gibbs Sr. in the evening. None said they received instructions to clean up or to lie from either of the Gibbses. All remembered a keg at the party and students drinking.
To reach a conviction, Carpenter must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Gibbses knowingly and intentionally removed, altered, concealed, destroyed or otherwise tampered with evidence to be used in an official court proceeding.
Volner said she saw evidence of a party after being awakened at the scene by screaming and Aaron Lange knocking on the car in which she slept.
“Did you remember, did you look up at the area where the party was when you woke up?” Carpenter said.
“Yeah,” Volner said.
“And what did you see?” Carpenter said.
“Um, I had seen the beer pong table still set up, the fire was still going and there (was), um, obviously evidence of a party — there were Solo cups left out and, just, it looked like a party had taken place,” Volner said.
“See a keg?” Carpenter said.
“Yes,” Volner said.
The defense tried to discredit Volner’s testimony, with Volner admitting she lied to police about the amount of alcohol she had drank that evening and not telling police she also had smoked marijuana. Volner said she had stopped consuming both earlier in the evening and was not hung over when she woke up.
Volner said she’s fairly certain she woke up at 3 a.m. and began trying to call Amanda Kobel, another student who she said was inside the Gibbses’ house, around 3:20 a.m. She said she did speak with her at one point in the morning, making what she called an “educated guess” that it was at 3:40 a.m.
After driving around, she said she and Matthew Fleming went to another student’s home, where she stayed until about 5 a.m., when she was picked up by Fleming’s father. She said she then got a text message saying Ripper was dead.
King refreshed her memory of the evening by reading a portion of a report from a police interview. She said she didn’t remember telling police she saw the party area still littered when she left the scene, but since she said it to the police, “it would have been true.”
King described waking up to Justin Hill screaming and pounding on the windows of the car she was in, which was parked up the hill on the Gibbses’ property along the Tittabawassee River.
“He got in the car and said that we needed to leave,” King said. “He said the cops are coming.”
King said Hill told them Ripper’s car was in the water, but not immediately that Ripper was in the car. She told police in 2009 this happened around 3:30 or 4 a.m., but could not recall the time on Wednesday.
She said she never got out of the vehicle or called 911 and that the vehicle left the scene. King said she sent a mass text message to students stating their stories had to match. She said she sent it shortly after she found out Ripper had died.
Defense attorney Todd Flood asked King if she gave a statement to Deputy Myron Greene in the morning. King said she was with other students when statements were given and Greene had Lauren Kreutzberg talk.
“He said, ‘Your statement’s the same?’ and I said ‘Yes,’” she said.
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Midland Daily News covers the Edenville Township party case
The first day of testimony is complete in the trial of two people charged with tampering with evidence in connection with a party at their Edenville Township property at which Bullock Creek High School junior Trent Ripper drowned in 2009.
Clayton Ervin Gibbs, 51, and Dana Lianne Gibbs, 49, both face one count of tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
Midland County Prosecutor Mike Carpenter and Todd Flood, an attorney for the Dana Gibbs, presented opening arguments before five people were called to testify in the case today. Paul Bernier, an attorney for Clayton Gibbs, reserved his opening statement for a later time.
Ripper was found in his submerged Honda Prelude on June 5, 2009, after the vehicle went in the water during the night.
The first person to take the stand was Lisa Hall, director of Midland County Central Dispatch Authority, who said the first and only call made to 911 about the incident came from a woman at the Gibbses home at 5 a.m. June 5, 2009.
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