Trial set for dead man's wife

Teresa Carson didn't furnish a getaway vehicle for her son and two Mississippi men accused of fatally beating her husband, Brian Carson, to death in April.

The 41-year-old woman from the Elkhorn area also didn't provide them a disguise to elude police. She wasn't present when the slaying occurred. She spent the day of the slaying in Bellevue, staying at her stepfather's house.

Even though Teresa Carson wasn't present for the killing, she intentionally misled Omaha police detectives, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine argued during today's preliminary hearing for Teresa Carson in Douglas County Court.

According to today's court testimony, Teresa Carson told one of her co-defendants, Nicole Walker, that Brian Carson was “worth more dead to her than alive.” She also told Walker that her son needed to take his father's body and “put it in a ditch,” according to today's testimony.

After hearing testimony, Judge Lawrence Barrett agreed that Kleine presented sufficient evidence to charge Teresa Carson with being an accessory to commit murder.

Teresa Carson is one of eight people charged in connection with Brian K. Carson's slaying. The victim's son, Ryan Carson, and two Mississippi teens are all charged with first-degree murder. The body of Brian Carson, 45, was found the next day, April 5, in the trunk of his car.

According to today's testimony, Ryan Carson was angry that his father was having an affair with his girlfriend and that was the motive for the fatal beating.

Teresa Carson's defense attorney, James Martin Davis, questioned Omaha Police Detective Scott Warner about his client's alleged participation in the slaying.

Davis argued that his client wasn't present when the fatal beating occurred and was not a participant in any scheme to orchestrate her husband's death. More importantly, Davis told the court, Teresa Carson was the person who contacted police the next day, on April 5, to alert them to the possible homicide.

Warner testified today that Teresa Carson called the police department's non-emergency number after returning home April 5. She told police that her husband was nowhere to be found and that the house was in disarray.

Warner said the investigation revealed Teresa Carson knew the day before that her husband had been killed inside the house. Therefore, when she called police the next morning, she intentionally was deceptive and misleading, Warner said.

Contact the writer:

444-1056, john.ferak@owh.com