PASADENA, Calif. -- The ex-girlfriend of a former Domino's Pizza manager charged with killing company employees on both coasts will be allowed totestify that he threatened to bomb the South Carolina shop he once ran, a judge ruled Monday.
Superior Court Judge Jack Tso ruled that Deborah Kennah, 30, Mitchell Sims's former girlfriend and co-worker, may tell the jury in his murder trial that he bought a gun and threatened to blow up a Domino's Pizza restaurant in West Columbia, S.C., in 1985.
But Tso also ruled that Kennah may not tell the jurythat Sims told her he was going to 'get good at shooting and take care of everyone who needed it.'
After making his ruling, Tso denied a request for a mistrial made by Sims's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Morton Borenstein, who contended much of Kennah's testimony would prejudice the jury against Sims.
Sims, 26, of West Columbia, S.C., faces a possible death sentence if convicted of robbing and murdering Domino's delivery clerk John Harrigan, 21, Dec. 9, 1985, at a Glendale motel. He also is charged with robbing and tried to kill two of Harrigan's co-workers at their shop in Glendale after the slaying.
Sims's girlfriend, Ruby Padgett, 21, also of West Columbia, was tried separately and convicted of murdering Harrigan. A jury acquitted her of charges she tried to murder the two clerks at the Domino's in Glendale. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 29.
Kennah is expected to testify Tuesday as Sims's trial continues in its second week. Tso recessed early Monday after the prosecutor complained of laryngitis.
Sims, who has spent the last 16 months in jail without bail, faces a later trial in South Carolina for the Dec. 3, 1985, robbery-murders of two employees of a Domino's in Hanahan, S.C., where he worked briefly as a driver after resigning as manager of the West Columbia shop.
Deputy District Attorney Terry Green said a police detective investigating the South Carolina murders 'tracked down' Kennah just two weeks ago and interviewed her. Until then, Green said, he and Glendale police were unaware of Kennah's potential as a witness.
Green said Sims threatened Kennah with a gun May 28, 1985, the same day the couple broke up. Sims later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of illegally possessing a gun.
Last week the two Domino's employees, Edmund Sicam and Kory Spiroff, testified that Sims, armed with a gun, came into the restaurant and robbed them of about $2,000, leaving them bound and locked inside a walk-in freezer.
The two said they were tied with ropes that were looped over a wire rack and knotted around their hands and necks so that they had to stay on their tiptoes to keep from strangling.
'After a while, the noose tightended somewhat. That didn't look good for me. I was really quite scared,' Sicam testified.
Spiroff testifed that 'he couldn't have lasted much longer' when found by police later that morning.
Harrigan's body was found in the motel bathtub submerged in cold running water. He was bound and gagged and had a pillowcase over his head.
