An inmate testified Friday that Patrick Frazee asked him to arrange killings of witnesses in his murder trail. File Photo by Teller County Sheriff's Office
Nov. 16 (UPI) -- An inmate who met Patrick Frazee, the suspect in the Kelsey Berreth murder case, in a county jail in Colorado, testified the defendant asked him to arrange killing witnesses in exchange for helping to bail him out of jail.
The inmate, Jacob Bentley, testified in court Friday that Frazee, accused of killing his fiance Berreth, asked him to use prison gang connections to arrange the killings of Krystal Lee, the prosecution's key witness, along with arranging killings of other witnesses.
Bentley testified that he started talking with Frazee when they housed next to each other in jail.
Frazee offered to help bail Bentley out of jail to arrange killings of Lee and other witnesses, Bentley said.
Lee is a nurse from Ohio and a former girlfriend of Frazee. She testified that Frazee told her to clean blood from Berreth's condo. She said Frazee told her he used a baseball bat to kill Berreth, 29, last Thanksgiving Day and burned her body, which has not been found, at his ranch.
Lee said she cleaned up Berreth's home using gloves, a protective body suit, cleaner and trash bags, but she later showed authorities several locations where she intentionally left blood spatter to lead them to evidence.
In addition to Lee, Bentley testified that Frazee also asked him to kill the lead Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent on the case, Lee's relatives, Frazee's friend who testified in court, and other people.
Notes between the two list more than 10 other people who, one note indicated, needed to "disappear or be unseen," Greg Slater, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent testified Friday.
The notes also showed that Frazee maintained his innocence after pleading not guilty earlier this year in Teller County District Court to the murder of Berreth.
"I'm not the monster they say I am," one note read. "I don't know what happened or where she went. Honestly my wheels are spinning out of control the closer it gets to trial."
Frazee's defense attorney, Adam Steigerwald, argued that Bentley was not credible in cross examination, adding that he watched a television show about the case before coming forward and that he was expected to testify in a separate trial that another defendant asked him to kill a witness.
Frazee was arrested in December on investigation of first-degree murder charge, court documents said. By the end of the month, prosecutors had filed five murder-related charges against him, including one count of first-degree murder, three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and one count of first degree felony murder.
Bentley is the last witness to be called in the trial.
On Monday, attorneys will present closing arguments before the case goes to the jury for deliberation.
