Man recounts seeing son kill intruder

BELFAST – An anguished father testified against his son Tuesday as the Jerome Reynolds II trial entered its second day in Waldo County Superior Court.

Taking the stand as a witness for the prosecution, Jerome Reynolds I recounted to the jury how he witnessed his son shoot and kill Janet Bacon shortly after she forced her way into his son’s home on Purple Heart Highway in Brooks.

Bacon, 60, of Brooks was killed by a single blast of triple-ought buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun. Reynolds II, 54, admitted pulling the trigger, according to testimony provided by a police dispatcher.

In a tape of that conversation played for the jury, Reynolds calmly told the dispatcher, “She came in the house and I shot her. … She refused to leave and I shot her.”

Most of the day’s testimony was taken up by Reynolds’ 76-year old father, also a Brooks resident. Often halting and taking long pauses to gather his thoughts, a visibly pained Reynolds I described his relationship with Bacon and the events leading up to the night she was killed.

He told the jury he witnessed the shooting from a few feet away and that his son immediately called the police after it happened. He said Bacon had been angry with him that day and “banged” her way into his son’s home looking for him. Reynolds I had decided to spend the night there because he was tired of Bacon nagging him.

“I just told him [Reynolds II] that she was on the warpath, and I wasn’t going to take any more of it that night,” said Reynolds.

Bacon was apparently angry with the elder Reynolds because he spent part of the day playing cards with women at the local senior citizen center. He said Bacon often “would give me the devil” whenever she believed he had been with other women.

“She was reading the riot act to me. … She didn’t want me playing cards with those women,” said Reynolds. “She said, ‘I’m going in there and give them women holy old hell.’ I said, ‘Do not do that, Janet; it’s bad for you, and it’s bad for me.'”

Bacon had moved into the elder Reynolds’ home earlier that year. She was a health care worker and brought an elderly man she was caring for with her when she moved into Reynolds’ house. Reynolds and Bacon met when she cared for his late wife during the last years of her illness. They became romantically involved after his wife died.

On more than one occasion portions of Reynolds’ testimony did not concur with statements given to police on the night of the Sept. 29, 2004, killing. Although Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson repeatedly pointed out the discrepancies, Reynolds stuck with his current recollection of the events. Reynolds explained that he was “shook up” when police talked to him that night.

Most of the points of contention dealt with the way Bacon behaved once she entered his son’s home. Reynolds initially told police she was not argumentative when she arrived but testified Tuesday that he recalled that she did have words with his son and forced her way into the home.

Benson zeroed in on those discrepancies repeatedly, apparently because defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein has suggested throughout the trial that Bacon was a volatile person who was frequently combative and abusive toward Reynolds’ father. He stated that Reynolds II was aware of Bacon’s past behavior and reacted as he did because he feared for his father’s safety. State law allows the use of deadly force in situations where a person trespasses with the intent to harm someone or commit a crime.

If she entered the Reynolds home with mayhem in her heart the night she was shot, Bacon was hardly dressed to kill. Evidence presented Tuesday indicated that she was wearing a nightgown and slippers when she arrived and was not carrying a weapon of any kind. Police witnesses testified that Bacon’s body was located just inside the building’s front door.

A gun expert testified that an expended shotgun shell taken from Reynolds’ shotgun matched those tested in the state crime lab. The buckshot pellets taken from Bacon’s body were consistent with the kind of pellets that had been fired from the now empty shell.