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Jury seated in Batiste murder trial |
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Thursday, 29 October 2009 |
By KELLY DANIELS
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Testimony in the trial of a former Mississippi State student charged with murdering and robbing his roommate finally began Wednesday after two and a half days of jury selection.
Twenty-nine-year-old Bobby Batiste who allegedly beat to death Andreas “Andy” Galanis, 28, sat still Wednesday without ever turning his head as District Attorney Forest Allgood described Galanis’ body as “very beaten and very bloody.”
The all-white jury heard from two witnesses who worked for Merchants and Farmers Bank on Highway 12 at the time of the murder. The two bank employees testified about speaking with Galanis the day he discovered $4,507.54 missing from his bank account.
According to Al Rice and Candace Dailey, Batiste was there when Galanis found out. Rice — a bank teller at the time — regularly handled Galanis’ bank transactions. Rice testified that Galanis suddenly had a lot of debit card purchases on his bank record.
“He told me that his debit card was stored in his room,” he said.
Authorities allege that Batiste had taken Galanis’ debit card and had been making the purchases.
Batiste acted very surprised upon learning of his roommate’s financial dilemma, Rice testified.
“He seemed really concerned about what was going on,” Rice said.
Later, Batiste returned to the bank via the drive-through teller area and asked Rice over the intercom how long video images were stored at the ATM machine.
Rice testified that the images were stored for a year.
Dailey, who worked in customer service for the bank, testified that she printed out a hard copy of Galanis’ transactions and he highlighted each one that was his own.
With her hands in black plastic gloves, Dailey read from the original copy, on which blood was visible from the witness stand.
“The page was full of transactions that did not belong to him,” she said.
All the while, Batiste sat beside Galanis like a “supportive friend.”
The debit card was activated on Christmas Day in 2007, almost three months before the murder.
“He said he was going to press charges. He wasn’t going to be able get his money back any other way,” she said.
Death penalty possible
Judge Jim Kitchens is presiding over Batiste’s trial in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.
Because Batiste is charged with both robbing and murdering Galanis, he could be convicted of capital murder, which could put him on Death Row and facing execution.
The state’s success in convicting Batiste with capital murder depends on whether both the robbery charge and the murder charge can be proven as part of a single act.
“The state intends to prove to you that he killed him, and he killed him in commission of a robbery,” said Allgood, addressing the jury with an opening statement.
Defense attorney James Lappan, however, stated just the opposite — that his side would prove Batiste murdered Galanis, but did not commit robbery in conjunction with the murder.
Using the words of Batiste’s statement to the Sheriff’s Department, Lappan then told the story of how Batiste beat Galanis to death and later cleaned up the mess and put his body in a wheelbarrow.
“I did all these things to cover up what I’d done,” Lappan said, repeating Batiste’s statements to the police from memory. But, he continued, “Bobby didn’t rob anybody.”
The trial will resume this morning at 8:30 a.m. when Allgood is expected to call more witnesses in the prosecution’s case.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 30 October 2009 )
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