Alleged texts with prostitutes discussed at Donthe Lucas trial
2/26/2021
Former Pueblo Police Department Detective Neal Robinson continued to testify Friday and read text messages allegedly sent by homicide suspect Donthe Lucas in the days following the 2013 disappearance of Kelsie Schelling.
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Prior to Robinson’s reading of the texts, 10th Judicial District Judge Thomas Flesher informed the jury that the prosecution was recounting Lucas’ texts to show Lucas’ frame of mind in the days after Schelling’s disappearance, as well as to establish a possible motive for her murder.
Robinson testified Thursday that in the early morning hours of Feb. 5, just hours after Schelling arrived in Pueblo to see Lucas, Schelling’s phone dialed Reeves’ phone, though Reeves testified Thursday she had never met Schelling and that their only common acquaintance was Lucas.
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Lucas' communication with Schelling's family on Feb. 9
Several of Lucas’ texts read by Robinson to the jury Friday were sent and received on Feb. 9, the same day when Schelling’s mother, Laura Saxton, contacted Lucas to inquire if he’d seen or heard from Schelling.
Saxton called Lucas that morning and subsequently sent several texts telling Lucas the family was worried and was contacting police.
Shortly after, cell phone data records show Lucas texted Schelling’s phone multiple times, saying that her family was worried and was thinking of involving police.
Robinson testified that prior to the Feb. 9 text exchanges, Lucas and Schelling’s phones had not communicated with each other since Feb. 5.
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He [Lucas] later texted Saxton again, Robinson said, saying he had spoken with Schelling over the phone and that she said she was “OK” but that her phone was broken, which is why she was having trouble communicating.
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Lucas then indicated to Saxton he believed Schelling was traveling back to California.
Robinson read a text that said Schelling was going to head back to California, where she’d previously lived, to resume working for her old employer at a tanning salon and get back together with her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Raybon.
Raybon also testified Friday, saying he had met Schelling at school in Oceanside, California and that they dated for a couple of months. He said Schelling moved back to Colorado after the semester ended and they spoke through text a handful of times in the following months, but never spoke about rekindling their relationship.
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Lucas' alleged texts with love interest and prostitutes
Robinson also read several texts the evening of Feb. 9, to Reeves and several unknown numbers seemingly trying to solicit sex.
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In cross examination, Tameler asked Robinson if there was ever any indication Lucas actually met with the “parties offering services” to Lucas through text, and Robinson said there was not.
Defense questions the thoroughness of the investigation
Tameler asked Robinson about a tip police received in which the tipster referenced a possible suspect who may have killed “that Kelsie girl.”
Robinson testified that the individual in question was spoken to and led police on a search of the South Side landfill that resulted in some cow bones being discovered.
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Both the tipster and the individual identified in the tip have since died.
Robinson was also asked by Tameler if police found any evidence of bloodletting events at the two residences where Lucas was living at the time — he spent most of his nights at his grandmother’s residence on Manor Ridge Drive and most days at his mother’s address on Toronto Place — or within Schelling’s vehicle.
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But five days passed before any Pueblo police officer stepped foot in the Manor Ridge Drive home, Robinson said, giving ample time for a potential crime scene to be cleaned.
Robinson also confirmed to Deputy District Attorney Kyle McCarthy on redirect that there are other ways a person can be murdered that do not result in a bloodletting event, such as a strangulation.
Lucas' mother and grandmother take the stand
Friday afternoon, the court heard briefly from Vivian Lucas, Donthe Lucas' 94-year-old grandmother whom he was living with on Manor Ridge Drive on the night of Schelling’s disappearance.
Schelling met up with Donthe at an intersection near Vivian Lucas’ home on the night of her disappearance, where she and Donthe would often meet.
Vivian Lucas was asked by prosecutors if she remembered a report she made to Binet, of Denver PD, saying she saw Donthe in the garage of her home around 4 a.m. Feb. 5 and that he told her was looking for something and instructed her to go back to bed.
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Binet, who testified earlier in the case, again took the stand and a recording of his phone conversation with Vivian Lucas on Feb. 11 was played for the court.
In it, Vivian Lucas can be heard saying, “I just got up at 4 o’clock in the morning and went to the bathroom and when I came in my grandson was coming in the garage.
“I said, ‘What are you doing up this early?’ And he said, ‘I’m looking for something in the garage.’”
Donthe Lucas' mother, Sara Lucas, also took the stand, testifying about her communication with Schelling and her son surrounding Schelling’s disappearance.
Sara Lucas testified that she had only met Schelling once while she and Donthe were dating and that the meeting took place several months before Schelling’s disappearance.
She said she had met Schelling, unbeknownst to Donthe, at a park behind her residence on Toronto Place.
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She said she created a secret text box in her phone where she would communicate with Schelling because Schelling had asked her not to save Schelling’s number in her phone, as she didn’t want Donthe to know they were communicating.
But in another recording by Binet played for the court, Sara Lucas was heard saying she had created the secret text box because Donthe did not want her talking to Schelling.
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Sara Lucas testified that on the morning of Feb. 5, she was arriving at her mother Vivian’s house to pick her up.
She said as she approached her mother’s home, she noticed Schelling’s 2011 Chevy Cruze parked nearby and recognized it immediately, as she’d previously driven the vehicle with Schelling’s permission.
Upon entering Vivian's home, Sara Lucas said she confronted Donthe about Schelling being there.
“I told him I was not happy,” Sara Lucas said. “I thought that was a level of disrespect for him and her to be at my mother’s home.”
Although she noticed Schelling’s car, Lucas testified she never saw Schelling inside of Vivian’s home.
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Sara Lucas said Donthe did not indicate where he and Schelling were planning on going, as far as she could remember, though she noted she did at some point tell Donthe he and Schelling might be able to get a pregnancy test by visiting Planned Parenthood.
McCarthy asked Sara Lucas if in her conversation with Donthe, he seemed nervous, anxious or upset; Sara Lucas said he did not.
But in another clip of Binet’s phone interview with Sara Lucas, she was heard telling him, “My mother asked me why I was crying I said, ‘Kelsie says she’s pregnant. She’s in your (Vivian’s) house and Donthe is acting weird. I don’t know.”
Later that day, Sara Lucas recalled Donthe asking her to pick him up from the Southside Walmart, which she did.
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Tameler asked Sara Lucas if she already had a grandchild at this point in 2013, and she replied she already had two.
She said she was concerned when she found out Schelling was pregnant because she felt neither Schelling nor Donthe were ready for the responsibility of a child. But when Tameler asked her if she would have been welcoming of a third grandchild, she replied, “Very much so.”
Sara Lucas also testified that she had a very tight relationship with her son and would have noticed if he was anxious or upset, even if he didn’t bring it up to her.
