Testimony paints portrait of dismemberment attempt

Teen used slaying victim's card to buy handsaw, cop says

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, May 24, 2007

BOULDER - A 17-year-old killed his girlfriend's mother, then used the victim's debit card to buy a handsaw to try to dismember the body, according to testimony Wednesday that left two youths facing life in prison.

Tess Damm, 15, told her boyfriend, Bryan Grove, to kill her mother, then got on a cell phone to ask him what was taking so long, Lafayette police Detective Scott Robinson testified during the preliminary hearing into the death of Linda Damm.

Although Linda Damm was an alcoholic who had a stormy relationship with her daughter and Grove, the pair had another motive, Robinson said. They wanted Tess Damm to inherit her mother's Lafayette house so they could sell it and put a down payment on their dream house in Erie.

At the end of the eight-hour hearing, Boulder District Judge Lael Montgomery said there was enough preliminary evidence to warrant the three charges against Grove and the four against Tess Damm.

The most serious, first-degree murder against Grove and complicity to commit first-degree murder against Tess Damm, could result in life sentences.

Montgomery noted that at a preliminary hearing she has to review the evidence in the best light for the prosecution and a trial might have a different outcome.

The next step for the pair is an Aug. 3 arraignment in which they can enter pleas.

On Feb. 28, Grove confessed to police that he strangled and stabbed Linda Damm in her bedroom. But it wasn't until this week that prosecutors filed first- degree murder charges against Tess Damm.

Previously, she'd been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to a crime and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors Karen Peters and Adrian Van Nice used police reports and the testimony of lead detective Robinson to attempt to show Tess Damm's involvement in planning the killing.

Robinson said a friend of the pair, Jared Smith, 16, said he overheard Grove and Tess Damm talking about how to kill Linda Damm. Grove suggested a large kitchen knife, but Tess Damm said that would be too messy and instead suggested trying to make it look like an overdose, combining her mother's over-the- counter medication with alcohol.

According to what Smith told police, after a late night of planning at a pancake house, the pair drove back to the house, as Tess Damm had a last argument with her mother over the cell phone. Tess Damm turned to Grove and said, "Do it." Grove responded, "OK," gave her a quick kiss and went into the house.

There was no testimony Wednesday to suggest that Tess Damm was actually in the house at the time of the slaying.

After first telling police he hadn't seen Linda Damm in three weeks, then telling them he stabbed her after she went after him with a knife, Grove told police what they think is the true story.

He tricked the woman into going to her bedroom for a TV remote control, followed her in, locked the door and strangled her, using both arms to apply maximum force.

Grove said an argument preceded the attack, and that he might not have attacked her at all if the next words out of her mouth were an apology. Instead, Linda Damm told him that she'd be better off if Tess Damm had never been born, that then she wouldn't have "a black guy" hanging around the house.

But prosecutors presented testimony that Tess Damm and Grove made frequent visits to a model home in Erie, entertaining thoughts of buying the house, worth more than $500,000. An agent at the subdivision had recorded their names when they visited but had made a note, "Job?" seemingly questioning whether the young people could afford such a house.

Seth Temlin, Grove's other attorney, pointed out a discrepancy - that Grove told police and friends that he stabbed Damm four times, but that forensics pathologist Meyer counted 18 stab wounds.

Meyer acknowledged to Grove's attorney, Kristi Sanders, that he couldn't tell from the autopsy whether one, two or three knives were used, opening up the possibility that there was more than one killer.

The defense attorneys all tried to point to Smith as playing a more prominent role in the crime than he claimed.

Smith gave his longest version of events March 21, the same day he agreed to plead guilty to accessory to a crime and was sentenced to a maximum of two years in a juvenile facility.

Key points

• Linda Damm was wearing a black sock at her autopsy. A matching black sock was found at Green Mountain Cemetery, where Brian Grove told police he and others tried, but failed, to bury her body in a shallow grave in early February.

• Grove told police where they could find both knives used in the attack - one in a pocket of his black jeans, one in the car. Knives closely matching his description were found in those spots.

• Grove told police he used Linda Damm's debit card to buy a handsaw, which he used to try to dismember her body to make it easier to hide. He abandoned the task, which proved tougher than he thought. A forensics pathologist found evidence of cutting on her thigh.

• About a half hour after Grove was dropped off at the victim's house, he called to say he needed the help of Jared Smith, 16. Smith helped move the body to the victim's Subaru.

• Tess Damm allegedly helped Smith and Grove burn bloody sheets and clothes.

• Another friend, Jared Guy, 18, allegedly helped Tess Damm and Grove move the body to the Green Mountain Cemetery and dig a shallow grave about a week after the killing, and helped them take the body back to the house later that same night.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729