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LEBANON — Jennifer Crew testified Wednesday that Ryan Widmer confessed to her during a frantic phone call that he killed his wife by punching her in the chest, causing her to fall down and hit her head.
“He was crying at first and I couldn’t understand him,” Crew said about the confession call allegedly made to her on Oct. 26, 2009.
“I said ‘Ryan, Ryan’.... then he said I did it, I did it, I killed Sarah,” Crew testified. “My heart fell, that I had been believing this person for so long.”
Crew, 36, said she thought Widmer meant he was responsible because he couldn’t save his wife, or he didn’t perform CPR long enough. But she said Widmer persisted with his confession, “No Jenn, listen to me, I did it.”
Crew, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, resident, said an inebriated Widmer told her he had gotten in an argument with his wife, Sarah Widmer, about him looking at pornography, his drinking and smoking on the night of Aug. 11, 2008.
Sarah told him she was leaving him, Crew said.
In a rage, he told Sarah, “No one leaves me,” and punched her in the chest in the bathroom where she was drawing a bath and she hit her head, Crew testified.
Widmer said he blacked out after hitting his wife and when he came out of it, Sarah was on the ground, not breathing and her hair was wet, Crew testified.
He then allegedly told her he dried up the scene, hid the towels and dialed 911, Crew said.
“He was freaking out. He knew he had done something he shouldn’t have done,” she said. “He told me he was thinking about how to cover up what he had done.”
Widmer, 30, is charged with murdering Sarah, 24, in their Hamilton Twp. home.
This is the third trial for Widmer, the first produced a guilty verdict that was tossed for jury misconduct. The second jury was hung.
Crew contacted Widmer after the airing of NBC’s “Dateline” program about the case in September 2009. The pair communicated regularly via e-mail, Instant Messaging and eventually over the phone.
Crew stayed quiet after the confession because she said Widmer threatened her if she told.
“He said I wouldn’t want you to end up where Sarah is,” she said.
Crew contacted prosecutors after the second trial when she saw the look on Sarah’s mom Ruth Ann Steward’s face.
“I saw the pain and hurt on her face,” Crew said. “I’m a mom, I couldn’t do it anymore.”
Testimony doesn’t jibe
Crew knew a lot about Ryan Widmer’s personal life, but her account of his confession to the murder of his wife doesn’t resemble testimony from others in the trial.
Crew, 36 of Cedar Rapids, Iowa cried and appeared fragile during the prosecution’s examination in Warren County Common Pleas Court Wednesday, but when defense attorney Jay Clark took over she became instantly combative, even hostile.
Now a full-time student studying criminal justice and chemical dependency, Crew said she previously was a manager of dancers at a club in Illinois. She has a child and a fiance.
During questioning by the prosecution, she testified extensively about e-mail messages and cell phone calls with Widmer. She said she contacted him after seeing his case featured on the television show “Dateline NBC” on Sept. 18, 2009.
She said she became very familiar with Widmer during their conversations, testifying to specific things she knew about him and Sarah Widmer. She knew Widmer’s song for his wife was “You’re All I Need,” by heavy metal band Motley Crue. She even knew Sarah Widmer’s nickname was “Stewie” when she was younger. That hasn’t come out in previous trials, but Ruth Ann Steward, Sarah’s mom testified to that Tuesday.
Crew testified she made frequent visits to the “freeryanwidmer.com” website, which has media postings about the case. Clark questioned her what other research she did, but Judge Neal Bronson would not allow her to say what she had read about the case.
Despite her knowing about Widmer’s background, her recollection of his alleged confession of what happen on Aug. 11, 2008 when Sarah Widmer died did not correspond with other’s testimony.
When police arrived at the home that night, the dog was going crazy and a trash can was spilled over in the bathroom, Crew testified Widmer said.
Widmer told her the tipped trash can worried him. In earlier testimony, Warren County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Bishop testified he dumped the trash can.
Earlier testimony indicated there was no bruising on Sarah Widmer’s chest — contradictory to Crew’s statements about Widmer punching her. Autopsy findings showed all the bruising and hemorrhaging was on Sarah’s neck.
She said Widmer told her he dried the scene and hid the towels. Police searched everywhere, even in the Widmers’ cars, but no wet rags or towels could be found, according to testimony.
Crew told prosecutors Widmer used his wife’s cell phone to call 911 after he found her not breathing because his phone’s battery was dead. Clark said Widmer used his own phone to call Sarah Widmer’s mother when he was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
Clark asked her about her past use of pain killer Oxycontin, the fact she used alias’ to obtain more drugs, her past criminal convictions for theft and forgery, a bipolar disorder and an almost-date with an instructor at her school.
Crew said she didn’t go on the date with the married man because he was too old.
“He had a receding hairline just like you,” Crew told Clark.
Clark repeatedly referred Crew to transcripts of three interviews she had with Warren County investigators. He pointed out that she did not mention some major points of her testimony initially, like the fact she feared Widmer — who is restricted from traveling out of state — would harm her if she told anyone about the confession.
He also quizzed her about whether Widmer’s phone number, the night of the supposed confession, was blocked. She said she doesn’t recall seeing the number on her phone, but she has a special ring tone for Widmer on her phone.
Clark said the phone call was first reported to last an hour to an hour and a half, but it lasted only 45 minutes according to phone records. She also claimed the call came in the middle of the night, but Widmer called at around 10 p.m. Her fiance Floyd Hulett told investigators she woke him after the Widmer phone call at 3 a.m.
Crew was so invested in the case she sent Ryan and his twin Aryan matching Bengals warm ups for their birthday, which was 10 days after she said she received the confession. She said she had already told Widmer she was sending a present so she had to send it so Widmer would still think she was a supporter.
Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a jury expert and professor at the University of Dayton law school, watched Crew testify , and said he did not find her credible. He believes there were many inconsistencies in her statements.
“I frankly don’t why they called her,” he said
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.
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