Donald Wilson wipes away the tears during his murder trial Thursday at the Lincoln County Courthouse.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[11/14/03]BROOKHAVEN The murder, aggravated assault and arson trial of a Warren County man was expected to conclude here today, a day after he was described as a man seeking closure from his divorce at the time of the fatal attack.

Attorney Richard Johnson of Vicksburg was called to testify by defense attorneys for Donald Wilson, 64, 1074 Riley Road, who has been in Warren County custody since Aug. 19, 2001, when his ex-wife, Patricia Wilson, 54, 385 Culkin Road, was shot and Joseph Hartzog, who was 56, was killed.

Donald Wilson is also charged with setting fire to a pickup in which Hartzog’s body lay after he had been shot.

“He was concerned about things she was doing wasn’t showing him any attention, down at the (casino) boats quite a bit and things like that,” said Johnson, who was hired to handle the Wilsons’ divorce in 2000. He added that Wilson would cry uncontrollably for minutes at a time, with the crying sometimes resulting in Wilson’s losing his train of thought and ending their conversations by leaving.

“The thing that impressed me about it is that he never wanted this divorce, and he couldn’t figure out how it was all going to end,” Johnson said. “He really needed some finality to the situation.”

Thursday was the second day of testimony in Wilson’s trial, moved from Warren County to Brookhaven. It began with jury selection Monday before Warren County Circuit Court Judge Frank Vollor.

Testimony Wednesday showed that Patricia Wilson and Hartzog had become romantically involved after the Wilsons’ 1998 separation, but about six months before their divorce became final. The Wilsons had been married to each other for 27 years.

“All of us deal with some degree of issues and stress,” defense attorney Pat McNamara told the jury Thursday morning. Standing before the jury, he displayed to it a white coffee cup.

“What we will show you and what the evidence will show you is that this cup overflows with issues and stress for some people, for Mr. Wilson,” McNamara said. “It will be up to you to decide who is responsible, and there is no doubt that you can make that decision.”

The defense planned to call today two additional witnesses, Vollor said. Both were experts who were not available Thursday afternoon because they were testifying elsewhere, he added.

Johnson testified that he was hired by Donald Wilson to handle the Wilsons’ divorce and property settlement. Patricia Wilson was not represented by an attorney in the divorce, testimony indicated.

Johnson said that when he spoke with Donald Wilson, he and Patricia Wilson were still living on jointly owned property at 385 Culkin Road. After the Wilsons’ separation, Patricia Wilson continued living in the home, while Donald Wilson moved into a mobile home some 300 yards away, she had said. That arrangement was formalized in their property settlement, Johnson said. “That was a big issue throughout the divorce,” he said.

In response to a question from assistant district attorney John Bullard, who was representing the state, on whether Wilson was “emotionally attached” to the house there, Johnson said, “The whole accumulation of property was something he was proud of, for lack of a better word.”

Later, Donald Wilson moved to his Riley Road address, where he was living in a camper when the shootings happened, testimony showed.

Questioned by Vicksburg attorney Jennifer Fortner, who was also participating in Wilson’s defense, Wilson’s sisters also said they saw changes in his emotional state around the time of his separation and divorce. She was his third wife, and his previous two marriages had also ended in divorce, said his sister Elaine Rose.

Rose also spoke of experiences she said could have created extraordinary emotional stress in her brother during his childhood. They included his mother’s locking him in a refrigerator-icebox as punishment when he was about 7 and his father’s throwing him in a river when he was about 2.

Patricia Wilson and Hartzog had known each other through work since the 1980s, she testified.

Another sister, Marilyn Wilson of Vicksburg, said Patricia Wilson had confided in her that “she didn’t think she was in love with Donald any longer.”

Though Donald Wilson did not testify in the trial, Bullard played during earlier testimony a videotaped statement Wilson gave an investigator the day after the shootings. In it, Wilson confessed to the shootings and tearfully explained the situation he said led to them.

Earlier in the day, Starks Hathcock of the state crime lab, said a bullet found in Hartzog and one found in Patricia Wilson came from a pistol recovered from Hartzog’s truck after the shootings.

Patricia Wilson was shot through her abdomen and was hospitalized for a week or more with that wound.

In his videotaped statement, Donald Wilson had said that after he shot Patricia Wilson and Hartzog he wanted to shoot himself.

Hartzog was shot twice.