Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The girlfriend of a man accused of running down his wife and making it look like a hit-and-run testified in his trial today. It was her call to police that turned the hit-and-run investigation into a murder investigation.
On the witness stand this afternoon, Nancy Scott said she was shocked and in disbelief when she found out her boyfriend, Sherman Lynch, was married.
She met Lynch in July of last year in church, and the two began dating. Scott said during the three months of their relationship, Lynch never invited her to his house. She says she found that odd but never questioned it.
Scott said one day she went to Lynch's home in Holladay to see him and saw him walking with a woman. He later told Scott that woman was Pat, his landlord.
Scott talked with Lynch hours after Patricia Rothermich's death. He said they were still on for dinner. But Lynch canceled 30 minutes later, saying his landlord had been killed in a hit-and-run.
Police tied Lynch to the crime after Scott told them that Lynch had bought a truck matching the description of the vehicle involved in that hit-and-run. She said that Lynch bought the truck at an auction for his teenage son.
The jury today saw an unedited version of the interview Lynch gave to reporters the day after his wife died.
Scott said she was confused because Lynch gave reporters a different last name. When she asked him about it, she says he told her Rothermich's friends asked him to pose as Rothermich's husband so her reputation wouldn't be ruined when people found out she was living with a man.
Scott's testimony saddened Rothermich's friends. "Justice for me would be, and I think for my friends also, would be to see him go to jail forever," Douglas said.
Prior to Scott's testimony, several witnesses took the stand this morning, including a longtime neighbor of Rothermich.
Don Carter gave a character witness to the reaction of Lynch at the hospital immediately after his wife had died. Carter testified Lynch seemed agitated and repeated the phrase, "What am I going to do?" up to 50 times. Carter testified that the phrase stood out and seemed odd.
He also said that later that night, as they were having dinner, Lynch opened a fortune cookie and made a statement about coming into some money. Carter again said that statement seemed odd for the timing.
The defense says Lynch has an alibi: two receipts from Costco, which show Lynch was shopping at that store around 3:45 the afternoon his wife was killed.
This case is expected to go to the jury tomorrow.
E-mail: syi@ksl.com
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
