Jury requests to listen to two phone calls again

Published 11:59 am Friday, April 30, 2010

The jury in the homicide case against Chad Jamie Gulbertson broke from deliberations and returned to the courtroom for a short time Friday morning to listen to two recorded phone calls between the defendant and his father for a second time.

The phone calls had been introduced during court proceedings in the trial.

One call took place June 25, 2009, just days after Jody Lee Morrow was found dead in her trailer on 730 Larimore Circle in Albert Lea. Gulbertson had told authorities he thought he had killed Morrow before they discovered her, and he was arrested that same day.

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In the recording, Gulbertson — who was calling from the Freeborn County jail — could be heard asking his father if he wanted to know how his left hand got broken.

He proceeded to tell his father that Morrow had hit him with a hammer.

His father questioned how she could hit him when she was sitting in her wheelchair, and Chad Gulbertson said he was down on the floor in front of her and had his hand on her wheelchair.

At the end, he told his father Morrow’s killing was self defense.

The second phone call played was from April 2010. Gulbertson talked with his father about various aspects of the case including discussion about how police thought he had somehow cleaned up and disposed of his bloody clothes following the murder. Gulbertson said he didn’t have a reason to do so.

He also said he didn’t remember a lot of what happened that night and that others were trying to turn around what happened.

After listening to the recordings, the jury returned back to the jury room to deliberate.

Earlier in the morning, the jury had a question about the order for protection filed in May of 2009 by Morrow against Gulbertson.

1:20 p.m.

The jury returned to the courtroom for another question — this time about the definition of “consent” and “remaining in the building.” The questions were made in reference to the third count against Gulbertson of first-degree burglary while committing a burglary.

Judge John A. Chesterman told the jury to rely on the definitions they were given and other common sense definitions.

This is the second day of deliberations, after jurors were sequestered Thursday night when they were unable to reach a verdict in their first 5 and 1/2 hours of deliberations.

Gulbertson faces five counts of murder in Morrow’s death