BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Along with the image of his ex-wife's brutalized body, what Herschel Slaughter said stood out in his memory of the day of her death was a sweet smell filling her apartment.
During the second day of testimony Wednesday in Mr. Slaughter's trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, Cincinnati police Sgt. McKinley Brown recalled how Mr. Slaughter described what happened the day Antoinette Slaughter died.
His attorneys say Mr. Slaughter noticed Mrs. Slaughter's body when he checked on her early Dec. 13.
Prosecutors say it was Mr. Slaughter who used a 3 1/2-foot, 6-pound metal pipe to beat her to death. He is on trial for aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.
When Mr. Slaughter was questioned by police, he told Sgt. Brown he remembers talking to his ex-wife in the early hours of Dec. 13. She was in her bed. He was upset. During the questioning, Sgt. Brown said Mr. Slaughter's memory apparently went blank.
"He remembers standing there. And the next thing he remembers, she was covered in blood," Sgt. Brown said. That is when Mr. Slaughter said he noticed the sweet smell.
Prosecutors got an investigator to say the sweet smell is often an indication of anger in suspects. But attorneys for Mr. Slaughter suggested it possibly could have been the perfume of another person in the room.
Defense attorney Peter Pandilidis was critical of Sgt. Brown's recollection of Mr. Slaughter's comments that morning.
After several hours of Mr. Slaughter denying killing his wife, Sgt. Brown said he interviewed him without a tape recorder and without taking notes. It was during this interview Sgt. Brown says Mr. Slaughter talked about his conversation with his ex-wife and blanking out. And it wasn't until after Mr. Slaughter made a recorded statement, apparently omitting details from what Sgt. Brown had heard, that Sgt. Brown decided to write down notes from the interview.
The trial of Mr. Slaughter, 48, is expected to resume today before Judge Fred Cartolano.
Mrs. Slaughter's death ended a rocky relationship with her ex-husband. After about 18 years of marriage and the birth of three daughters, they divorced in 1988.
Mr. Slaughter has faced several charges of domestic violence in the past.
