By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEXINGTON - Rusty McIntire was spending an "unbelievable" amount of time on a mobile phone in the month before Stephen Craven's killing, one of his former employers testified Monday in Adele Craven's murder trial.

Bryan Meade of Fort Wright, who is involved in real estate and who hired Mr. McIntire to do renovation work, told the courtroom that after he complained about excessive mobile phone use on the job, Mr. McIntire bought a headset to free up his hands and kept on talking.

He made 1,009 calls on his mobile phone in June, according to the defense, many of them to Ms. Craven.

Mr. Craven was found beaten and shot to death in July 2000 in the basement of his Edgewood home.

Defense attorneys representing Ms. Craven, 39, accused of conspiring with her lover Mr. McIntire to hire a hit man to kill her husband, called six witnesses Monday.

The attorneys, Deanna Dennison of Covington and Linda Smith of Florence, are expected to rest their case today in the trial, which is in its sixth week.

The defense argues that Mr. McIntire acted alone out of a jealous rage and hired a hit man to kill Mr. Craven, who was a pilot for Delta Air Lines.

Mr. Meade also testified that he is a former friend of Mr. McIntire. The two had a longstanding tradition of taking their young sons to a restaurant once a week.

That friendship ended after Mr. Meade was allegedly warned not to cooperate with police investigating Mr. Craven's death.

"A man connected with the murder was running around free (at that time) and was threatening me," Mr. Meade said. "I was very concerned."

Mr. McIntire has testified against Ms. Craven as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. Mr. McIntire told the jury he was drinking heavily and off his anti-depressant medication at the time of the murder.

In other testimony, Charles LeValley, who supervised Mr. McIntire at his night job as a baggage handler for Delta Air Lines, called him an undependable employee who didn't work well with others.

"He had a very short fuse," Mr. LeValley said. "When things didn't go his way, he would explode."

Mr. McIntire was ordered by Mr. LeValley to get counseling to control his anger after Mr. McIntire allegedly tried to choke a co-worker.

In earlier testimony, Ms. Craven was accused of luring her husband into the basement ambush with the phrase, "The ferret is loose."

She also was accused of reloading a pistol and handing it to the hit man to have him finish her husband off.

The defense is expected to conclude calling witnesses today, with closing arguments to begin Wednesday.

A jury earlier convicted Ronald Scott Pryor, the triggerman, of Mr. Craven's murder. Mr. Pryor could face the death sentence at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for Monday. The hearing, however, is likely to be postponed.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com