It’s a case about “deliberate choices,” and according to the prosecution, Andrew Whittenberg made the choice on Oct. 21, 2024, to kill two people.
Special Prosecutor Andrea Reeb in the opening statement of Whittenberg’s double-homicide trial said “the defendant made serious and deliberate choices – armed himself by stealing a gun, hunted down a woman he wanted to kill and when another person stood in the way of him wanting to escape, he made another choice and raised a gun killing another person.”
Whittenberg, 36, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, a second-degree felony; tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; possession of a firearm by a felon, a third-degree felony; and larceny of a firearm, a fourth-degree felony.
The charges are in connection with the shooting deaths of Kelly Heath, 45, and Brent Francis, 24, both of Farmington. The five-day trial began at 3 p.m. July 20 after the jury was seated.
Daniel Gallego, a forensic pathologist for the Office of the Medical Investigator, was the first to testify and detail the deaths.
Gallego said Heath was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. It “entered through the right side of the face, went through the spinal cord” and “was associated with skull fractures and bleeding around the brain.”
It exited the back of the head and caused a nearly instant death.
Reeb told the jury that Whittenberg was looking for Heath the morning of the killing and was asking for “Kelly” when he reportedly broke into a house on Kayenta Drive and stole an AR-15.
Heath was found dead in her driveway at 5:45 a.m. by Farmington Police, and by that time, Whittenberg had “moved to the Ralph Miller business,” Reeb said.
An employee of the business will testify that he “heard a banging on the door,” Reeb said.
When he opened the door, he found Whittenberg “agitated.” Reeb said, “He wants a ride. He’s holding this AR-15.”
The witness “gets him to go outside the business and stand on the porch” where he reportedly fired multiple shots into a pickup truck driven by Francis, who arrived at 5:44 a.m. at work and was “sitting in his truck eating a breakfast burrito,” Reeb said, adding she will show the jury videos of Whittenburg firing into the truck.
Francis was shot multiple times. He had at least three gunshot wounds to the head and one to his back, according to Gallego, who said the “lethal trauma is concentrated around the head.”
Gallego stated that Francis suffered a “catastrophic injury,” which “was caused by another human being pulling a trigger.”
Francis’ mother, Jennifer Tom, testified and said her son “was always outgoing. Everybody got along with him. He was always helping out whoever needed help. He wanted to help out as many people as he could.”
Francis did not know Whittenberg, Tom said. No one in their family knew him.
Heath’s daughter, Kristianna Heath also testified saying that her mother had a “past relationship” with Whittenberg, but she “never really seen them interact with one another.”
Kristianna described her mother as being “Very bubbly, very outgoing, always walking around with a smile on her face. You were guaranteed to leave the room with a smile on your face, if you were around her.”
When Reeb showed the jury graphic photos of Heath’s dead body, Whittenberg looked down and away. His defense attorney Marie Legrand Miller patted him on the shoulder.
Legrand Miller told the jury that “Andrew Whittenberg is a person who has been wrongfully accused of crimes he did not commit.”
She said, “This isn’t a case about a man making choices. This isn’t a case about Andrew Whittenberg committing horrible crimes.”
Legrand Miller told the jury that Whittenberg had been “using drugs, wandering around the city,” and this “put him in a situation where his credibility was poor.”
She admitted the deaths were “tragic,” but said that there will be “lots of reasonable doubt that Andrew Whittenberg committed these horrible crimes.”
Reeb said she will present a timeline, video, forensic experts and eyewitnesses to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that “there was a quality in (Whittenberg’s) thinking of premeditation to all of these crimes.”
“Our lives are often defined by deliberate choices we make… . His choices and his decisions in this matter shows you his exact intent,” Reeb said.
Since his arrest on Oct. 21, 2024, Whittenberg picked up additional charges while being held in the San Juan County Detention Center.
He was charged with two counts of battery on a peace officer for reportedly smashing an officer’s hand in a door.
Whittenberg also was charged with possession of a weapon or explosive by a prisoner for allegedly making a weapon from the top of a broken chain link fence in the pod, where he had been housed, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.
He reportedly told another detainee that he was planning to use it “to hurt a detention center guard, and then possibly escape from custody “if his jury trial does not go in his favor,” the affidavit said.