SCOTTSVILLE – The son-in-law of a man charged with murder in Allen County testified Tuesday that he was given evidence to burn on the night of the deadly shooting.

The first prosecution witnesses were called in the trial of Jackie Mutter, 65, of Scottsville, who is accused of shooting Wendell Jackson, 38, in the garage of Jackson’s home at 1114 Hade Bell Road.

Jackson’s partially frozen body was found in his garage Jan. 7, 2017, five days after authorities believe he died.

Mutter was arrested in April on the murder charge after the Allen County Sheriff’s Office received a break in the case from Mutter’s son-in-law, Steven Miller.

On Tuesday, Miller testified that he was arrested in April 2019 for falling behind on his child support by nearly $18,000.

Just before his arrest, Miller said he told Charles Douglas, his one-time employer, about Jackson’s death.

“I was needing to get it out of my head and tell someone about the murder of Wendell Jackson,” Miller said.

In custody at the Barren County Corrections Center, Miller reached out to law enforcement, and Detective William Francis of the Allen County Sheriff’s Office was among those who responded, meeting with Miller at the jail.

Miller recalled that on the night of the shooting, his now-estranged wife, Jamie Miller, brought a bag to their home that contained a pair of cowboy boots and possibly a T-shirt that she asked Steven Miller to burn.

After repeatedly asking her, Jamie Miller said the items had to be burned because they were from the scene of the shooting and they were disposed of in a burn pile beside their home, Steven Miller testified.

The couple then went to Mutter’s house.

“I think (Mutter) had his shirt off and he was talking about how he took care of Wendell and he killed him,” Steven Miller said Tuesday. “He looked shooken up pretty bad, and he had a gunshot wound on his left arm.”

Steven Miller pointed to a spot on his left arm just above the elbow to indicate where he said Mutter’s wound was located.

Steven Miller also testified that Mutter had been talking about a woman named Jennifer Anderson on the night of the shooting who had been involved romantically with both Mutter and Jackson.

During his testimony, Steven Miller also said another person came to his house and asked him to get rid of a gun, but he declined to do so. Steven Miller went on to testify that he never saw a gun in that moment.

Under cross-examination from Mutter’s attorney, Ken Garrett, Steven Miller insisted he had been ready to talk about his actions prior to his arrest, denying a characterization by Garrett that he offered his information to police if he could get out of jail the Monday after his arrest and find a job.

“I was scared to death and strung out on dope at the time,” Steven Miller said. “Me talking to get out of jail, that didn’t happen, that’s not why I told.”

Steven Miller said he stayed in jail for two months after his arrest. He has pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence in the murder case and is looking at a potential three-year sentence.

Lead detective testifies

Francis was the first witness called to the stand Tuesday and went through the steps he took when he arrived at the crime scene.

During questioning from Allen County Commonwealth’s Attorney Corey Morgan, Francis said he found Jackson’s body lying beside a pickup truck, with a handgun under his foot.

Jackson’s left leg looked injured and Francis said he cut away the lower leg of Jackson’s jeans and found three gunshot wounds. Jackson was also shot in the back and had a gunshot wound on his right hand.

Francis located five 9 mm bullet casings in the garage and, when he examined the revolver under Jackson’s foot, he found it contained three live rounds and two spent rounds.

The revolver, which had apparent blood droplets on it, was taken into evidence, along with two blood samples found on the garage floor near the body.

Francis said he spoke to Mutter early in the investigation, but Mutter made no admissions and “indicated he didn’t know anything.”

Until Steven Miller’s arrest last year, the death investigation yielded few credible leads.

“A lot of it came back to rumors, nothing that could be corroborated,” said Francis, adding that Mutter’s name came up in the investigation after the initial interview.

Jurors were shown several photos of the crime scene that Francis recorded, featuring the appearance of the garage and the location of Jackson’s body.

Francis testified that the gun recovered by Jackson’s body belonged to him, and a residue test kit was collected, but no report was completed to determine whether Jackson had fired the gun.

A bullet was removed from a log at the crime scene, but the log itself was not collected as evidence, Francis testifying that he believed it lacked evidentiary value.

Cause of death

Dr. Amy Burrows-Beckham, who performed Jackson’s autopsy for the Kentucky Office of the Medical Examiner, testified that Jackson suffered five or six gunshot wounds.

The origin of a deep cut on Jackson’s left pinky finger could not be determined, and Burrows-Beckham said the wound on the right hand could have been a defensive wound.

The wound to the back proved to be the fatal shot, with the bullet entering Jackson’s rear left shoulder near his armpit, passing through both lungs and severing Jackson’s aorta before exiting the right side of his chest.

Burrows-Beckham testified that the fatal bullet traveled on a slightly downward path through the body.

The autopsy found that Jackson also had a toxic level of methamphetamine in his system, along with an amount of amphetamine that Burrows-Beckham testified could have been methamphetamine broken down by the body.

The shots that struck Jackson were fired from an indeterminate range, and the bullet wounds to his left leg caused fractures to his tibia and fibula.

Burrows-Beckham said she did not know the order of the gunshots that struck Jackson.

Tony Wyatt, a friend of Jackson’s, testified that he and Jackson’s late stepfather went to Jackson’s house on the morning of Jan. 7, 2017, to check on him, discovering his body in the garage and notifying authorities.

During cross-examination, Wyatt, who sells dogs for a living, divulged that he had spoken with Garrett before court Tuesday and that he had previously given Mutter a dog in order to settle a debt.

Wyatt testified that he mentioned this to Jackson, who then said, “Let (Mutter) come over here and collect from me.”