It’s not often that the prosecutor and defense attorney agree but Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard and defense attorney Del Weldon say that Danielle Green killed her ex-husband.
However, the prosecution says it was murder and the defense says it was self defense.
A jury of seven women and five men have been selected to hear evidence in Ohio County Circuit Court . Proceedings began on Thursday, Aug. 20 in the trial of the 43-year-old Green, charged with the murder of her ex-husband Raymond Green.
The trial is expected to continue for about two weeks as a half dozen filing boxes of evidence is tagged, marked and presented to the jury.
Green is facing the possibility of life in prison if she is convicted.
Before the jury came in, an alternate juror had to be placed and several procedural items were discussed including the decision to not have the jury visit the scene which has since changed.
Negangard explained that Green’s first wife died on May 26, 2002 in a bridge accident in Oklahoma. He collected a $300,000 wrongful death settlement. Soon afterwards, he met Danielle Green, whose dream was to compete in equestrian games in the Olympics.
The two married and moved to Florida where they purchased a home and began pursuing that dream, Negangard said. They became involved in the “cowboy action shooting club” and adopted the stage names Doc Green and Dani Oakley. “She became quite good at shooting,” said Negangard.
Things with the couple were good for a while, according to the prosecutor, until the real estate collapse in 2008.
“This relationship started out as a fairy tale,” Weldon said, but added the husband “became controlling then violent and more and more dangerous.”
Weldon said that Danielle never told anyone nor did she seek help for the abuse.
In 2012, Danielle’s parents (Clifford ‘Butch’ Steinke and Jane Steinke) developed cancer. She moved home to their 300 acre farm on Hartford Pike Road while her husband remained in Florida. He worked a $55,000 per year landscaping job.
Negangard said that Danielle had been corresponding with another member of the club named Angus McNasty.
Raymond Green moved to Indiana to be with his wife in 2013. The couple divorced so they could get more money from his social security payments from his first wife’s death. He then went to work as a trucker in March 2014.
She received an inheritance of approximately $300,000 after her parents died. Weldon said Danielle would not name Raymond as a beneficiary to the will and would not share with him the Ohio County property that had belonged to her parents.
Weldon said Raymond attempted to get a $500,000 life insurance policy on Danielle, which she found out about from mail from the insurance company.
On the night of May 25, 2014, Danielle slept on the couch and woke up to go to the bathroom, but did not want to wake her ex-husband. He was awake and angry when she came out. She got a gun off the nightstand and shot him.
The prosecutor said that detectives discovered that Danielle had done internet searches for effects of taking a shot in the head with a .38.
Negangard’s opening remarks told of Mr. Green being shot five times to the body and five to the head with a .38 caliber gun.
Weldon explained that, “On that morning Raymond Green is a volcano. He attacks her. She kills him to save her own life.”
It was the 12th anniversary of the death of Raymond’s first wife, something Weldon focused on for the jurors to understand the rage Mr. Green had annually on that day.
Negangard told jurors that Danielle’s sister Paige Steinke had called Mr. Green’s mother, Betty Green, and told her that her son had been killed by a dog.
Betty Green later was the first witness for the prosecution and a call she made to Ohio County dispatch on May 27 was played.
On Wednesday, May 28 sheriff deputies Andrew Riddell and Collin English followed up on the mother’s concerns.
Riddell testified that they were told Raymond Green had left Tuesday on his trucking job.
Riddell arrived at 2:36 a.m. and left at 4:30. They had Raymond’s cell phone pinged by Verizon which led them back to the residence at 5:48 a.m.
They found Green’s semi when they returned. They found a gray box that had an odor of decay that they were unable to open until getting a warrant.
Sgt. Tom Baxter secured the search warrant.
Two calls were played in which Danielle called the trucking company telling them that Raymond had been killed by a dog bite. On the second call, she gave directions to pick up the company semi off of Stephenson Road.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Stephen Weigel followed Baxter on the stand to verify evidence including the padlock on the box where the body was found.
Photos showed the contents were covered then a second photo was passed around to jurors showing a partial part of the body.
Negangard told jurors, “This is not a case of self defense but cold blooded murder.”