Ex-coach found guilty of murder

PORTLAND, Ind. - Emotions ran high on Thursday as Jay County Circuit Court Judge Brian Hutchison read the jury's unanimous decision declaring Esther Stephen guilty of felony murder.

Stephen, 30, of Portland, Indiana, dropped her head to the table and could be seen sobbing after she was found guilty of the murder of 31-year-old Shea Briar. She was not alone - several friends and relatives of both Stephen and Briar became tearful as well.

The jury deliberated for about three hours before reaching a verdict.

The trial of the former Fort Recovery High School softball coach wrapped up more quickly than expected, something noted by both the prosecution and defense in their closing statements. The final witness to take the stand, and the only witness called Thursday, was Stephen herself, who told her version of events.

Stephen said she was not part of a plan to kill Briar and had no prior knowledge of what was to happen the night of Jan. 11. She described her on-off relationship with Briar with whom she shared a young daughter. While she was upset about Briar's attempt to change their daughter's last name to his, she said the custody arrangement between them hadn't bothered her.

In a recorded comment she made to investigators, Stephen said at times she felt it would be easier if Briar were out of the picture. She said she hadn't meant she wanted him dead, Stephen said she just meant it'd be easier not having to schedule events with their daughter around him.

Stephen said on the night of the murder she met up with Shelby Hiestand, her friend and then-assistant softball coach at Fort Recovery High School. She retrieved Hiestand's .22-caliber rifle and boots before the two went to a Fort Recovery basketball game, where their softball team was working the concession stand. Later, the pair dropped off Stephen's daughter at a friend's house and met Hannah Knapke at a church day care center.

Stephen claimed she never saw Hiestand transfer her rifle from her vehicle to Knapke's. After calling her daughter's babysitter, Kristi Sibary, to make sure everything was OK, Stephen said she, Hiestand and Knapke began to drive around before Stephen called Briar asking to hang out. According to her, she had wanted to talk to Briar about their daughter and relationship, hoping to work things out.

At some point, her cellphone died, Stephen said. Knapke pulled the van over by the bridge on County Road 125 West in Jay County, Indiana, but Stephen said she didn't know why they'd stopped. It was sleeting, but everyone got out of the vehicle and while Briar and Stephen went one way, Hiestand and Knapke went another.

She hadn't really seen what the other women were doing, Stephen said. Briar and she were standing face-to-face about a foot apart and talking. Then she heard a gunshot, and when she looked around for her friends, she saw Hiestand standing with the rifle. Briar crumpled to the ground. She thought he was still alive, but she said she was scared and didn't know what to do.

Her phone was dead and she didn't know if Hiestand or Knapke had their phones, Stephen said. At first they got back into the vehicle. As they began to pass Briar, Stephen said they stopped and she pulled out Briar's phone to call 911. She claimed his phone was locked, and out of frustration, she threw the phone into the water. The women drove off, leaving Briar on the side of the road, she said.

Asked why they didn't stop to use a phone or why she didn't immediately contact law enforcement or first responders after charging her phone at home, Stephen said she was in shock and overwhelmed by what had happened. When law enforcement later notified her of Briar's death and asked for information, Stephen said she hadn't been truthful because she was still in shock and hadn't wanted to get her friend into trouble.

Stephen denied ever plotting to kill Briar. When she'd told law enforcement she and Hiestand would discuss killing him with a hammer, beating him or using a gun, she said they were meant as jokes.

Stephen also described Hiestand as a jealous friend who was possessive of her and her daughter. Briar and Hiestand didn't get along, and Hiestand was fond of crime shows, Stephen said. An incident in which they had crushed pills into Briar's drink was just a joke, an "experiment," and was Hiestand's idea, Stephen told the jury. The pills were ibuprofen, and Stephen said if anything had happened, Briar would only have only gotten sick to his stomach.

Stephen's defense attorney Jill Gonzalez said in her closing statement this case wasn't about justice for Briar - it was about "winning," referring to statements by deputies recorded in an interview with her client in which they remarked they had to win and they would win.

"This investigation has been a one-sided mess since Shea was found on that bridge," Gonzalez said. Investigators had gotten tunnel vision, not investigated the death to the fullest extent and had already decided on their version of the truth when they interviewed her client, she told the jury.

Their case left room for reasonable doubt, she continued. Stephen maintained she had not known anything about the murder beforehand, had never thought Hiestand capable of killing Briar, and Gonzalez asserted the state had not proven otherwise.

In Indiana, anyone found to have aided, induced or abetted a crime is found also to be guilty of that crime. While Stephen may not have pulled the trigger, Jay County Prosecutor Wes Schemenaur asked jurors to study Stephen's conduct before, during and after the crime. She was at the crime scene, and investigators had found no evidence she had opposed the crime in any way.

Schemenaur pointed to the crushed pill incident, to the "jokes" between Stephen and Hiestand of how they would kill Briar. He said she had acted as the bait both to get Briar into the van the night he was killed and to get him out of the van and onto the bridge. Stephen had admitted to throwing Briar's phone into the water, effectively cutting off any final chance he may have had to call for help or reveal his killers, Schemenaur continued. Finally, Stephen hadn't called for help and had lied to detectives after the crime.

Custody disputes get solved in court, Schemenaur said - not on a bridge on a cold, rainy night in January with a bullet to the back.

Stephen is being held in the Jay County jail awaiting her sentencing, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 5. Hutchinson said in January 2020 that Stephen could face 45 to 65 years with an advised penalty of 55 years and up to a $10,000 fine.

Hiestand and Knapke are also being charged in connection with Briar's murder, and have jury trials scheduled later this year. Hiestand's trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 9. Knapke, a former Fort Recovery High School student and softball player, is scheduled for a jury trial beginning Nov. 15.