Jurors likely will begin deliberating today on the question of sentencing David Hosier to death, or to life in prison without parole, for the Sept. 28, 2009, murder of Angela Gilpin, 45.
They convicted Hosier, now 58, on Wednesday after deliberating just over one hour.
Several witnesses testified Thursday about a 1986 standoff on Hayselton Drive, when a Cole County Sheriff's deputy attempted to take Hosier into custody for a court-ordered 96-hour mental exam at Fulton State Hospital.
And several other witnesses told the nine-man, three-woman jury from St. Charles County about problems Hosier had in Indiana, including the kidnapping and assault that landed him in prison 20 years ago.
Jurors only heard about one standoff, on June 26, 1986, at Hosier's home in the 1900 block of Hayselton Drive.
Hosier negotiated with officials for about four hours before coming out of his house and being taken into custody by Deputy Les Jobe, Prosecutor's Investigator Richard Lee and several Jefferson City police officers.
He was taken to the Fulton hospital, where his court-ordered four-day stay turned into a month-long commitment "in a locked ward," defense lawyer Janice Zembles told the jury.
But news and police reports at the time showed officers also were called to the home on May 17, 1986, when Hosier was accused of confronting his then-wife, Mary, and may have hit her.
Mary Hosier told jurors Thursday of a second incident that occurred after David Hosier was fired from the Jefferson City Fire Department on May 28, 1986.
"He was angry, grabbed my hands, and used my hands to hit my face," she testified.
She told Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson she "was able to talk (Hosier) down, telling him, "You don't want the kids to see this.'"
She said their children were 4 and 2 when the fight occurred.
Later, Mary Hosier told the jury: "I got out of the state" with the children and with her mother-in-law's help.
David Hosier's mother, Martha, now 87 and living in Florida, said during a video deposition recorded in April and played for the jury Thursday afternoon, that Mary Hosier fled to Indiana after telling David's sister that David had threatened to kill Mary - but that Mary later said that threat wasn't true.
Martha Hosier said David remained angry with his mother over the years "for taking his kids and his wife from him," and that he wouldn't accept her explanation of what had happened.
David and Mary Hosier married in December 1979 and were divorced in August 1988.
By 1992, Hosier was back in his native Indiana and had met, dated and had a romantic relationship with Nancy Marshall. He moved into her Logansport home.
But, she told the jury Thursday, by that summer the relationship had soured and she "asked him to move out."
On Nov. 21, 1992, she testified, "I remember him grabbing me and getting upset (about) different events."
Although some of her memories 20 years later aren't good, she said she remembered that "he took me to the basement, handcuffed me and (was) hitting me in the face."
A now-retired Cass County, Ind., sheriff's investigator, Greg Canfield, testified Marshall had bruises on her face from that assault, but Hosier managed to slip away from the house and was on the run for several hours.
In a telephone call, Canfield said, Hosier warned officers: "There better not be a confrontation, or there will be consequences."
He eventually was arrested, charged with battery, convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison in 1993.
He was released in 1999, then reconnected with Ron Browning, a former co-worker.
Hosier married again about the same time Browning married his wife, Lisa.
"Not too long" afterward, Browning said, Hosier's marriage started falling apart, and the Brownings allowed him to move onto their farm property several miles north of Logansport "for a few weeks."
He stayed into a third year, Browning told the jury.
They decided to ask him to leave in 2007, but feared he might do something. So Lisa stayed inside, covering Ron with a high-powered rifle as he met with Hosier in the driveway.
Told it was time to leave, Hosier pulled a handgun from his car and "pointed it right at me," Browning said.
Although scared, he said, he told Hosier: "You don't think I'm dumb enough to be out here without a back-up plan?"
Hosier lowered the gun. Within two weeks, he moved back to Missouri.
Hosier and Browning continued talking by telephone and, in 2009, Browning talked with Angela Gilpin - Hosier's newest girlfriend.
By then, Browning said, she was beginning to reconcile with Rodney Gilpin, 61, her estranged husband.
"I told Angie, "David doesn't do head games,'" he testified. "If you're going to be with Dave, be with Dave."
Weeks later, Angela and Rodney Gilpin were murdered at the front door to Angela's apartment in the 1100 block of West High Street.