MOUNT PLEASANT — Thomas Babb’s cousin testified at his preliminary hearing on murder charges Thursday that Babb had said he had wanted to shoot his wife.

At Thursday’s preliminary exam on murder charges stemming from the Jan. 9 shooting death of Mary Babb, the prosecutor asked Laurie Copeman if Thomas Babb had ever told her he wanted to harm Mary following the breakup of their marriage.

“Yes, that he wanted to shoot her,” Copeman sobbed during questioning, stating Babb had made numerous comments to her that he would use a gun or a knife to kill Mary, who had filed for divorce in Otsego County in September 2006.

Clutching a family photograph of Mary, and their 3-year-old son, Sam, a handcuffed Babb, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, with tears in his eyes, was led back to the Isabella County Jail where he will remain lodged without bond while awaiting trial on the murder charges.

Isabella County Judge William R. Rush ordered Babb to stand trial in the death of Mary Babb after hearing testimony from several witnesses, including two who testified they saw Babb shoot his wife in the parking lot of the Morning Sun newspaper where she worked.

Under oath, Copeman said Babb had told her he was “Upset about things that had happened up in Gaylord,” referring to pending charges of assault, domestic violence and criminal sexual conduct against Mary in Otsego County. (See related story.)

“When he made these comments he wanted to hurt Mary, I tried to discuss with him what would happen if he did shoot her and he would just get upset then calm down and get upset again.”

Copeman wasn’t the only witness to testify at Thursday’s hearing that Babb talked often of shooting his estranged wife.

Douglas Schuster, who shared a cell with Babb at the Otsego County Jail following Babb’s August 2006 arrest for alleged assaults of his wife, testified, “I was afraid he would kill his wife. Everyone in the cell thought he was crazy. He was obsessed with talking about his wife — how he hated her, how he loved her.”

According to Schuster, he and Babb’s other cellmates had made requests to have Babb moved to a different cell because of his incessant talk of harming his wife.

Eyewitness testimony

The first witness to the scene said he heard “a pop, like a firecracker” and then saw a man, later identified as 37-year-old Babb, walking away from Mary Babb’s overturned SUV, carrying a long gun.

“I don’t know if you ever saw someone die,” said Steve Stressman who was in his used car office across the street from the Morning Star parking lot when he heard what he thought was a car crash. Mary Babb had been working in the advertising department at the paper after filing for divorce and leaving the Gaylord area.

Stressman was among the dozen witnesses Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick called to the stand during the five-and-a-half-hour hearing. Stressman stated he observed Babb speed away and found the driver’s side window of Mary Babb’s overturned white Ford Escape shattered. The  30-year-old woman was inside, barely alive, he reported.

“I’m inferring he discharged the gun into the vehicle,” Stressman said, stating he checked Mary Babb’s irregular pulse, noticed her labored breathing and tried to comfort the dying woman. “I held her hand and she let out a sigh and that was it as far as her breathing.”

A second witness, Matthew Myers, who standing at a window in a plumbing and heating supply building across the street, corroborated Stressman’s testimony, saying he witnessed Babb’s GMC drive into the parking lot, pull up beside and then ram Mary Babb’s vehicle.

Forensic pathologist David Start, who performed Mary Babb’s autopsy, testified the cause of death was a shotgun wound to the chest. According to Start, the entrance wound was in the upper chest area with the slug hitting several internal organs before exiting her upper back.

‘Tom told me the first shot took out the window; the second shot was in the gut’

Brook Henry, a longtime friend of Thomas Babb, testified that Babb showed up after the shooting at his (Henry’s) brother’s home around 5:45 p.m. and parked behind the house. Henry said was unusual.

When Henry went outside to meet Babb, he testified, his friend told him he had shot his wife.

“I asked Tom to tell me what happened. He said he went to see Mary and it had something to do with their son. He asked her to come with him and she screamed and said no. Then Tom told me that the first shot took the window out and the second shot was in the gut. I still didn’t believe it had happened.”

When Henry said to Tom, “If it’s true you’re going to have to give yourself up,” a 12-gauge shotgun inside Babb’s vehicle discharged and he screamed at Henry, “You’re not taking my weapon.”

“He was pretty wound up. He said the charges in Gaylord weren’t true and that the town and his friends had turned against him. He was acting crazy. I never saw anything like it,”

Henry spoke of Babb breaking the windows of his pickup and tearing “stuff out of the truck.”

“He told me that if I could confirm Mary was dead he would give himself up. He was here about an hour, but it seemed like only 10 minutes to me.”

According to Henry, Babb then drove off in his truck. Henry heard a short while later that his friend of 15 years had been arrested.

“Somebody killed my wife?”

Thomas Babb was apprehended and arrested several hours after the 4:15 p.m. shooting in Osceola County in the Evart area where he had fled. After Babb’s truck became stuck in a ditch north of US-10, a motorist stopped to offer assistance. The man who stopped to help, John Lafnear, happened to be an acquaintance of Babb’s from a number of years ago in Evart. According to Lafnear, Babb, who he said seemed dazed and may have been drunk, told him, “I just shot my old lady.”

Lafnear said Babb took two guns out of his truck and said he needed a ride down the road. Scared and fearing for his safety, Lafnear let Babb, with his guns, into his Pontiac Bonneville and prepared to leave just as a patrol car drove upon the scene. Authorities apprehended Babb. 0Mount Pleasant City Police investigator David Tuma, who transported Babb back to Mount Pleasant after his apprehension, testified Babb may have been drunk and he appeared to be “excited and loud but not out of control.”

According to Tuma, when Babb was advised of what he had been arrested for, he responded by asking the question, “Somebody killed my wife?”

“He rambled on if we let him,” Tuma testified. “He was alternately laughing and crying and when told of Mary’s homicide, he said ‘no way.’”

Tuma said that several times during the 45-minute drive back to Mount Pleasant Babb asked if his wife was dead and he wanted them to stop the car and kill him.

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