“You’re going to think this man is not sane.”

However, Lackey pleaded not guilty; he did not plead “not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect,” Gladden said.

During opening statements, Gladden alluded to a mental evaluation he had performed on his client.

Valls said during a break that because Lackey did not plead insanity, the state did not order a mental evaluation.

After the close of Wednesday’s testimony, Gladden said outside the hearing of the jury that the private mental evaluation he had hired someone to perform on Lackey showed he was not legally insane.

Asked if he was suggesting that Lackey’s countless hours of life in cyberspace led to an altered state of reality, Gladden answered, “He just lives in a different world than you and I do.”

Gladden said there has never been an indication that Lackey used or was under the influence of drugs on Oct. 31, 2005. He said Lackey’s demeanor remains quiet, reserved and polite, as it has from the time he was charged with Newman’s killing a day after the crime.

First to arrive

Athens Patrol Officer Katrina Johnson Flanagan testified Wednesday that she was the first to arrive on the scene of what was reported as a 10-97— a domestic disturbance —and gingerly stepped around bloody footprints so as not to disturb evidence.

She testified about the condition of Newman’s body and of seeing a set of dentures under a chair and a wireless phone handset out of its cradle.

Soon, backup officers arrived and Lt. Floyd Johnson put out a BOLO—Be On the Lookout—to surrounding law-enforcement officers for someone who was probably suffering from a gunshot wound based on the trail of blood leading from the murder scene.

A short time later, Madison Police reported that they had received a 911 call from the Chevron station at Madison Boulevard and Wall-Triana Highway in which a man reported he had been shot.

Former Madison Police officers Wade Watson and Clayton Jordan testified that they found Lackey at the station waiting on a curb and sipping a soft drink he had purchased inside.

Watson said Lackey lifted his shirt and showed what appeared to be a bullet hole in his upper left chest.