A Kalispell woman testified Tuesday about events that led to herself and three other people being charged with the May homicide of 35-year-old Wade Allen Rautio near Echo Lake.

The jury trial of Robert Matthew Wittal, 29, of Kalispell went into its second day with testimony from Melisa Ann Crone, 29. Wittal is charged with one felony count of deliberate homicide for the death of Rautio.

Crone, her common-law husband Christopher Michael Hansen, 28, and David Vincent Toman, 20, all of Kalispell, are charged with one count of accountability to deliberate homicide for the death of Rautio.

Rautio’s body was found June 13 in Brown’s Creek, approximately 40 feet off Peter’s Ridge Road, after Toman led Flathead County Sheriff’s deputies to the site.

According to Crone’s testimony Tuesday, her home on South Cedar Drive was a “flop house” where people involved in the local drug scene would come and crash. She said she and Hansen were common-law husband and wife, and that Toman was like a little brother who would often sleep on her couch. Wittal also was frequently in and out of the house, Crone testified.

Rautio had been staying at the home, and Crone said he was the only person who stayed at the address in recent years and actually tried to help out by doing the dishes or mowing the lawn.

But late on May 25, Crone testified that Wittal and Rautio got into a disagreement over a stolen cash card and missing drugs.

Crone testified that Wittal allegedly said that if Rautio was not in Crone’s house, Wittal would kill Rautio.

Crone said Wittal called Rautio “a b----” and was “telling him he was full of crap.” Crone testified that she heard Wittal say: “Somebody just needs to stab him.”

Crone said she kicked Rautio out of her house at 4:30 a.m. on May 26, just 45 minutes after she had gone to Super 1 Foods in Evergreen and used Rautio’s food stamp card to buy groceries. Crone said that using the card was Rautio’s way of making good on a $115 debt he owed her. Crone testified that she kicked Rautio out because she suspected he might have been ripping her off. She said that she found out the next day that money she thought Rautio had taken had actually been stolen by someone else.

Crone said that Rautio left the residence with his belongings loaded up in the back of her truck, with Toman, Wittal and Hansen also in the vehicle.

After the foursome had been gone for 45 minutes, Crone said that she started texting and calling Wittal and Hansen, to no avail.

Wittal, Hansen and Toman returned sometime before 7:30 a.m., Crone said.

She said that Wittal appeared to be high strung after he returned, but that Toman and Hansen were withdrawn and quiet. She said Wittal made a comment to his girlfriend, apologizing for disappearing for a few hours: “Sorry babe, my mom never taught me not to play with my food.”

Crone and Hansen went to work at the Lonesome Dove Ranch, Crone testified.

A text message later to Crone allegedly said: “I need Cowboy to call me. 911 emergency. Now.” Cowboy was the nickname for Hansen.

Crone said she spoke to Wittal later.

“He told me he stabbed him about 100 times,” Crone said. “He said (Rautio) had a strong soul and he didn’t want to go down. His soul wasn’t ready to leave.”

Crone testified that three days later she burned Wittal’s cell phone in her wood stove after he told her to “fry it.” Deputies who investigated the scene said that they found part of a burned Samsung phone screen in the wood stove of Crone’s home.

Crone admitted that on May 29 she messaged Wittal, trying to find out where Rautio’s body was, telling him that she was “tripping” over the homicide and that she was “scared, kind of a lot for all of us.”

“I told him I had someone who would help me relocate the body,” Crone said. “No one would tell me where it was.”

Crone said she allowed Wittal to stay at her home for a week after the murder, and that after the fact Wittal told her that there was “a hit” worth thousands of dollars that had been placed on Rautio’s head by Wittal’s dealer.

“No one got paid,” Crone said of the alleged bounty. “We turned it down.”

Crone said that the County Attorney’s office has not offered her a plea bargain in exchange for her testimony.

TWO OTHER women who had dated Wittal testified on Tuesday that they were at Crone’s home the night of the alleged murder. One of the women testified that she was in the home to buy marijuana. The other was suffering heroin withdrawals. They both saw Hansen, Rautio, Toman and Wittal leave the home, but noted that Rautio did not return. The women said that Toman and Hansen appeared quiet and withdrawn after the incident, but that Wittal seemed amped up when the men arrived back at the home. Both women said that Wittal was sopping wet when he returned, from either the armpits or the waist down, and that he removed a shirt, jeans and boots from his body. The boots were placed in a bag and the shirt and jeans went into the wood stove.

The items were not immediately burned, according to the women.

FLATHED COUNTY Sheriff’s deputies testified that they and law enforcement with the Forest Service had used a metal detector to find a knife that was two feet upstream of Rautio’s body in the creek. Another knife was also recovered, buried beneath a shed at Lonesome Dove Ranch in Kila, where Hansen and Crone worked at the time of the homicide. Hansen told deputies where the knife was buried, but no blood was visible on the knife when it was found. Jurors were also shown a video of Rautio’s body, that showed where it was found in the creek.

Defense attorney Steven Scott honed in on the credibility of all three women who testified Tuesday, noting that his two former paramours did not always get along with him. Scott also noted that Wittal had allegedly been giving police information about Crone’s drug operation, but Crone claimed she knew nothing about it at the time of the homicide. Scott also pointed out that no remnants of boot soles, or a zipper or rivets from jeans were found in the wood stove.

Scott said that there was “zero physical evidence” linking Wittal to the crime — no fingerprints, footprints, bloody clothes or DNA evidence successfully found by sheriff’s deputies.

The prosecution was expected to be done with questioning on Wednesday.

“I would anticipate that the state will rest its case at the end of the day tomorrow,” prosecutor John Donovan told Flathead District Judge Robert Allison.

Scott anticipated the defense would have testimony that lasted a half day. Allison wanted the jury to begin deliberations Friday.

“My overarching concern is that we get it to the jury by no later than noon on Friday,” Allison said.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.