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Jessica Dayton's Trial, Day 3
Jessica Dayton's cell mate in the Iowa County Jail took the stand on the third and final day.
“We were fairly close,” she said “She was the same age as my daughter, so I took on a motherly role as well as a friend role.” Szakacs said Dayton did not share details of the case with her, at first. She said Dayton only told her that she was charged with first-degree murder. Dayton went into detail with Szakacs in the middle of November she recalls.
After Dayton met with her attorney Eicholz and he showed her pictures of the crime scene. She came back to the cell and was emotional. Szakacs comforted her, and Dayton couldn't believe how bloody the pictures were. Then Dayton asked Szakacs, "Can I trust you?"
"Then I will tell you what happened".
Szakacs said that Dayton told her that she, Jacob Hilgendorf and Denise Frei had a plan in place to kill Curtis Bailey.
The night of July 18, 2009, Dayton was with Bailey and Frei in their Marengo home, and they were drinking alcohol. Later in the evening, Szakacs said she was told that Bailey passed out, and Hilgendorf came over to pick up Jessica.
Bailey did not allo Hilgendorf to be in the house, Szakacs said.
Bailey woke up and found Hilgendorf in the house, she said. An altercation then took place between Hilgendorf and Bailey.
According to Szakacs, Dayton said she panicked and didn’t know what to do, so she went outside to get some fresh air. Once outside, Szakacs said Dayton picked up a landscaping rock from the front yard. She went back inside.
According to Szakacs, once back inside, Dayton found that Hilgendorf had wrestled Bailey to the floor. Dayton dropped the landscaping rock, about the size of a football, on Bailey’s head three or four times, Szakacs said.
“She didn’t know what else to do. She was freaked out by the situation,” Szakacs said. Hilgendorf then used the rock to continuously strike Bailey in the head, she said. Bailey became motionless, and apparently dead.
“She said that everything was kind of a blur,” Szakacs said. “They panicked.” Szakacs said the trio cleaned up the scene, throwing everything they could in a “black” garbage bag and put the bag in Hilgendorf’s truck.
Once Jessica and Jacob left, she said Denise Frei called the police. While driving, Dayton and Hilgendorf got into an argument, Szakacs said. She said that Jessica wanted to get rid of the evidence right away and Hilgendorf just wanted to go home.
Dayton was concerned about the garbage bag, and she was worried that fingerprints could be found on the evidence, Szakacs said.
According to Szakacs, Dayton also told her she was worried about a phone call she made from her cell phone while at the sheriff’s office July 19. Szakacs said Dayton was worried about a phone call she made to a girl named Elisha (Runyan). Dayton told Szakacs that Runyan knew information about their plan and she knew that Frei had made a previous attempt on Bailey’s life. Szakacs also made a statement that the night of the murder wasn’t the night of the actual plan. She said the killing was supposed to happen the next night, Sunday, July 19.
Szakacs said Dayton was unemotional while confessing her alleged role in the murder of Curtis Bailey. She said Dayton was “just telling a story. Just a normal conversation.” “She just always played it off that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Szakacs said. “She didn’t believe she would do much time for it.” (Pioneer Republican)
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