Gypsy Willis arrives at court Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, in Provo, Utah.
The mistress of a Utah doctor who is accused of killing his wife testified on Tuesday that she moved into the man’s house just nine days after the wife’s death. She also said that defendant, Martin MacNeill, proposed to her with a $7,000 diamond ring just months later, the Associated Press reports.
Prosecutors say MacNeill first demanded his wife get a face-lift and then administered a lethal combination of drugs for her recovery in 2007. Though the cause of death was never determined, she was found in a tub with four nervous system depressants in her blood. MacNeill has pleaded not guilty and defense attorneys say she had a heart attack and fell in the tub.
Prosecutors questioned the mistress, Gypsy Willis, as a hostile witness after they convinced the judge that she was trying to protect MacNeill with lies (she cut a deal with prosecutors that keeps her out of jail on identity-theft charges; she’s accused to taking the identity of one of MacNeill’s adopted daughters to evade a bad credit history).
Willis testified she had engaged in a casual sexual relationship with MacNeill for 15 months before his wife died. She said he also gave her a debit card, helped her pay her nursing school bills paid for her apartment. Two of MacNeill’s children have testified that they suspected she was a mistress when MacNeill initially tried to hire her as a nanny.
[AP]