Trial
Continued from Page 1
Bjorklund saw Harms at a stoplight at
27th and Vine streets. They followed
her to her parents’ home in the Cha
teau La Fleur apartments, 6100 Vine
St.
Bjorklund then jumped out of
Barney’s car with a gun in one hand
and a police scanner in the other. He
forced his way into Harms’ car and
forced her to the floor. Bjorklund drove
Harms’ car, following Barney north of
Lincoln to 27th Street and Bluff Road.
Barney and Bjorklund put duct tape
over Harms’ eyes and bound her
hands. They abandoned Harms’ car, a
1987 Chevy Corsica, in a field and
threw Harms into the hatchback of
Barney’s 1988 Nissan Pulsar.
The pair took Harms to a secluded
spot near 86th Street and Hitchcock
Road. Barney went to get gas for his
car, leaving Bjorklund in a field with
Harms.
Bjorklund then sexually assaulted
Harms with his hand and a condom
while reciting lines from the movie
“Cape Fear.” Barney returned and had
forced intercourse with Harms.
Afterward, the two men wrapped
Harms in a blanket and put her back
into Barney’s car. They drove around
while discussing what to do next.
Barney decided Harms must be si
lenced. They drove to a large tree near
134th Street and Yankee Hill Road.
Bjorklund grabbed Harms around
the neck, attempting to choke her into
unconsciousness, and dragged her
several yards from the road. Bjorklund
lost his balance and fell, breaking a
bone in Harms’ neck that caused ner
to begin suffocating. Barney then shot
Harms once in the head with a .38
caliber semi-automatic handgun.
Before leaving the scene, the two
men realized they forgot the blanket in
which Harms was wrapped. Bjorklund
went to retrieve the blanket and found
Harms was still moving. He shot her
three times in the head with his .38
caliber handgun. Later, he told police
he thought it was the humane thing to
do.
Bjorklund and Barney then returned
to the site at 86th Street and Hitchcock
Road, where they burned Harms'
clothes, shoes and purse.
“Afterward,” Lacey concluded,
“they went home, almost as if nothing
had happened.”
r
“44
See If you think It points to Roger Dale BJorklund
as one of the persons who snuffed out a life for
no good reason.
—Lacey
Lancaster County Attorney
Lacey said that when Barney and
Bjorklund learned authorities had
begun searching for Harms, they re
turned to her body to bury it in a
shallow grave. Bjorklund also rubbed
model airplane fuel over her in an
attempt to erase any fingerprints they
might have left, Lacey said.
Lacey said the state would use
statements from Barney and Bjorklund
along with corroborating evidence to
prove their story.
The two guns, along with shells
and bullets, were found by authorities
in Pawnee Lake west of Lincoln,
Lacey said. Another cartridge was
found in the house Bjorklund lived in
at the time of Harms’ death.
Police also found an ash pile at
86th Street and Hitchcock Road that
yielded a swatch of green cloth match
ing the shirt Harms wore Sept. '22,
Lacey said. Burned pieces of shoes
much like those Harms wore also
were found, he said.
Aftfer the body was recovered,
Lacey said, a pathologist found fiber
on Harms’ hands that matched the
carpet fiber in the back of Barney’s
car. Bullets in the body matched bul
lets fired from the guns recovered
from the lake, he said.
Lacey urged the jury to examine
the evidence carefully.
“See if you think it points to Roger
Dale Bjorklund as one of the persons
who snuffed out a life for no good
reason,” he said.
Helvie cautioned jurors not to take
Lacey’s comments as evidence, but to
let the facts come to light through
witness testimony.
Helvie said there was a reasonable
doubt the evidence pointed to
Bjorklund as Harms' killer. He said
Barney actually killed Harms.
w w
Bjorklund wore a green shirt, den
im jeans, white tennis shoes. Unlike
the pretrial hearings, his legs were not
shackled. He took notes as the law
yers spoke and asked questions.
During separate testimonies, Stan
and Pat Harms recounted events of
Sept. 23, the day they reported Candice
Harms missing.
When she discovered Candice
Harms was not at home or at Sears’
house, Pat Harms said she became
worried.
“I went upstairs to tell Stan that
Candi was gone,” Pat Harms said.
“Those were the words I used, be
cause if she wasn’t with us or with
Todd, then that’s what she was ...
gone.”
She said while her husband and
Sears searched for her daughter, she
stayed home, waiting for the phone to
ring.
“I was scared to death and I was
frightened,” she said. “I thought some
thing was terribly wrong and I didn’t
know what to do.”
Sears, Harms’ boyfriend, brought
at least two jurors to the verge of tears
with an emotional recount of the last
time he saw Harms alive.
Sears said he normally walked
Harms to her car when she left, but on
Sept. 22 he did not because he was not
wearing any shoes.
“As we stood there on the front
step, I kissed her good night,” he said,
wiping away tears between sobs. “She
started walking away and then turned
around, and kissed me good night
again#'
Sears said as she reached her car,
Harms stopped and told him “to have
sweet dreams.” _
Then he watched her as she drove
away, Sears said.
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