By Erin Quinn

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Prosecution witnesses in the capital murder trial of Megan Lewis-Grant said Tuesday that the 44-year-old Gatesville prison nurse hired her 16-year-old son’s friend, who was also her boyfriend, to kill her ex-husband by repeatedly stabbing him in his sleep.

The first day of testimony about Lewis-Grant’s role in James Michael Grant Sr.’s death was heard Tuesday in Judge Phillip Zeigler’s 52nd State District Court in Gatesville.

Testimony indicated several people said they heard Lewis-Grant say she wanted to kill her ex-husband or wanted to hire someone to kill him and had offered $5,000 to someone to do so. Witnesses also testified Tuesday that Lewis-Grant offered Social Security benefits from her ex-husband’s Sept. 15, 2007, death to 28-year-old John Tarrell Hopkins, her son’s friend and her boyfriend. She was arrested Oct. 29, 2007, in Grant’s death.

Testimony will continue at 9 a.m. today. If convicted, Lewis-Grant faces life in prison without parole.

Texas Ranger Jess Ramos testified Tuesday that he used an investigative technique while questioning Hopkins, telling him that Lewis-Grant sold him out and had told investigators Hopkins murdered her husband. Hopkins became irate and said, “I’m not going down in this alone,” Ramos said. Hopkins confessed to his part in the slaying and said Lewis-Grant and her son also had a role, Ramos said. Evidence was consistent with the information provided by Hopkins in his confession, he said.

Hopkins and James Michael Grant Jr., or Jamie Grant, have since pleaded guilty in the killing. Jamie Grant, who was certified to be sentenced as an adult, was given 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder. Hopkins pleaded guilty last month to capital murder and received a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

Investigators have said that Jamie Grant called Hopkins to his Gatesville home when his father fell asleep the night of his death. Hopkins confessed to stabbing the elder Grant in his sleep. Investigators have said Jamie Grant stomped on his father’s chest after he was dead.

The two then wrapped the man in bedding, tied him up with a cable cord, loaded his body into his own truck and dumped the body on the side of the road near the 300 block of Greenbriar Road in Gatesville, where Lewis-Grant was living.

Investigators testified that Hopkins said Lewis-Grant burned their bloody clothing in a barbecue pit at her home.

Crime scene investigators found remnants of clothing in the pit, officials said.

A Dallas-based medical examiner testified Grant Sr. was stabbed 12 times in his neck, chest, abdomen, arm and leg.

In opening arguments Tuesday, Lewis-Grant’s attorney, Russ Hunt Sr., told the 10-woman, two-man jury that Lewis-Grant knew nothing of the killing and was heavily intoxicated and joking when she would talk of wanting her ex-husband dead. He said she “self-medicated” her depression with alcohol.

Ramos also was asked about a police report made in 2004 by Grant Sr. against Lewis-Grant in which he claimed she tried to switch out his insulin. They were going through a divorce at the time, Ramos said.

Hunt also asked about an assault causing bodily injury case against the elder Grant. Ramos said he did not recall that or the reason for the other police reports filed at the time.

Diane Tadlock, Lewis-Grant’s supervisor at the Gatesville prison unit where she worked as a nurse, testified that Lewis-Grant would talk about wanting Grant dead “every day or at least every other day.” She said Lewis-Grant was not intoxicated when she would make such statements.

Tadlock said Lewis-Grant would talk about his death “jokingly, but we knew she was serious,” referring to herself and the other nurses.

She made statements that she would kill her ex-husband, who was diabetic, by changing his insulin or baking him a cake loaded with sugar, Tadlock said. When asked by Hunt whether she reported Lewis-Grant’s threats to the police, Tadlock said she did not and that she now regrets not doing so.

Also under questioning from Hunt, Tadlock said Lewis-Grant did not tell her why she hated her ex-husband so much.

Hunt told jurors during opening arguments that Lewis-Grant was afraid of her ex-husband because he was stalking her. She couldn’t go anywhere without him videotaping her every move, Hunt said. So far, none of the witnesses have testified about abuse.

Tadlock testified that Lewis-Grant met Hopkins through her son, Jamie Grant.

Tadlock also testified that Lewis-Grant then developed a sexual relationship with Hopkins. She was aware, Tadlock said, that Hopkins was a registered sex offender and was doing drugs with Jamie Grant.

After Grant’s death, Tadlock said, Lewis-Grant went into “complete detail” of her whereabouts, which Tadlock testified she thought was odd.

equinn@wacotrib.com

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