Wife of murdered Evansville firefighter Robert Doerr II to stand trial Monday

EVANSVILLE — The wife of murdered Evansville firefighter Robert F. Doerr II will stand trial starting Monday for her husband's 2019 killing in a high-profile case replete with national media interest and a prosecution led by two veteran trial attorneys, including Vanderburgh County's top prosecutor.

If all goes to plan, 12 jurors and two alternates will by Monday afternoon hear the state's overall theory of its case against Elizabeth Joanne Fox-Doerr during opening arguments. Fox-Doerr, 52, allegedly conspired with Larry Richmond Sr., 46, to fatally shoot her husband on Feb. 26, 2019.

According to legal filings, Fox-Doerr has pleaded not guilty to two counts: aiding, inducing or causing murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both of which are Level 1 felonies. Richmond Sr., who is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 18, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Richmond Sr. was previously sentenced to 45 years in prison after shooting and killing 70-year-old James Everett Montgomery in 1996. He was released less than a year before Doerr was killed.

Fox-Doerr's trial is the culmination of a multifaceted Evansville Police Department investigation, years of judicial wrangling and more than a few false starts. Initially arrested for alleged perjury in July 2022, prosecutors would weeks later charge Fox-Doerr and Richmond Sr. with Doerr's killing.

At an Aug. 18, 2022, news conference announcing the new charges, former EPD Chief Billy Bolin said Doerr, 51, was "truly one of Evansville's bravest." Doerr served with the Evansville Fire Department for 28 years.

"This senseless, selfish act will forever leave a void in the lives of Robbie's family, his friends and his coworkers," Bolin said. "Today is the first step toward seeing some type of justice for Robbie."

Signifying the importance of the Fox-Doerr's trial, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers is leading the state's efforts from the front alongside veteran prosecutor Stan Levco, who held Moers' role between 1991 and 2011.

Judge Robert Pigman, of the Vanderburgh County Superior Court, will preside over the case, court records state.

The case has generated substantial media interest and will be one of Vanderburgh County's first high-profile cases to feature cameras in the courtroom. Besides local television stations, CBS News' "48 Hours" program filed a request to broadcast portions of the trial.

In an April 25 order, Pigman wrote that news media would be allowed to document the trial under a strict set of ground rules: Media outlets must pool their resources, operating just one camera and audio system at a time, and stations cannot broadcast or live stream while proceedings are underway.

Footage captured during Fox-Doerr's trial "may only be exhibited to the public during their regular news programs," Pigman wrote in the order.

Background: A fatal shooting on a quiet street

At 7:06 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2019, Evansville 911 dispatchers directed police to Robert Doerr's house at 2728 Oakley St. after multiple neighbors reported hearing the distinctive sound of gunshots and after Fox-Doerr dialed 911 herself.

"All I saw was my husband pulling into the driveway," Fox-Doerr is heard telling dispatchers, according to audio of her 911 call obtained by the Courier & Press. "And then I heard a bunch of popping ... All I see is a bunch of blood on the ground."

The officers who arrived at 2728 Oakley St. found Doerr, the accomplished, well-respected Evansville firefighter lying on the sidewalk outside his home suffering from several gunshot wounds, including one to the head, according to a police report.

First responders' attempts to resuscitate Doerr were unsuccessful. The Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office pronounced Doerr dead at the scene and quickly ruled his death a homicide.

EPD Sgt. Jason Cullum, then the department's spokesman, said in 2019 that Doerr's house on Oakley Street was in a quiet part of the city not known for even run-of-the-mill crime, much less shootings or homicides.

"If you don’t live on that street, you probably don’t even know it existed,” Cullum remarked.

Quiet or not, the urgent and painful question then pressing in on the police, Doerr's family, his colleagues, and the public was straightforward and twofold: Who shot Doerr and why did they do it?

In sworn affidavits filed in 2022, detectives claimed cellphone location data placed Richmond Sr. at the scene of the crime, and recovered call logs showed Richmond Sr. and Fox-Doerr spoke to each other for about five minutes just moments before the shooting.

According to Richmond Sr.'s arrest affidavit, investigators recovered more than 42,000 files from his iPhone, including 15 location hits in a 67-meter cluster surrounding Doerr's Oakley Street residence. The location data also reportedly shows Richmond Sr. driving away from the Doerr residence after the shooting.

Data recovered from Richmond Sr.'s phone allegedly showed he had used a police scanner app just before the shooting and again about nine minutes afterward, the police said.

More: How cellphone data helped investigators solve slaying of an Evansville firefighter

Prosecutors allege that Fox-Doerr hid the fact she had spoken to Richmond Sr. on the phone, with detectives stating that Fox-Doerr said she lied about the call because she did not want the police to think she was having an affair with the man who allegedly shot her husband.

However, investigators reportedly found a letter written by Doerr at her house the night of the shooting that hinted at possible infidelity by Fox-Doerr.

The gun used to commit the crime will likely play an important role at trial. Doerr suffered gunshot wounds from a mix of ammunition: a .45-caliber bullet and buckshot. Both types could be fired by a Taurus Judge revolver, a gun Richmond Sr.'s son, Larry Richmond Jr., allegedly stole from River City Pawnbrokers, where he worked, in August 2018.

Richmond Jr. told police he'd given the stolen gun to his father within days of the theft, an affidavit states, and the father and son pleaded guilty to federal firearms charges after surveillance cameras reportedly captured Richmond Sr. burying a bag of guns with altered serial numbers.

While in jail, a prison informant reportedly told police that Richmond Sr. confided in him about killing Doerr and admitted to having an affair with the slain firefighter's wife.

Trial could feature dozens of witnesses, exhibits

According to a May 1 filing, Moers and Levco could call as many as 26 witnesses during the trial, which is expected to feature more than two dozen state exhibits, including "call logs, Google searches, text messages (and) photos" recovered from Fox-Doerr and Richmond Sr.'s electronic devices, the filing states.

Court records indicate Fox-Doerr could present a limited defense, with her own "list of witnesses and exhibits" running just a few sentences. Boonville-based attorneys Mark K. Phillips and Mark R. Phillips represent Fox-Doerr as court-appointed public defenders.

After a jury is seated, both sides will present an opening argument, laying out their theory of the case. The state must prove Fox-Doerr guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, while Fox-Doerr is under no burden to prove her innocence.

Mike Larson, who formerly served as the Evansville Fire Department's spokesman, previously said the case was about finding "truth."

"(Doerr) was a son, a brother, a father, and grandfather," Larson stated upon Fox-Doerr's arrest. "His brothers and sisters in this department were robbed that night. We are relieved the long wait is over and individuals are being brought to justice."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Elizabeth Fox-Doerr murder trial to begin Monday in Evansville