Probable cause found in murder case

By Ted Pennekamp

Crawford County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Rider found probable cause Wednesday afternoon to proceed with the case involving a 49-year-old Georgia man charged in the death of his girlfriend in the town of Bridgeport on Oct. 5. 

After listening to testimony at a preliminary hearing from four law enforcement officers involved in the case, Rider ruled that there is probable cause to believe that Linda Kline, 53, was murdered and that Jimmy D. McDaniel committed the crime.

McDaniel was charged on Oct. 17 with first degree reckless homicide. He faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

At his preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 26, McDaniel rocked in his chair in the Crawford County Courthouse and cried at various times while listening to testimony. Sixteen people listened to the proceedings, mostly relatives and friends of Linda Kline.

Lieutenant Ryan Fradette testified that he interviewed McDaniel as part of the investigation. At one point, Fradette got down on the floor and demonstrated how McDaniel had described how he found Kline’s body hanging from a white cord on a T-shaped, wooden bird feeder the night of Oct. 5 in the back yard of a residence on Velvet Lane in Bridgeport Township.

Fradette further testified that Dr. Michael Stier, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Kline, had ruled Kline’s death a homicide and that the hanging had been staged. Stier said that Kline died from blunt force trauma to the head and from strangulation prior to the staged hanging. Fradette also said that Stier pointed out defensive wounds on Kline’s arms and hands during the autopsy as well as what appeared to be finger marks on her neck.

Fradette also said that an examination of Kline’s stomach contents revealed that Kline had died about one or two hours after eating, according to Stier.

Fradette said that McDaniel had given a detailed timeline regarding the events of Oct. 5 in which McDaniel, Kline and Kline’s sister, Michelle Little, had finished eating dinner around 8 p.m. Therefore, according to Dr. Stier’s conclusion, Kline would have died around 9 to 10 p.m.

Fradette said that McDaniel could not give a detailed timeline of what happened between 8:45 p.m. and 12:15 p.m. when Michelle Little called 911. Fradette testified that McDaniel could not answer questions regarding that time period and began to sweat profusely and appeared to become nervous when questioned about it.

According to the criminal complaint, McDaniel said he went looking for Kline at about 8:45 p.m. and found her partially suspended from the cross piece of a bird feeder with her legs out to one side. He said he then lifted Kline up, slipped the cord off her neck, laid her down, ran to the house and told Little to call 911 because Kline had hanged herself.

According to testimony, the first police officer at the scene saw a woman lying on the ground in the back yard of the residence and a man kneeling near the woman’s head. The man was later identified as McDaniel.

Judge Rider scheduled McDaniel’s arraignment for Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. McDaniel is being held in the Crawford County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond.