Wesley Earnest

Courtesy of Alice Swain

Firefighters were called to the Bedford County home of Wesley and Jocelyn Earnest in March 2009.

BEDFORD -- Two years ago the body of Jocelyn Earnest was found on the blood-soaked blue carpet of her Forest living room, a snub-nosed .357-caliber revolver by her side, a nearby couch and chair pierced by shards of lead. Close to hand lay a suicide note, folded neatly into quarters, addressed to her mom.

But Bedford County investigators early on concluded the 38-year-old's death was not a suicide, but a calculated slaying. And this week, after numerous delays, the case against the dead woman's estranged husband, school administrator Wesley Earnest, finally comes to trial.

The evidence includes fingerprints, gunpowder residue, testimony from computer experts, medical examiners and investigators, and accounts of a protracted divorce process that included contentious wrangling over valuable real estate at Smith Mountain Lake. Also in the mix: mysterious condoms and the testimony of the woman who found the body, who says she was romantically -- but not sexually -- involved with Jocelyn Earnest.

"It will involve the most unusual and interesting mix of facts and evidence I can recall," defense attorney Joseph Sanzone said of the coming trial.

Eighty Bedford County residents have been ordered to show up at the county's circuit court on Tuesday to potentially serve as jurors. The jury chosen from the pool will possibly have to listen to weeks of testimony before deliberating Wesley Earnest's guilt or innocence. Choosing the jury itself could take days, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance, who is prosecuting Earnest.

"Given the public interest in this case, I do expect it could take a while," Nance said.

Jocelyn Earnest, a project manager at Genworth Financial in Lynchburg, filed for divorce in June 2006, accusing her husband of having an affair. The divorce filing suggests their relationship had deteriorated dramatically since February 2003, when she wrote a will that gave her husband "everything" in the event of her death. At the time, "everything" included a boat, three cars and two homes. The Forest home where she died was Jocelyn Earnest's primary residence. She and her husband also owned a home at Smith Mountain Lake. Wesley Earnest, an assistant high school principal in Chesapeake in 2007, was living in a Chesapeake campground.

The monthly mortgage payment on the upscale lake home -- which later burned in a March 2009 fire that's still under investigation -- was $5,700, and Wesley Earnest unsuccessfully petitioned the court for spousal support to help make ends meet. Earnest, according to prosecutors, blamed his estranged wife for his financial hardship.

But the case against him in her death is circumstantial.

Prosecutors allege Earnest, 39, left Chesapeake after work on Dec. 19, 2007, drove roughly 200 miles to Jocelyn Earnest's home in Forest, shot her in the head, then left the revolver and a suicide note (typed in a Book Antigua font, or possibly Palladio). Wesley Earnest drove back to Chesapeake in time for work at Great Bridge High School the following morning, according to prosecutors' account.

Earnest contends he was in Chesapeake the entire time.

According to testimony presented at Earnest's April 2008 preliminary hearing, Jocelyn Earnest's fingerprints were not found on the suicide note, but her estranged husband's were.

The defense's response: The print on the note is merely a partial print and one that does not definitively single out Wesley Earnest.

The note contained a reference to a "new love" in Jocelyn Earnest's life, along with the lament that the lover "will not leave the family." At the preliminary hearing, the woman who found the body, Marcy Shepherd, a co-worker, said she understood the note to refer to her. A married mother, Shepherd said she and Earnest had shared a romantic relationship since the summer of 2007, but the relationship was never sexual.

Whether Wesley Earnest knew of the relationship is unknown. Complicating matters, investigators found LifeStyles condoms in Jocelyn Earnest's home, condoms an investigator concluded did not belong to her, according to court documents. And no other evidence has turned up to suggest she had a male lover. Investigators searched Wesley Earnest's camper, specifically searching for the same brand of condoms -- suggesting they believe he planted them in his estranged wife's home -- but they didn't find any.

Investigators, meanwhile, did find the box for the revolver, a Smith & Wesson with a 13-pound trigger pull, in the Campbell County home of Wesley Earnest's girlfriend.

The defense's response: Earnest had given the revolver to his wife but kept the box.

At the preliminary hearing, a medical examiner from Roanoke testified that Jocelyn Earnest was shot in the back of her head, and the bullet traveled at a downward angle, exiting her left temple. The examiner said the gun was two inches or more away from her head when she was shot, and the death was not consistent with a suicide. Furthermore, no gunshot residue was found on Earnest's right hand.

In response, defense attorneys prompted the examiner to concede that suicide was still a possibility.

Also at the preliminary hearing, Jocelyn Earnest's marriage and family therapist testified that, on Dec. 19, 2007, she met with Earnest, and she seemed "very positive" and "upbeat" -- not, in short, suicidal.

Finally, the suicide note was printed on an ink jet printer, according to a forensic analysis filed in circuit court. At the preliminary hearing, an investigator testified that Jocelyn Earnest had two printers in her home, but neither was connected and ready to print.

That's the evidence jurors will have to sort through. What they won't be allowed to see is an August 2005 entry from Earnest's journal. In the entry, she wrote that if she were ever found dead, her killer would be her "cheating husband."

Earlier this month Circuit Court Judge James Updike ruled Nance could not use the journal as evidence because it would violate Wesley Earnest's constitutional right to confront an accuser.