Shameka Wright, Wesley Earnest's girlfriend and a former Lynchburg police officer, gives her testimony Monday.

Photos by Associated Press

The parents of slaying victim Jocelyn Earnest react to testimony Monday during the Wesley Earnest murder trial in Bedford.

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Wesley Earnest is charged with killing his estranged wife, Jocelyn Earnest, and allegedly faking a suicide note in December 2007.

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• Trial, day four: Evidence presented ruled out suicide in case of Jocelyn Earnest, prosecutors say
• Trial, day three: Earnest trial focuses on frame of mind
• Trial, day two: Defense tries to redirect suspicion in Earnest trial
• Trial, day one: Prosecution: 'Suicide' was badly staged by Earnest
• Trial primer: Bedford Co. murder trial set to begin
• Ruling on house fire won't be  speedy
• Former Bedford Co. school official's  trial delayed
• Police hope computer will yield clues  in Forest death
• New trial date picked in murder case  against ex-Chesapeake school official
• Bedford Co. murder suspect Earnest  gets bond
• Details come to light in Bedford  hearing
• Charges filed over '07 killing in  Forest

BEDFORD -- Wesley Earnest's girlfriend testified Monday during his murder trial that she could not reach him on his cellphone on the evening his estranged wife was killed, an unusual break in communications because they typically spoke by phone every day after work.

Prosecutors in Bedford County Circuit Court have alleged that Earnest, accused of driving from Chesapeake to kill his estranged wife in her Forest home on Dec. 19, 2007, did not take or turn on his cellphone that evening specifically so he couldn't be tracked. Prosecutors called his girlfriend to the witness stand to bolster their contention.

But Earnest's girlfriend, Shameka Wright of Campbell County, a former Lynchburg police officer, also said it's possible the cell reception in Earnest's Chesapeake neighborhood was bad that night, making it impossible for her to reach him. The reception, she said, was occasionally "spotty."

Earnest's estranged wife, Jocelyn Earnest, 38, was found shot to death on the living room floor of her Forest home on Dec. 20, 2007. A suicide note and .357-caliber revolver lay nearby.

Prosecutors contend Wesley Earnest, 39, an assistant principal at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake at the time of his wife's death, raced roughly 200 miles from Chesapeake to Bedford County, shot his wife and left the typewritten suicide note to make it appear his wife had taken her own life.

The Earnests had separated in 2004, and he had moved out of Bedford to the Tidewater area. After a stint as assistant principal at Oscar Smith Middle School in Chesapeake, he became assistant principal at Great Bridge.

Earnest is charged with first-degree murder. According to testimony in the first five days of the trial, Earnest had borrowed more than $125,000, and in September 2007 the bank was preparing to foreclose on the Earnests' jointly owned house at Smith Mountain Lake to recover $900,000 in loans.

On Monday, though, two teachers testified that when he worked at Oscar Smith, Earnest pretended to be rich. He also denied being married, they said.

One of the teachers, Molly Sullivan, said he told her he was worth $5 million. Sullivan said she didn't learn that Earnest was married until she learned of his estranged wife's death, and when she offered condolences, Earnest angrily continued to deny being married. She said when she e-mailed him her sympathies, he replied, "What are you talking about?"

Prosecutors used the testimony to portray Earnest as duplicitous. They contend Earnest killed his estranged wife to get clear title to the lake home so he could sell it and pay off his debts.

In other testimony Monday, Great Bridge Principal Janet Andrejco contradicted defense attorney Joseph Sanzone's opening statement, in which he said Earnest worked bus duty after school on Dec. 19, 2007, which, if true, would have made it difficult to drive to Bedford and reach his wife's home about 7:30 p.m. Jocelyn Earnest was in the middle of communicating with co-workers via text-messaging and e-mails about 7:30 p.m. when she suddenly stopped responding.

Andrejco said Earnest had not been scheduled to work bus duty that day.

Also Monday, private forensic linguist James Fitzgerald testified that Jocelyn Earnest probably did not write the suicide note found near her body. The note, he said, was too emotionless to be consistent with her style. Fitzgerald said he looked at hundreds of writing samples from Jocelyn Earnest.

The trial resumes today.