Jurors Unlikely To Visit Shooting Site In Tyler Tessier Trial

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Prosecutors have asked that jurors in the murder trial of the man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, Wide Lake High School teacher Laura Wallen, visit the remote Montgomery County site where she was shot and buried. But a judge seems unlikely to authorize the trip to see where Tyler Tessier reportedly drove Wallen to kill her and dispose of her body.

In making their request for the trip outside a Montgomery County courtroom, prosecutors said photographs and video alone will not give jurors a true sense of how concealed the rural site is, and where Tessier lived close to. “This area would not be found by happenstance,” prosecutors said. “The state asserts the defendant had intimate knowledge of these fields. The jury must see this area in person . . . to understand the premeditated intent of the defendant.”

Both sides were in court Friday to argue the request. And they took up a move by Tessier’s attorney, Allen Wolf, to keep the jury from seeing pictures of Wallen’s decomposed remains, The Washington Post reports. “These graphic photographs would affect jurors’ abilities to fairly and impartially decide the issues before them without resorting to pity, sympathy, or emotion,” Wolf said in court documents.

Tessier, 33, is charged with murder in the death of Wallen and his trial starts Sept. 4; he allegedly told investigators that he shot her. Wallen, 31, lived in a condo in Olney and worked at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. Police said she was four months pregnant when she was reported missing on Sept. 4, 2017.

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Circuit Court Judge Michael Mason said Friday that the idea of loading jurors, Tessier and members of the public into SUVs and taking them to the site of the murder would be “a logistical nightmare.”

“Nobody can communicate to the jury. Everyone would just stand around, look, not say anything. And what if a juror asked a question,” Mason asked, according to WTOP. “It’s very unlikely, but I’ll reserve my final ruling until I see some of the state’s presentation,” at trial, the judge said.

In other pre-trial business, prosecutors said they would not show sonogram photos of Wallen’s fetus, or her medical records. In return, Tessier’s attorney agreed to stipulate that Tessier was the father of Wallen’s unborn child.

Wallen's sister, with whom she was in daily contact, notified authorities of her disappearance. Laura Wallen had sent her a message that said: "'Tyler has me on an adventure in the country...don't know why I'm here but it's for something,'" charging documents said.

When her sister requested a photo, Wallen texted a picture of a field that "appears to be the same field where the clandestine grave was recovered," according to charging documents. Her body was found on Sept. 13.

Police said the field was near property where Tessier had been staying. For the week that Wallen was missing, police said Tessier paid several visits to a Damascus property in the 12400 block of Prices Distillery Road where a farm was surrounded by acres of woods and open fields. Several .22 caliber rifles, the type likely used to shoot Wallen once in the back of the head, were found at a nearby wild game processing facility, KS Kuts, which is owned by a friend of Tessier’s.

In a series of interviews with police about Wallen's disappearance, authorities said Tessier provided several versions of what happened. In one, he told police they fought at the place where he had been staying, she tried to attack him with a pair of scissors, he darted away, and she ran into a wooden post on the porch then collapsed, according to WTOP. Instead of calling the police, Tessier said he believed Wallen died from striking her head on the porch post and decided to bury her in the field.

"When he grew concerned perhaps she was not deceased and that he had buried her alive, he stated he shot once in the back of the head, to ensure she wasn't suffering," prosecutors said.

Tessier's attorneys in June said they planned to request his recorded confession be thrown out because he had asked for legal counsel and police allegedly ignored the request at the time. While the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office disputed that claim, prosecutors agreed not to play the recording during the trial and not to reference it unless Tessier contradicts or denies information provided in the interview, according to the Associated Press.

Court records show the trial is expected to last for 10 days.

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Images via Montgomery County Police Department