Witnesses testify in murder trial of Fairfield woman

FAIRFIELD — The prosecution wrapped up the second week of witness testimony Friday in the murder trial for a Fairfield mother, Ryan S. Odom, who is accused of orchestrating the beating of a man and killing him as payback for stealing from her San Andreas home in 2011.

Two of the seven people arrested for the murder and torture of Keith Osby were on the witness stand Friday, having previously agreed to testify about what they saw on the afternoon of May 12, 2011, at Odom’s home.

Jennifer E. Whittington described seeing Osby being beaten, but her memory of the beating was spotty, she said, because she said she had taken four Ecstasy pills earlier in the day.

Janiel D. Miller testified he heard Odom telling Whittington to invite Osby over to join them in a robbery. After Osby arrived at the home, he said he heard what he described as “tussling” and then watched Frank P. Bigoski hit Osby with a bat before Osby was hogtied with duct tape.

Both Whittington and Miller took plea deals in the case. They both pleaded no contest to a felony charge of being an accessory after the fact to a murder and would receive no more than three years behind bars in exchange for their testimony.

Whittington and Miller also both described Odom and Bigoski as being upset about their belief that Osby had taken a game console and a laptop computer from Odom’s home several weeks earlier.

One of Odom’s neighbors also testified Friday, describing Odom coming to her home and asking to borrow her car to drive a guy who had been beaten in her home to Richmond. The neighbor recalled Odom telling her that she had thrown the first punch before “everything went bad and things got out of control.”

One the day after the beating, Osby’s battered body was found dumped in the parking lot of the Masonic Lodge in Vallejo. He had been shot execution-style in the back of the head.

Miller is scheduled to retake the witness stand when the trial resumes Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge Wendy Getty.

Four of Odom’s former codefendants, Bigoski, Khalil Askari-Roberts, Damarcus Armstrong and Tina Odom, are scheduled to be in court Monday to have dates set for their jury trials.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.

Jess Sullivan

Jess has covered the criminal justice system in Solano County for several years. He was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2003.

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