12-year-old girl gives wrenching testimony

Taylor Lee awoke to gunshots the night her mother's ex-boyfriend broke into their home and shot her mom and her mom's new boyfriend last September, she testified Friday.

"I hid under the covers and waited," the 12-year-old testified in Steven Van Keuren's murder trial in Stillwater.

"Who was in the room?" Washington County prosecutor Jennifer Bovitz asked.

"Mom and Tim and him," Taylor replied, pointing to Van Keuren, across the courtroom, wearing a striped yellow polo shirt.

When she pulled down her covers, she said, "I saw Tim lying on the floor." Van Keuren, she said, "was standing by the TV and pointing a gun at my mom. He shot her."

Taylor's first-person testimony is a key piece of the case against Van Keuren, 47, who is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Teri Lee, 38, and Tim Hawkinson Sr., 47.

Bovitz asked Taylor how she felt as she watched the shootings.

She said she also was frightened after the attacks, which happened at 4 a.m. on Sept. 22. She took her sister, Tara, 6, and ran next door to get help. Taylor said she couldn't find her two brothers, ages 8 and 10. The boys hid in a closet and later were found unharmed. Police who entered the house shot and arrested Van Keuren, who had earlier shot himself in the neck, apparently attempting suicide.

Defense attorney Matthew Ludt tried to cast doubt on Taylor's testimony by asking whether she liked Van Keuren, who had dated her mother for several years. "Generally you didn't like him?" Ludt asked.

"There were some good times, but no," Taylor replied.

Then Ludt asked if Taylor saw Hawkinson confront Van Keuren that night.

"No."

"No."Did you see him shoot her?"I don't think so," she said, but added: "I know he hit her because she screamed."

The next witness was Dick Van Keuren, who testified about a phone call from his son shortly after the shooting.

Dick Van Keuren, 71, said he didn't initially recognize his son's voice because it was garbled.

"He said, 'I just shot Teri,' " the elder Van Keuren recalled. "I asked, 'Why are you talking funny?' He said 'I shot myself in the throat.' "

The witness said he also asked his son where he got the gun. "He said, 'It's yours, Dad.' I checked my gun cabinet, and the gun was missing."

Then defense attorney Ludt questioned the elder Van Keuren, who lived near his son's home in River Falls, Wis. He testified that his son was upset that he had recently lost his job as a 3M lab chemist. As the white-haired Van Keuren left the stand, his son dabbed his eyes with a tissue.

In her opening arguments, Bovitz told jurors they would see the murder weapon, fingerprints and DNA evidence tying Van Keuren to the crime. "This is not a case of whodunit," Bovitz said.

Ludt reminded the jury that the state had to prove its claims and said the two prosecutors wouldn't be able to do so.

Earlier this week, Judge Elizabeth Martin said Ludt had dropped plans to use a mental-illness defense. Attorneys now expect the trial to end next week.

Taylor's two younger brothers were found after a Washington County SWAT team entered the home at 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 22. A SWAT team leader, Woodbury police Sgt. Brett Billmeyer, testified that when he entered the boy's bedroom, "I heard a small voice say, 'We're in here.' " At that point the team hadn't located the boys' mother or Van Keuren. Billmeyer said the boys, who were hiding under a red blanket in their bedroom closet, had fear on their faces.

The four children, whose father died in a 2001 car crash, are now living with Teri Lee's sister in Minnetonka.