Referring to his wife's independence and carefree attitude as "Amyworld," Joe Senser said he wasn't surprised when she got lost and failed to pick up their two daughters and two friends from a concert at the Xcel Energy Center the night of Aug. 23.
It was why he didn't question her about where she'd been when he arrived home that night after he brought the girls home instead, Senser told prosecutor Deborah Russell.
"It was not out of the ordinary that she didn't contact the girls and they had to call you to pick them up?" she asked.
"That's Margaret, that's her personality," Senser said, referring to Amy by her middle name. He testified that she isn't erratic, as Russell put it, but rather "fiercely independent."
"It's one of the most admirable qualities in a human being," Senser said, describing her ability to take off and explore without planning. It happens often, he testified, and was part of the reason he urged her to finally get a cellphone, which she did two years ago.
The testimony on the fourth day of Amy Senser's criminal vehicular homicide trial focused on her whereabouts before and after she struck and killed Anousone Phanthavong, 38, at the Riverside Avenue exit ramp that night, several miles west of downtown St. Paul on Interstate 94. The defense has maintained that Senser didn't know she'd hit someone when she left the scene.
At the start of Thursday's proceedings, Hennepin County District Judge Daniel Mabley admonished Joe Senser for speaking to jurors from the witness stand the day before while Russell and defense attorney Eric Nelson were conferring with Mabley at the bench. Russell said two of her staff members saw Senser lean toward the jury and say, "She wants me to tell the truth, doesn't she?"
"I frankly am shocked, and in all my time as a prosecutor I've never had a witness take it upon themselves to speak to the jury," Russell said.
