LISBON — Most of the testimony Friday in the aggravated murder case against William P. Long Jr. focused on videos and cell phone location data used to track his movements and those of his ex-wife, Michelle, on Nov. 29, 2023, the day she was shot to death.

But the last witness of the day, William J. Stewart, who had been friends with the defendant, talked about the last conversation they had together on July 29, 2023. Bill, as he was known to everybody, was talking about the divorce with Michelle, complaining about the child support and alimony and saying he didn’t want to pay her alimony.

“If things didn’t go right, he told me he was going to shoot her and let them figure it out,” Stewart said.

Investigators contend that’s exactly what happened the night of Nov. 29, 2023. Michelle pulled over to get her mail in front of her house on Carey Road in Butler Township in her red Dodge pickup when a dark-colored truck pulled up beside her and someone opened fire, killing her at 5:45 p.m. Investigators believe the shooter was Long while driving his 2005 dark blue Chevy Silverado with distinctive chrome side steps.

The jury trial in the Long case entered its fourth day in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, with the prosecution represented by county Assistant Prosecutors Alec Beech and Jennifer Bonish resting at the end of the day. The defense team of attorneys David Betras, Frank Cassese and Tallie Orengia is expected to begin presenting its witnesses Monday.

Long, 51, last known address North Market Street, Lisbon, was charged in May 2024 with aggravated murder and murder, both unclassified felonies, and first-degree felony discharging a firearm upon a roadway, with firearm specifications for use of a gun for each count, for allegedly causing Michelle’s death. She was 50 years old at the time and a teacher at Leetonia High School. He’s been in custody since his arrest under a $1.5 million cash or surety bond.

Chief Deputy Caleb Wycoff of the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office testified all morning and most of the afternoon Friday regarding the evidence gathered, including videos which showed what investigators believe was Long’s blue truck, presumably on his way to Michelle’s Carey Road residence the night she died.

The first video shown to the jury of six men and six women with two male alternates came from a motion-activated camera on Michelle’s garage. The video shows her truck entering the frame, then stopping by the mailbox with the tail lights seen. As she’s retrieving the mail, another vehicle enters the frame. The reflection from the brake lights can be seen in a separate vehicle parked in the driveway, then it appears the other vehicle on the road is put in park.

“At the top of the scene, you’ll see a flash,” Wycoff said.

When asked by Beech what that depicts, he responded, “That’s when the homicide occurred.”

Deputies scoured the neighborhood looking for witnesses and more cameras, but he said no other usable videos were obtained from the neighborhood.

During cross-examination by Cassese, he was asked if there appeared to be headlights coming from the other direction reflected in the vehicle in the driveway, but Wycoff said he wouldn’t say that.

Wycoff also testified regarding a powerpoint prepared of the movements of both Long and Michelle, using videos, evidence and location information from both of their cell phones via the program Life 360, a family locator app. The information for both was requested directly from Life 360, which plots points using longitude and latitude. Then the program Trax can be used to take that raw data from the cell phone provider or Life 360 to create a Google Earth image showing the location of a cell phone at a particular point in time.

Michelle’s movements were shown from 2 to 6 p.m. November. 29, 2023, showing she left the Leetonia K-12 campus at 2:34 p.m., with video footage from the school showing her and her son Brandon walking out to her red Dodge pickup and him getting something out of the truck then going to his dad’s truck, a white Chevy Silverado. Bill had arrived a little bit before that in his truck. Then the video showed both trucks leaving.

Michelle had also stopped at her sister’s residence on state Route 46, then at 2:58 p.m., she’s at the office of attorney Louis Katz, her divorce attorney, in Canfield. At 4:47 p.m., she’s at Arby’s in Salem, with a receipt found in her truck corresponding to that stop. At 5:24 p.m., she’s at Walmart in Salem where she bought a flat screen television, which was found in the back seat of her truck. The receipt showed a time of 5:27 p.m. Her last stop was at 5:45 p.m., next to her mail box

The movements of the defendant were tracked from 2 to 10 p.m., starting with him leaving work at Vallourec in Youngstown at 2:01 p.m., then arriving at Leetonia schools at 2:26 p.m. in the white truck to pick up Brandon, which was shown on video. At 2:33 p.m., the white truck is seen leaving the school.

At 2:53 p.m., the white truck is seen passing D.W. Dickey on state Route 164, Lisbon via video from the business, with the time matching up for how long it would take to get there from Leetonia. At 2:54 p.m., he arrives at his father’s Endley Road property via the driveway off of state Route 164. According to previous testimony, he’s there with Brandon and his nephew in the garage.

At 5:17 p.m., what’s believed to be his older blue truck is seen passing D.W. Dickey traveling northbound into Lisbon on state Route164. According to the Life 360 data from his cell phone, he takes a route that travels north on Thomas Road, then right on Sherman, right on Pendleton and into the alley behind his girlfriend’s residence on North Market Street. At the 5:22 p.m. point, the phone appears to be near a bush at the front of the house and doesn’t show a different location again until 6:13 p.m. going south on Beaver Street.

In previous testimony, the witnesses who were inside the house never saw Bill at that time of 5:22 p.m. At 6:15 p.m., the blue truck is seen again from the camera at D.W. Dickey traveling south, then the phone location data shows the truck back at the Endley Road property at 6:16 p.m. At 9:54 p.m., the phone location data shows the location as the North Market Street, Lisbon property, then at 10:09 p.m. on Carey Road.

After the phone appeared to be idle at 5:22 p.m., Wycoff testified that video being shown to the jury from the Sunoco gas station on state Route 45, Lisbon showed the defendant’s blue truck, with the distinctive chrome side steps, traveling past at 5:25 p.m., then immediately after that, the truck appeared on video from Discount Drug Mart, then Morris Auto, also on that stretch of state Route 45 heading north.

Under cross-examination by Cassese, Wycoff noted they had no other viable video between there and the Carey Road property, admitting there were several different routes that could be taken.

During other testimony, he said he didn’t recover the murder weapon, acknowledging the type of caliber of the bullet recovered from the victim was from a .44 magnum revolver with five possible makers, including a Ruger. He said he learned that the defendant owned a Ruger .44 magnum revolver through the divorce documents, listed on a valuation document from Basinger’s.

On the key ring for the keys to the 2005 Chevy truck was a .44 magnum round. A .44 magnum round was also found in the trunk of another vehicle owned by the defendant, a red Dodge Charger.

Other topics covered were text messages between the defendant and another person the morning of the murder where he mentioned the eight years of alimony, which was part of the decision the day before when his challenges to the divorce settlement were dismissed. Two videos from Feb. 19, 2022 from Michelle’s cell phone were played when she, Bill and Brandon were at a restaurant and he was using vulgar language towards her and he repeatedly said she disappeared on their 24th anniversary, saying it over and over and over again. Towards the end, Michelle can be heard saying, “My God, what the hell was that for?” Wycoff said that’s when Bill threw a beer on her. Another video is from the ride home.

A video from the defendant’s phone on Sept. 12, 2023 shows him entering the home on Carey Road, going into the basement and knocking on a door in a room where Michelle is, saying it’s still his house. She tells him to get out of her house a few times and then he leaves.

Cassese questioned Wycoff extensively about the location data and plotting, even manually using longitude and latitude to check the data, showing that the defendant’s phone was still shown at the Market Street address, but appeared to move from 5:22 p.m. to 5:56 p.m. He questioned whether any video showed Bill’s blue truck on Salem Grange Road or near the Circle K on state Route 45, which is in Perry Township.

The blue truck wasn’t seized until Dec. 11. No guns were found in the truck and no pertinent forensic evidence was found. When asked if any shards of glass were found in the truck, he said no glass was found. There was glass on the ground by Michelle’s truck after the shooting.

The list of items on the Basinger auction list for values did not include photos of the guns, but did list a .44 magnum revolver.

“That’s what Michelle told you Bill had,” Cassese asked, with Wycoff saying, “Yes sir.”

Cassese had him read off texts that Bill had sent to Michelle apologizing for the restaurant incident in 2021, saying he was sorry and he was going to stop drinking. She replied she didn’t know if that was enough. He also said he was going to be a better husband and that he hated himself and she was always good to him.

Questions were raised over Wycoff’s notes not being provided, but Judge Megan Bickerton said they aren’t part of discovery. The defense also wanted to know if anywhere in the report it’s reflected that he was driving and timing routes.

East Palestine Detective Daniel Haueter, who’s a member of the Columbiana County Major Crimes Task Force testified about extracting information from the cell phone of Michelle and Bill and the event logs which show when a phone is locked and unlocked by biometrics of the user. The event log for Bill’s phone showed it was locked from 5:20 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Nov. 29, 2023. The health data in the iPhone showed no activity for that same time frame, no steps and no energy burn.