Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

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  • Douglas Tesner

    trial of Michelle Hihnala

  • Douglas Tesner

    trial of Michelle Hihnala
September 10, 2008

Sheriff's detectives take stand on day 2

By LINDSAY VanHULLE

TRAVERSE CITY -- Slaying suspect Michelle Hihnala's lawyers attempted to poke holes in the murder probe during the second day of her trial in Grand Traverse County.

Attorney Michael Stein on Wednesday sharply questioned sheriff's detectives Paul Postal and Dawn Wagoner about how evidence was collected after Hihnala fatally stabbed her husband.

Both detectives said they followed proper procedure during their investigation.

Hihnala, 28, is on trial in 13th Circuit Court for the July 8, 2007, stabbing death of her husband of seven years, Alan Hihnala, 27.

She is charged with both second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Her attorneys maintain Michelle Hihnala was arguing with her husband when she grabbed a kitchen knife and held it horizontally, defensively, in front of her.

Alan Hihnala, they say, plunged into it as he ran at her in the couple's East Bay Township home.

But prosecutors contend the stabbing was intentional.

James Pappas, the county's chief assistant prosecutor, displayed the knife, clothing both wore that night, the telephone receiver Michelle Hihnala used to dial 911 and a bottle of rum found in the trash.

Pappas also played a videotaped interview from early July 8.

On the tape, Michelle Hihnala said she and her husband drank rum and Coke that night. Testimony later revealed both had blood-alcohol levels above 0.2, more than twice the legal limit.

Michelle and Alan Hihnala fought throughout the day, according to the interview. The couple agreed to a divorce, she said, although no paperwork had been filed.

She said her husband kicked her in the stomach hard enough to send her to the floor.

"I stood up and got the knife," she said in the interview. "I wanted him to stay away from me. I didn't want to hurt him."

Dr. Timothy Archer, an emergency room physician at Munson Medical Center, testified that Michelle Hihnala had what appeared to be recent bruising on several areas of her body, although he could not tell when or how she received the marks.

Postal, the sheriff's detective, testified he initially believed her when she told him she stabbed Alan Hihnala in self-defense.

But during his investigation, he said he found inconsistencies that led him to think of her as a suspect, not a victim.

"I thought the story was a little strange, a little iffy," said Postal, the case's lead investigator. "But I did believe her."

But Stein noted inconsistencies in the detectives' testimony.

Postal, for instance, said only he, Wagoner and a sheriff's deputy were present during an interview. But Wagoner testified there were more present.

He questioned Postal for not offering Michelle Hihnala medical care as she complained of pain to her abdomen.

"I'm not a medical professional, but it did not appear to be that serious," Postal said.

Stein also asked Wagoner, the lead evidence technician in the case, why a door to the laundry room that received blood spatter was not kept as evidence.

There were no bloody footprints leading back to the counter where the knife was found, he said, suggesting the stabbing must have happened in the kitchen.

But Wagoner said photographs can suffice as evidence concerning large structural items because they are less portable.

"It was part of the home," she said. "We photographed that and preserved that."

Testimony continues today before Judge Thomas Power.

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