Ohio Co. Murder Trial: Was Deadly Shooting Self Defense?

By Mike Perleberg Ohio County Courthouse in Rising Sun. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle 99.3. (Rising Sun, Ind.) – Two very different reasons were given for why Danielle Green fatally shot her ex-husband, riddling him with five .38-caliber bullets to the head and five more to his torso. Did she shoot Raymond Green, 63, on May 26, 2014 because she was planning to leave him for another man? Or did she do so in order to defend herself as he mourned the 12th anniversary of his first wife’s death, was inflamed after being told to leave, and had a secret life insurance payoff to gain? It depends on whether you believe prosecutors’ detailing of the case or the explanation given by Danielle Green’s defense attorney. Twelve jurors heard opening arguments in Danielle Green’s trial in Ohio County Circuit Court on Thursday morning. It is the first day of testimony in the trial which is expected to continue for about two weeks. The 43-year-old is facing the possibility of life in prison if she is convicted in the murder of her ex. With six filing boxes full of evidence sitting behind the prosecution's table, Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard introduced jurors to the case. “It is not about motive. All we have to prove is that the defendant killed Raymond Green,” Negangard told jurors, adding that the state only has to disprove one element of the defense’s self-defense argument in order to nullify it. Negangard explained that native Texan Raymond Green’s first wife died on May 26, 2002 in a bridge accident in Oklahoma. He collected a $300,000 wrongful death settlement. Soon afterwards, the horse farrier met Danielle Green, whose dream was to compete in equestrian games in the Olympics. The two soon married and moved to Florida where they purchased a home and began pursuing that dream, Negangard said. They became interested in a hobby called “cowboy action shooting” and adopted the stage names Doc Green and Danny Oakley. “She became quite good at shooting,” said Negangard. Things with the couple were good for a while, the prosecutor said, but after some bad investments and losing their home following the 2008 economic downturn, Danielle’s parents back in Ohio County became ill with cancer. She moved to be home with them at their farm on Hartford Pike Road in 2012 while Raymond remained in Florida working a $55,000 per year landscaping job. He sent most of the money he earned to Danielle, only keeping some money from odd jobs he worked while living with a friend, said Negangard. Raymond Green moved to Indiana to be with his wife in 2013 despite his reluctance to leave without a source of income. When money became too tight, the couple legally divorced but remained together so that – the defense agrees – they could bring in more money from Raymond’s social security payments from his first wife’s death. Negangard said that money was still tight, so he went to work as a trucker in March 2014. It was the start of a new career for the 63-year-old. What Raymond Green may not have known was that Danielle had initiated contact with another member of the cowboy action shooting club after coming back to Indiana in 2012. They corresponded almost daily up until the murder, the prosecutor claimed. By May of 2014, Danielle Green’s parents had each died of cancer. She received an inheritance of approximately $300,000. Prosecutors say she began to consider leaving Raymond for her friend from the cowboy club in Florida. “The only thing the defendant had between her moving back to Florida and her new man was Raymond Green,” Negangard told jurors. The prosecutor said that Indiana State Police detectives would later find that Danielle had done internet searches for effects of taking a bullet to a person’s head. The reasoning for Raymond Green obtaining a life insurance policy on Danielle Green may serve as a key evidence. Negangard said the policy also included Green’s daughter, whom he had began to reconnect with. “There won’t be any doubts on what was going on there,” Negangard told the jury.   Defense Presents Its Story Del Weldon, the lead attorney on Danielle Green’s defense team, painted a similar picture of the couple’s beginnings in Texas and Florida. However, he revealed a darker side to the murder victim. “This relationship started out as a fairy tale, but it didn’t stay that way,” Weldon said while holding up a large photo of the couple smiling together at a gun range. He related that Raymond had become “violent, controlling, and dangerous” after they moved to Florida. Weldon said that none of the witnesses presented by the prosecution – which Weldon continually referred to as “the government”, perhaps for strategic reasons – will testify that Danielle ever shared the abuse she may have been suffering at the hand of Raymond, because she did not tell anyone or seek help for abuse. After the move to Indiana with Danielle, Weldon said Raymond grew increasingly unhappy and was still abusing Danielle. He had lost the money from his first wife’s death, began a tough job as a trucker, was living in a small trailer, and Danielle would not name him as a beneficiary to the will and would not share with him the Ohio County property that had belonged to her parents. Weldon said Raymond attempted to get a $500,000 life insurance policy on Danielle, which she was not aware of until finding an oddly addressed piece of mail from the insurance company in their mailbox one day.   The Deadly Shooting Eventually, Danielle told Raymond that he would have to leave, Weldon said. The night of May 25, 2014, she slept on the couch while he did so in the bedroom in the mobile home they still shared. The next morning on May 26 – the 12th anniversary of the death of Raymond Green’s first wife – Danielle Green woke up to go to the bathroom, but did not want to wake her ex. When she came out of the restroom, Green said Raymond was awake and angry. “On that morning Raymond Green is a volcano. He attacks her. She kills him to save her own life,” Weldon said, explaining that Danielle had grabbed Raymond’s pistol from atop a nightstand and opened fire. Weldon said Danielle had grown fearful of her ex-husband after finding out that he was trying to take out an insurance policy on her behind her back. “The law says she was in reasonable fear for her life when Ray attacked her. It was reasonable to use deadly force,” said Weldon. Raymond’s body was moved to a metal tool chest in the yard of the mobile home, Weldon said. Danielle used a tractor to move the box a short distance away from the mobile home. She soon afterwards told a friend that Raymond had been killed when a dog bit his throat. “Does this make sense?” Weldon asked of the actions to put the body in a box and to make up a false story about the death. “Is that something that somebody who planned something like this would do?” But Negangard claims that Green’s lies were actions to cover up the murder. She cleaned blood from the trailer. A couple days after the shooting and at the behest of Raymond Green’s mother – she had been informed by Danielle’s friend that Raymond was killed by a dog – deputies went to the farm to check in, but were denied their request to search the tool box by Danielle Green. They did locate the body inside the chest after obtaining a warrant. “The body was decomposed after a couple days in the box in the heat of an Indiana summer,” said Negangard. “An autopsy determined that he died of 10 gunshots.” Weldon said that ISP investigators did not properly investigate Danielle Green’s claims of abuse and suspicions raised by the insurance policy before she was charged with murder – six days after the body was found by police. The defense attorney said detectives have only investigated the case “through guilt-colored glasses.” Negangard concluded in saying that the case is not one about self-defense. “This is a case of cold blooded murder.” RELATED STORIES: Ex-Wife On Trial For Murder In Ohio Co. 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