Former Highmore Police Chief Ken Huber is set to be retried on May 5th, 2011 for the murder of his wife Pam. His first-degree murder conviction was overturned by th South Dakota Supreme Court in 2010 because they agreed he wasn't allowed to fully present his it-was-an-accident defense.
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2007: : [SD] Ex Chief Huber told daughter what to say after fatally shooting Pam
EXCERPTS FROM A COUPLE OF ARTICLES DURING THE 1ST TRIAL THAT GIVE CLUE TO WHAT KIND OF HELL PAM LIVED IN. MANY KNEW THAT SHE WAS ABUSED. SHE WORE THE BLACK EYES AND BRUIES. SHE ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO GIVE HER HUSBAND AWAY TO HIS LOVERS. SHE TRIED TO SECURE CARE FOR HER DAUGHTERS IN CASE ANYTHNG HAPPENED TO HER.
FAMILY, FRIENDS TESTIFY ABOUT TROUBLED MARRIAGE
Capital Journal
By Rebecca Bentz
Monday, Dec 08, 2008
[Excerpts] Through their questioning of Pam Huber’s family and friends Friday, the prosecution in the Ken Huber trial wove a tale of a woman who became withdrawn and quieter than normal throughout the years of her marriage to the defendant. Shackled by the controlling nature of her abusive husband, witnesses said, she rarely visited her sisters or friends in Highmore in the months before October 2007, when she was shot in the head by her husband. Ken Huber, who faces the charge of first-degree murder and an alternate count of first-degree manslaughter, said the shooting accidentally occurred when he was moving a gun. “You could watch her become a quiet, shutdown person,” said Nadine Stephenson of her youngest sister’s demeanor after she married Ken Huber. Stephenson said her sister lived “in constant fear” that Ken Huber would take the couple’s two children and move away. Ken Huber would then tell Pam Huber, “But you would never be able to do the same, because I have connections and I would find you,” Stephenson testified. Stephenson and other witnesses testified they had seen Pam Huber with bruises and black eyes on several occasions in the later years of the woman’s life. Stephenson said she had seen four black eyes. Pam Huber would say she ran into a door, or that a box had hit her in the eye, Stephenson said. But when she asked Pam Huber about the fourth black eye, her sister said Ken Huber had gotten angry and struck her. “He just got really mad and hit me,” Stephenson said her sister reported. At one time, six or seven years ago, Pam Huber asked her sister, “If anything should ever happen to me, would you be willing to take care of my girls,” Stephenson said. Stephenson and her husband now care for the Hubers’ two children ... [Full article here]
E-MAILS IN TRIAL SPOTLIGHT
Capital Journal Newspape
Rebecca Cruse
Dec 10, 2008
[Excerpts] Throughout a series of e-mails among an odd love triangle, it became increasingly obvious that Pam Huber was a woman desperate to get her husband out of her life. In court Tuesday, the prosecution in the Ken Huber trial presented dozens of e-mails and instant message chats between Ken Huber and his former lover, Cindy Erwin, as well as Pam Huber and the woman... The earliest correspondence showed Pam Huber was originally hurt by the affair, but at some point near the beginning of the approximately six-month-long relationship, it sounded as though Pam Huber had accepted her husband’s infidelity and was actually encouraging the relationship’s continuance. According to Pam Huber’s e-mails, when her husband was involved with the physician’s assistant who also lived in Highmore, he was truly happy and she did not suffer as much abuse. The wife of the former Highmore police chief, Pam Huber, confided in Erwin about fights the couple had, including an incident during which she accused her husband of throwing a full water bottle at her breast “full force” and another in which he head-butted her in the nose. She told the woman she was not upset about the affair, but she wanted her husband to be happy. However, Pam Huber’s e-mails changed in tone after Erwin decided to break off the affair and reconcile with her own husband. Pam Huber told Erwin that she hated her, that she had no right to make the choice to try to save her marriage and that she couldn’t toy with Ken’s emotions that way... In another message, sent Dec. 26, 2006, Pam Huber referred to her husband as her “Christmas gift” to Erwin, writing that Ken Huber “adores” Erwin and would do anything for her. In several e-mails written as long as two years after the affair with Erwin had ended, Pam Huber pleaded with the woman to contact Ken Huber because he was struggling with prescription drug abuse, alcohol abuse and depression over the loss of the relationship and his job with the Miller police department... [Full article here]
HUBER’S FORMER LOVER TESTIFIES
Capital Journal Newspaper
Rebecca Cruse
Dec 11, 2008
[Excerpts] Testimony from the lover of a former police chief on trial for the murder of his wife took up most of the morning in Stanley County court Wednesday. Jennifer Lowrie, the Hyde County state’s attorney, told the court her account of Ken and Pam Huber’s marriage, what happened the day of the shooting, what happened right after the shooting and that she is still in love with the accused... As Lowrie described, she became a close friend of both Pam and Ken after first interacting with them professionally. She and Pam Huber were also involved in some community organizations together... Both Ken and Pam Huber had talked to Lowrie about some trouble in their marriage, she said... During a different conversation, Ken Huber apparently told Lowrie about his wife, “I didn’t have to get very physical with her. I could just get into her head.” Lowrie said Ken blatantly told Pam one night about their affair as the three of them were in the couples’ master bedroom. Pam Huber had “little or no reaction,” according to Lowrie, and when Lowrie asked Pam Huber if she should leave, the answer was no. She said she was also invited to dinner the following evening at the Huber home... [Full article here]
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