LISBON — Witnesses in the aggravated murder trial for William P. Long Jr. talked about evidence and whereabouts during testimony Thursday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.

The whereabouts involved a revolver owned by Long and of Long himself on Nov. 29, 2023, the day investigators say he shot and killed his ex-wife, Michelle Long, while she was pulled up to her mailbox on Carey Road in Butler Township at 5:45 p.m.

His girlfriend at the time of the shooting, Lee Ann Beadnell, was the last witness of the day and said she asked Bill if he did it. Bill was what everybody called him. She was being questioned by county Assistant Prosecutor Alec Beech about the events of Nov. 29, 2023 and the aftermath.

“He said he did not do this,” she said.

Charges against Long include 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. If convicted of aggravated murder, he could face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Beech asked Beadnell what she did that day and she said she worked and drove the Dodge Charger and after work, she drove to Niles to shop and then stopped at Chick-fil-A in Niles. She was going to get dinner for everyone and called the defendant while in the drive-thru, she estimated at 6 p.m., but he didn’t answer. She then contacted Long’s son, Brandon, to see if his dad was at the garage on Long’s father’s Endley Road, Lisbon property. When Beech asked if she was able to determine where he was, she said no. He wasn’t at the garage. She called her daughter Lexi (Alexis) at their North Market Street, Lisbon home and learned he wasn’t there either.

When he then called her, she asked him where he was and he claimed he was  driving from the garage and was almost home. She estimated she got home around 7 p.m. and he didn’t get home until 7:20 p.m.

At 8 p.m., Michelle had not shown up to pick up Brandon and Brandon told him Mom was late and wasn’t answering her phone. He called his grandma, Karen Lewis, Michelle’s mom, to pick him up and she arrived around 8:30 p.m.

Beadnell recalled saying to Bill, “don’t you think it’s weird Michelle didn’t show up?” He said he tried to call her and she didn’t answer. Then later someone called, either Karen or Michelle’s sister Sara, wanting to talk to him.

“He came out and said that Michelle was dead,” Beadnell said.

She said she was upset and shocked and he wanted to go get his son, so she went with him. She said she saw Michelle’s truck had been shot and eventually the investigators came over and said they were confiscating Bill’s white Chevy truck, which is what he drove to the scene. When asked if she thought that was odd, she said yeah. Bill’s oldest son Billy took them all home.

Beech said to Beadnell that she’s had time to reflect on that night and “you believed the defendant was lying to you about where he was? Yes. Then you heard Michelle was murdered that night.”

He asked if she believed that those two things had anything in common.

“At times, yes,” she said.

Earlier in her testimony, she talked about how she and Bill met, when they started dating and how they argued sometimes and he was stressed while the divorce was pending. He worked at Vallourec, she thought in maintenance, and he had the white Chevy truck, a blue truck and the Dodge Charger. She admitted the divorce from Michelle made him upset at times and made him angry. She didn’t think it was fair how they divided up the assets and when asked if he felt the same way, she said yeah.

When asked if he ever said he hoped Michelle got cancer, she said yes, on Thanksgiving Day, which was before the murder.

“Did he ever say he wished Michelle was dead?” Beech asked. She replied, “He said it a few times.”

But she also said she didn’t have concerns that he would shoot Michelle.

Her daughter Alexis Kelly testified and also said Bill commented that he hoped Michelle died of cancer. She said she came home from school the day of the murder between 2:30-3 p.m. after picking up her little brother and they were the only one at the home. She said she would know if someone else came in. Her little brother’s girlfriend came over and she said her boyfriend came to pick her up around 6 p.m. She didn’t recall Bill being there from the time she came home to the time she left. Her little brother’s girlfriend also testified about being there at 4:30 p.m, them going to Dollar General around 6 p.m. and then going to her boyfriend’s dad’s house at 7 p.m. and dropping him back at the Market Street home after 8 p.m. No one else had been there except for his sister.

Alexis Kelly also testified that Bill had a revolver at the house. During cross-examination by defense attorney Frank Cassese, she was asked if she recalled  seeing it a month before the murder in October. After the murder, she made a point of looking for it and it was gone.

When Cassese was cross-examining Beadnell, he asked her about the gun and she claimed that gun was out of the house in April 2023 and that he stopped drinking then too. He had allegedly tried to kill himself  also in April 2023.

He asked if she remembered telling police that Bill had been in the house before on Market Street without anyone knowing it, but she said no.

In his opening argument, Cassese had said that Bill liked to work on cars in his dad’s garage with his son and after he picked him up from school that day, Nov. 29, 2023, they went to the garage. At 5:18 p.m. that evening,  he said Bill left the garage and went to his girlfriend’s residence on Market Street in Lisbon. He said they’ll hear that Bill was at the Market Street property when he left to pick up his son at the garage.

Witnesses who testified, however, said he wasn’t there and his vehicle wasn’t there. Alexis Kelly’s boyfriend testified that he did not see Bill’s vehicle when he came to pick her up at 6 p.m.

Other testimony came from Richard Todd, who knew the defendant, and said he saw him in his dark-colored truck in the end of the driveway of the Endley Road, Lisbon property when he was on his way home from work and was talking to Bill on the phone when he passed by, with Bill saying it was him. He estimated the time as 5:10 to 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2023. Bill’s nephew also testified that his uncle left him and Brandon at the garage, but that wasn’t unusual.

The rest of the testimony came from specialists, including Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Daniel Boerner, regarding the photos of the scene and evidence gathered from the victim’s red Dodge truck and from the defendant’s white Chevy truck and his blue Chevy truck. He testified there were no shards of glass in either of the defendant’s trucks, but the photos showed glass near the victim’s truck.

 BCI Forensic Scientist Andrew Chappell testified that a bullet and bullet jacket were not fired from the .45-caliber pistol taken from the defendant’s white truck. He said the bullets were fired from a .44 magnum caliber revolver and mentioned at least five different brands that matched, including a Ruger. Dr. Daniel Sullivan, a forensic pathologist from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office testified about the autopsy of Michelle Long and detailed multiple gunshot wounds with five entry points. He said toxicology showed that she had caffeine in her system. The cause of death was gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.

During the hearing, Judge Megan Bickerton scolded defense attorney David Betras for a comment he made in front of the jury, saying she won’t put up with it. He said he wouldn’t do it again.

Testimony was expected to continue today.