Emotional, conflicted, agitated and confused are some ways to describe the time Neely Rayne Pesognellie Petrie Blanchard spent on the witness stand Thursday during her murder trial.
The 37-year-old woman testified on numerous topics during her stand that lasted more than three hours.
Blanchard, who is representing herself, was repeatedly told by Judge Lisa Herndon and Assistant State’s Attorneys Amy Berndt and Toby Hunt to talk only about the facts relevant to her case. She gave a glimpse into why she shot Christopher Hallett more than six times. , kill him.
She said that while she was working on her documents in hopes of regaining custody of her children, she noticed what she said was a website showing children being trafficked. Blanchard said she asked Hallett what it was, and he reportedly said, “You can’t have good without evil.”
Blanchard said she heard a voice telling her she was there to kill Hallett. She said she picked up the gun, which was nearby, and shot him.
“I can’t believe you shot me,” Blanchard recalled Hallett saying.
Blanchard insists she shot Hallett, whom she called a “father figure,” five times. A doctor from the Medical Examiner’s Office had testified that Hallett had been shot seven times.
Hallett shoots
Blanchard, a self-described sovereign citizen of Pensacola, is charged with first-degree murder with a firearm in the fatal shooting in November 2020. Hallett died at his home in Marion Oaks.
Two people, a woman and a teenage girl, who were in the home at the time of the shooting, were unharmed.
Authorities said Blanchard drove to Georgia after the shooting. Sheriff’s detectives tracked Blanchard through her phone and turned law enforcement officials in Georgia, where she was arrested. Blanchard was transferred to Marion County and has been incarcerated in the county jail since 2020.
Detectives suspect the motive for the shooting was anger. Hallett was unable to return Blanchard’s children to her after state officials removed them from her care. Hallett had founded a company, E-Clause, which aimed to reunite parents with children taken away by the state. Hallett founded the company because his own children were taken by state officials.
Blanchard worked with Hallett from 2017 to 2020 and felt like she was betrayed by Hallett. According to court testimony, she was staying at his home when he was killed.
Hearing sounds
About a day before the shooting, Blanchard testified, she heard strange noises in Hallett’s home. She said she was using Hallett’s computer, doing research and heard a “frequency noise.” Its origins, she said, were unknown, but it “made my brain hurt.”
The next sound was what she called ‘a sun sound’. She was talking about delusions. At some point, Hallett heard the noise and decided to investigate.
Blanchard said that for a time she thought several people were trying to kill her. At first it was the pizza guy. Then when she went to the gas station, she saw a man and felt like he was trying to kill her.
After the shooting, Blanchard said, she was driving on Interstate 75 and called her husband and told him she had shot Hallett. The two met and traveled to Georgia, where she was taken into custody.
More testimonials from Blanchard
Blanchard turned to the judges and thanked them for allowing her to tell her side of the story. Blanchard wiped tears from her face and told them it was not an easy process and that she had lost her children at various intervals.
She talked about how her and Hallett’s lives were linked by a common goal: to help people like them get their children back. Since losing her first child to state officials, she strongly believed that law enforcement officials were targeting her.
Blanchard’s defense: When she shot Hallett, she was temporarily insane. She told the jurors: “This is my life.”
Blanchard was cross-examined by Assistant State’s Attorney Toby Hunt and agreed with several of the prosecutor’s statements. First of all, Hallett is dead. Second, she shot him and was angry at the time. Third, she shot him because of what she saw on the computer. Fourth, she prayed and thought about her action before shooting Hallett. Fifth, she called and told her mother and husband about Hallett’s shooting. And sixth, she fled to Georgia after the shooting.
She admitted falsely accusing the father of her eldest child of inappropriate conduct, and was charged with kidnapping and custodial interference in relation to her other two children.
From her purse was a handwritten note declaring that she was a sovereign citizen.
At the end of her testimony, Blanchard told the court that prosecutors hid documents from the defense.
Blanchard’s defense
While Hunt and Berndt rested their case after calling three witnesses, it was Blanchard’s turn to present her case to the jury.
Blanchard seemed unsure about her witnesses or what to do. For example, when the state is at rest, it is standard procedure for the defense to request an acquittal and provide one or more reasons. Blanchard did not ask the judge for such a ruling. The judge told her that if she had asked, it would have been denied.
Blanchard, who had shown six photos of her three smiling children at the defense table, sought witnesses. She asked about Kathy Watson, who was not in the courtroom. Blanchard said she hasn’t had a chance to call Watson.
Berndt and Hunt found a phone number belonging to Watson and gave it to a friend of Blanchard’s. The friend called and texted Watson and was told she was on her way from Kentucky.
In the meantime, the judge told Blanchard that the trial should continue if she plans to call other witnesses. Blanchard called Marion County Sheriff’s Detective John Lightle, who had previously testified for the prosecution.
Blanchard’s mother on the witness stand
As with other cross-examinations by Blanchard, questions asked of Lichtlte were dismissed by the judge as unrelated to her case.
She tried to ask Lightle if he had ever been employed by the federal government, if he knew what the FISA or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was, and if he was aware of the Constitution’s supremacy clause.
Blanchard then called her mother, Susan Blanchard, to the witness stand. Blanchard’s questioning of her mother was personal, and most of the questions were disallowed by the judge.
During her cross-examination, Berndt asked Blanchard’s mother about her daughter who called her the night Hallett was shot. The woman said her daughter was hysterical and wanted to take her in. Since she didn’t have a recording device, the woman said, she hung up. She said the reason she hung up the phone was because her daughter couldn’t give her an address and she didn’t know her location.
It was revealed that the two had not spoken in several months because Blanchard’s mother had custody of her daughter’s children and Blanchard had kidnapped them.
Woman testifies for the defense
Watson arrived and was sworn in for her testimony.
On the stand, Watson was portrayed as a “mother figure” to Blanchard. Watson said, “I recognize your pain.”
Watson said she has not been able to follow Blanchard’s ongoing case because so much has been written and said about the incident. She said she is an ordained minister and recorded their phone conversation when Blanchard called her after the shooting.
Watson said Blanchard got away when they talked. Normally, she said, Blanchard was bubbly.
Watson was cross-examined by Berndt and said she has been an ordained minister on and off since 2016. She said she released the recording between her and Blanchard to the U.S. Marshals. She said Blanchard asked her to record their conversation.
Suicide watch at the county jail
Before court began, Blanchard told the judge she had been placed on suicide watch at the jail Wednesday evening. She does not believe she poses a threat and believes the attorneys and medical experts who testified at her competency hearing Wednesday afternoon were conspiring against her.
She said she is not being treated fairly or given a fair trial and wanted a lawyer present for her defense. Blanchard complained that she had no access to call or message any of her witnesses.
Hunt told the court that the state’s expert, Dr. Jason Demery, told them that Blanchard spoke of experiencing suicidal thoughts and that they therefore had a duty to notify the court and prison staff for her protection.
The prosecutor told the court that Blanchard had had video visits and spoken to family members, according to jail officials. Prison officials also said Blanchard was not prevented from communicating with anyone.
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The judge ruled that Blanchard was trying to make excuses to delay the trial and told her she could appeal once the trial was completed.
The 13-member jury is expected to deliberate Friday.
Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Self-proclaimed sovereign citizen acts as her own lawyer
