Shari Irving, an employee of Genworth Financial for twenty-five years, was the next witness for the prosecution.
“When did you start to work for Jocelyn Earnest?” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance asked.
“In early 2007.”
When asked about Jocelyn’s demeanor, Shari replied, “She was very upbeat. She smiled all the time. She was very encouraging. I appreciated her management style. She was a people person. She cared about the people who worked for her. She had a plan for us for our professional development. And she cared about our personal life, our families. She always asked about [ . . . ] my family, my grandchild. She just helped all the people that worked for her in any way she could professionally. She was a big fan of the Life is Good merchandise. And she had a lot of us in the office buying that merchandise. You would see cups and little signs pop up on people’s desks that said ‘Life is Good.’ And that’s just the kind of person she was,” Shari said, noting, “I did very much enjoy working for her. She was one of the best bosses that I’ve had in the twenty-five years with the company.”
“Did you ever see her outside of work or was it strictly at work?”
“I did see her occasionally outside of work, usually for work functions. She did invite some of her direct reports to her home once or twice for an occasion.”
“During the entire time that you interacted with Jocelyn Earnest did you ever see her in possession of a handgun?”
“No, I did not.” Shari also told the jury that Jocelyn did not bring a purse to work but did carry a laptop bag back and forth. On multiple occasions, she had seen Jocelyn packing and unpacking that bag and she never saw a weapon in there, either.
Shari discussed the meeting they’d had late afternoon on December 19, 2007. She stayed at work afterward to retrieve documents, and later that night at 6:53 P.M. sent Jocelyn an email requesting overtime pay, as per procedure. Nance produced the reply Shari received from Jocelyn at 7:28 P.M., approving the overtime.
In response to defense attorney Joey Sanzone’s questions, Shari explained Genworth’s management structure and said that she’d had no contact with Jocelyn on the morning of December 19, 2007, but that afternoon there had been a system failure that ultimately caused the overtime work.
Sanzone noted that Jocelyn Earnest had “worked with y’all on it until quarter to six.”
“Yes.”
“But then she had to leave.”
“Yes.”
“And she never indicated that she was going to come back that evening, did she?”
“No.”
“Now . . . if she had an appointment, she could have returned—she would have been able to get into the office and work on the problem, couldn’t she?”
“She could,” Shari said.
“Did you know Maysa Munsey?” Sanzone asked.
“I know who Maysa Munsey is, yes.”
“Did you ever see Maysa Munsey over there visiting with Jocelyn in her office?”
“Yes . . . once or twice a week maybe.”
“Do you know Marcy Shepherd?”
“Yes.”
“How often would Marcy Shepherd be over there?”
“About the same time.”
“Do you know Jennifer Kerns?”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen Wesley Earnest prior to December nineteenth . . . 2007?”
“No.”
• • •
Other colleagues of Jocelyn’s from Genworth Financial were called to the stand and had similar memories of her positive attitude.
Lisa Cawthorne described her as “very happy [ . . . ] very upbeat, very excited. And towards the end of the year, she was more excited about the holidays and being able to spend it with her family.” Lisa told the jury that she’d had a late afternoon meeting with a very upbeat Jocelyn on the day she died.
Blair Sanzone conducted the cross-examination, eliciting that Lisa had never seen Wesley before December 2007 and, although she knew of Maysa Munsey professionally, they worked in different offices; ditto Marcy Shepherd, although Marcy had collaborated on a project that brought her out to Lisa’s office about once a month.
Blair asked about December 19, “And did she [Jocelyn] tell you she had dinner planned with Marcy Shepherd that evening?”
“She did not.”
“Did she tell you anything about her evening [plans] on December the nineteenth?”
“No, she did not.”
Pam Gillespie, another Genworth Financial employee, described Jocelyn as “very friendly and always was interested in how you were doing after work and if you had problems at work.”
Pam had helped organize the Christmas dinner on December 18, 2007, and recalled Jocelyn as “very happy, glad to be there, went around, talked to just about everybody.”
On cross-examination, Blair Sanzone determined that Pam had never seen or heard from Wesley Earnest, nor had she witnessed Jocelyn receive any phone calls or text messages from Wesley.
After Pam Gillespie stepped down, a fourth Genworth staff person took her place. Gary Brandt had only begun working there a couple of months before Jocelyn died.
Wes Nance used Gary’s presence on the stand to enter into evidence a photograph from his camera taken of employees at the Christmas party, the night before Jocelyn was murdered. On cross, Blair Sanzone asked if Gary ever saw Wesley Earnest or received any phone calls or emails from him. Brandt said “no” to all three. Then she asked if he knew Maysa Munsey or Marcy Shepherd. He said that their names sounded familiar but that was about it.
• • •
Following the Genworth employees was Wayne East, an installation design manager for Allied Security systems. He testified that on December 29, 2007, the sheriff’s department had called him out to Jocelyn’s home to retrieve a history of the times that the system had been turned off. He discovered that the time and date were off, either because the installer had not set it properly (a common occurrence with those systems) or possibly due to a power outage.
Wayne said that he then removed the panel from the house system and took it back to the office. Then he adjusted the date and time with the computer—the settings were fourteen hours and eleven minutes ahead of actual time, and the year was set at 2000. From that, he knew that on December 18, the system had been armed at 8:18 A.M. and disarmed at 7:38 P.M. On December 19, it went on at 7:34 A.M. and off at 7:35 P.M.
On cross, Joey Sanzone established that that pattern was the typical one for use of the system—armed during the day while Jocelyn worked, unarmed after she came home.