Two state witnesses pointed to Lynlee Renick as her husband’s murderer during a nationally televised trial that opened Monday in Boone County Circuit Court.
Ben Renick was shot and killed in June 2017 inside his snake-breeding facility in New Florence, a small town east of Columbia. He had been a well-known dealer of rare, exotic reptiles.
Although it was initially reported that a vicious snake killed him, the two witnesses laid out a scenario where Lynlee Renick first plotted to kill her husband with poison. Then, when that didn’t work, she used a borrowed gun a week later to shoot him eight times.
Prosecutor Kelly King told the jury that the motive was money to prop up her failing spa business and escape from a deteriorating marriage. She wanted to benefit from his $1 million life insurance policy, King said, and she was also worried that she would lose her two children if they divorced.
In their opening statement Monday morning, Lynlee Renick’s defense team argued that she didn’t pull the trigger, that she loved her husband and was hysterical when she discovered his body.
Most of Monday was spent rolling out the state’s case where witnesses Ashley Shaw and Michael Humphrey, who both admitted conspiring with Renick, presented testimony to bolster the argument for her guilt.
Shaw and Renick worked at the spa together and became close. Shaw, who received immunity for her testimony, said Renick mentioned one day that her husband had assaulted her in the middle of the night. Soon, she and Renick began to brainstorm ways to get rid of him, Shaw said.
“You two actually attempted to kill Ben Renick?” asked Special Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Zoellner in his direct examination.
When Shaw responded that they did, Zoellner asked: “Do you regret it?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “It was the biggest mistake of my life.”
The first plan, she told the jury, was feeding Ben Renick a poisonous drink laced with narcotics. When that failed, the two sought help from Michael Humphrey, one of Lynlee Renick’s old boyfriends.
Humphrey seemed to be a promising option because “Lynlee said that he had a prior record of being in trouble. So, she thought he had a history that maybe he knew people,” Shaw said.
On June 8, the day of the homicide, Shaw said her role was to stay at the spa and message Ben Renick pretending to be his wife. Humphrey picked Lynlee Renick up in his car, and the two drove to the reptile farm, stopping once to get gas.
When Lynlee Renick returned to the spa, she told Shaw she wanted to clean up. About a week later, Renick admitted shooting her husband, Shaw said, something “she didn’t think she could do.”
“Michael Humphrey got too nervous and didn’t want to do it, so she did,” Shaw told the jury.
Humphrey, who took the stand next, was convicted of first-degree murder in October for the same crime. Under questioning by the prosecutor, he testified Monday that he saw Renick fire shots at her husband in the snake-breeding facility as he was running to get outside.
“Would it be fair to say you heard several after that initial shot?” Zoellner asked.
Humphrey responded yes, and Zoellner asked him what happened next.
“She runs around the passenger side of the car and starts screaming at me to drive, basically,” Humphrey said.
He admitted that he kept the gun concealed from police, but in exchange for a lesser sentence post-conviction, he led prosecutors to the gun and agreed to testify against Renick.
During cross examination, defense attorney Timothy Hesemann made a point of pointing out that Humphrey was under the influence of methamphetamines at the time of the murder. Hesemann also noted that the gun appeared to be Humphrey’s and remained in his possession.
“Lynlee Renick has zero ability with a gun,” he said during his opening statement Monday. “She has no interest in guns.”
When Hesemann probed Shaw earlier, he asked why she and Renick had talked about the murder at the spa in a public space.
“As soon as someone hears you, you guys could go to jail?” Hesemann asked her.
Shaw responded that she didn’t know.
“You don’t know because you guys never tried to kill Ben, isn’t that right Ashley?” he asked.
“That’s not true,” Shaw said.
The jury for this trial was chosen from residents of Clay County, and it was moved from Montgomery County where the homicide occurred to Boone County. The trial will resume at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday with the state continuing to present its case, followed by the case for the defense.
