Notes from the courtroom: Admission leaves Deede Keller's family stunned

Just moments before the jurors took their seats, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin came into the audience where many of Julia "Deede" Keller's friends and family were sitting. Hurriedly, he told them Erwin Howard's attorney just said he was changing the defense to killing in the heat of passion - meaning Howard now admits he killed Keller, but did not have the intent to murder her.

With only seconds to react, some of Keller's loved ones cried and embraced. The jury came in, and decorum was once again forced. It was a stunning admission for family and prosecutors who seemed to always know Howard's involvement in the death of his 54-year-old former wife. With the mountain of evidence against him laid out yesterday by Lewin, it seemed like a smart move for the defense to go to what Lewin semi-jokingly referred to as their "Plan B."

If the jury believes Howard, who is expected to testify, it could mean the difference between a half dozen or so years in prison and the rest of his life.

To summarize, here is how Flier laid out Keller's death to the jury: Howard went over late on the night of July 8, 2004, to discuss their troubled relationship. He knocked, she let him in. The conversation turned "heated," she slapped him and he freaked.

Howard grabbed her in a bear hug, squeezed hard and she passed out. He panicked, believing her dead and thinking no one would believe him, so he wrapped her up in the blankets and the tape.

After court yesterday, Flier made an ominous statement to me about the prosecution being wrong about what happened that night because nobody really knows beside the deceased. Now, we all do.

Michael Keller, the victim's son, is on the stand. He is testifying about Keller and Howard's relationship, as well as their normal habits and practices in daily life to help establish the prosecution's theory that Howard followed Keller in the days before her death. Flier said that wasn't true.