Defense: Bucks suspect 'different' but not a killer

As her lawyer politely puts it, Mary Jane Fonder is "different."

She chatters nonstop. Disjointed thoughts randomly roll off her tongue. She is a font of unsolicited advice.

"She's like the aunt you don't want to sit next to at Thanksgiving," defense attorney Michael Applebaum told a jury yesterday in Bucks County Court.

One thing Fonder is not, Applebaum said, is the self-centered, manipulative murderer authorities have made her out to be.

"She's wrongfully accused of a crime she didn't commit," he said. "They got the wrong person."

Fonder, 66, of Kintnersville, is on trial on a charge of first-degree murder, accused of shooting Rhonda Smith, 42, about 11 a.m. Jan. 23 in the office of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield Township, where both were members.

In his opening statement to the jury, Applebaum said police had failed to solve the crime. Instead, he said, they seized on Fonder's admitted oddness and motormouth tendencies to frame her.

"If you had been a fly on the wall at Trinity Evangelical Church at about 11 a.m., you would not have seen Mary Jane Fonder there," Applebaum said.

Smith, of Hellertown, had been working alone as a volunteer receptionist while the pastor was away. She was found unconscious, a bullet in her head, by the church sexton about 12:45 p.m., and died that evening.

In his opening statement Tuesday, First Assistant District Attorney David Zellis cast Fonder as an egocentric woman who killed Smith out of jealousy. Fonder, he said, was enraged at the financial and emotional support being lavished on Smith, who struggled with bipolar disorder and financial problems.

Nonsense, Applebaum said; Fonder "felt terrible" after Smith's murder. She sent sympathy cards to those close to Smith, and baked the victim's parents an apple pie out of heartfelt grief, not as a cover-up tactic, he told the jury.

Prosecutors "are taking every decent Christian act that she did and are making it into something sinister," Applebaum said.

Fonder was an easy mark, he said, casting her as a sad sack not exactly embraced by her fellow congregants.

"They just tolerated her because she wasn't quite their cup of tea," Applebaum said.

"She speaks in a stream of consciousness. Ask Mary Jane if she had toast for breakfast, and she will tell you how to make bread."

Fonder was targeted largely because her pastor, the Rev. Gregory Shreaves, had pointed her out to police after the shooting, Applebaum said. Authorities contend that Fonder had a crush on Shreaves, harassed him with constant phone calls, and viewed Smith as a rival for his affections.

"There was no infatuation," Applebaum said. "She wanted to talk about the Scriptures, about the sermon, about things that bothered her."

Police didn't bother to investigate all of Smith's potential enemies, Applebaum said. For instance, she recently had dated a married man, he said, raising the possibility of a vengeful spouse.

Applebaum also ridiculed the prosecution's theory that Fonder had shot Smith about 11 and then managed to check in at 11:22 for a hair appointment in nearby Quakertown.

Fonder, he said, had arthritic knees and fallen arches, and drove like molasses.

"Mary Jane is one of those people you hate to drive behind," he said. "She's never had an accident, but she's probably caused 20 of them."