On stand, Lynn admits to hitting wife

The defendant's apology on Wednesday didn't come until after jurors heard his voice earlier that day state in a court-admitted audio-recorded statement to police: “I snatched the bat away from her. My work had ended right there and I just snatched the bat away from her and I hit her.”

Lynn's late afternoon testimony on Wednesday supported his confession — that he did indeed kill his wife and then led police to her body, which was wrapped in a pink and purple Hannah Montana blanket, tied down with a rope, and retrieved from a well off her parents' property in Auburn.

After three witnesses were called by the state Wednesday morning for additional testimony that was heard on Tuesday, Lynn's defense attorney, Beau Kaye, called him as a witness. Judge Joseph Booth read Lynn his rights before he took the stand.

When questioned by Kaye, Lynn's testimony concentrated mainly on his “heated relationship” with the victim. The defense's focus seemed to be on the Lynns' divorce filings and their personal agreement to resume their 16-year marital relationship by using an email between Jim Lynn and the human resources manager at his work, who questioned his marriage, as evidence. The defenses' apparent purpose of using the June 13 email as evidence was to indicate that Lynn and Tonya had resolved their prior divorce issues, and the defendant was excited about the prospects that could come from being back together. Lynn further testified that on the night of Tonya's murder, she swung the bat at him first and his later actions were in self-defense.

At one point, Kaye asked if Lynn could take him through the whole evening until his wife “stopped speaking.” Lynn said there were a lot of vulgarities' in his wife's statements, further testifying that he does not like to “cuss,” and would prefer during testimony to use initials to repeat some of the statements that the victim made to him that night.

When Lynn made this statement in court, relatives of the victim and agents who worked the case could be seen looking around at each other in the courtroom with smirks and raised eyebrows on their faces.

Lynn additionally made third-party statements to his defense during his testimony indicating that he questioned his wife's fidelity.

When Kaye asked why Lynn didn't pick up the phone and call 911 after he realized Tonya was deceased, Lynn testified, “I don't know. Fear. I thought my life was over. I was afraid that everything I had was gone... that I had nothing in my life.”

Cross-examination by Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith focused on why Lynn initially lied to police about Tonya's death and disappearance. Lynn was also questioned about his own fidelity to his wife.

Asked why he made the statement in his recorded confession that his wife “didn't even swing it hard. .. not hard enough to hurt me,” Lynn seemed to dodge the question.

Kaye objected to the state's line of questioning, but the judge overruled it.

“Because Mrs. Lynn can't speak, I'll have to go with your words,” Smith said to Lynn, pulling out the murder weapon — a maroon baseball bat.
“Did you strike her like this? Did you strike her like this? Did you poke her?,” Smith asked Lynn, acting out the possible maneuvers.

Lynn testified that he couldn't remember, nor could he remember if his wife was bleeding after the first time he struck her. He did, however, confess to police that Tonya was bleeding from the forehead after he struck her first.

“Not knowing whose bat that was is one thing. Not knowing how you struck her with a bat is a whole other thing,” said Smith. “You have an opportunity to tell the jury what happened. You have an opportunity to tell them where was the blood coming from? It was coming down her face. Where was the blood coming from?”

Lynn said again that he couldn't remember.

“Is it true that you don't want to answer that because you've seen the autopsy photos?,” asked Smith, who further alleged that Lynn could “give details about everything that happened, up until the actual murder and then (he) can't remember what actually happened?”

Smith additionally questioned Lynn for lying to police, to his wife's family and then then to his own family.

“What did you tell your kids when they asked for mama?,” Smith asked. “They never asked where mama was?”

Day three of Jim Lynn's trial for the murder of Tonya Lynn will resume at 9 a.m. on Thursday.