Crisp to 911: ‘I shot my best friend’

Jurors heard from Freddy Crisp himself the first time Wednesday, when prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call Crisp made Nov. 10, after shooting Dale Potter in Pomeroy.
“Can you get someone here,” a Crisp asked the Calhoun County dispatcher he reached at about 2 a.m. that day. “He’s laying in the truck dead. I need an ambulance. I just shot my best friend.”
Crisp’s voice shook and he sounded dazed as he talked with the dispatcher. He also seemed to have trouble understanding the dispatcher’s questions about the nature of Potter’s injuries.
Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation Agent Ray Fiedler took the stand to testify about the times he interviewed Crisp, on the morning following the shooting and two days later. During a portion of a recorded interview played for jurors, Crisp at first said Potter pulled his own gun and the trigger fired during a struggle. During a later interview, Crisp acknowledges that the bullet casing found in his truck belonged to him, not Potter, based on the color.
Crisp faces a first-degree murder charge for Potter’s death. A medical examiner said Wednesday Potter died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Crisp in the initial interview with Fiedler, recounted in detail some of his arguments with Potter, and provided more details about Potter’s visit. Crisp told investigators he and Potter had been Facebook friends for about three years, and that when Crisp learned Potter would be driving through Iowa, Crisp insisted Potter stop and visit.
As the men met in person for the first time, their conversations would occasionally become heated, particularly as they discussed democracy.
The two would “get pretty loud with one another,” Crisp said in one of the interview recordings. “You know, nothing out of the ordinary.”
Crisp said he loved that Potter “loved his life,” and that Potter “had a certain set of rules” by which he lived.
But he was not happy when Potter began talking about raping – using a more obscene term – Crisp’s daughters, including a 19-year-old.
The two men drove to Casey’s General Store late on Nov. 9, arriving just after the store closed. Crisp told Fiedler he suggested they drive to another gas station, closer to Rockwell City, where Potter bought more beer. When they returned to the Crisp home, they talked about democracy, then Potter began talking about Crisp’s daughters, who were not at Crisp’s home at the time.
“We were hollering at one another,” Crisp said in the recorded interview. “He pulled out a sidearm (and said), ‘You’ll have to kill me, otherwise I’m (expletive) raping one of your daughters.’”
Crisp said he grabbed Potter’s gun, and it discharged. Then he felt something against him on the center console, looked down and saw Potter. Crisp said he sat in shock for an unknown amount of time before going in the house and calling for an ambulance.
Fiedler said that in multiple interviews, as Crisp either recalled more details or changed portions of his recollections of the shooting, Crisp never once claimed that he felt his own life was in danger. Crisp had still invited Potter to stay in the Crisp home, though Crisp said he was going to ask Potter to leave in the morning, Fiedler said.
Other witnesses Wednesday included the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Potter, a DNA analyst who reported finding Potter’s DNA on both guns and the firearms expert, who said he was able to confirm that the bullet casing in the truck came from Crisp’s gun.
Fiedler was scheduled to continue his testimony Thursday, with the defense then scheduled to begin presenting their case. 
The Graphic-Advocate will continue to provide coverage of the trial all week.