TAMPA (WFLA) – Testimony continued into its second week in the murder trial of Granville Ritchie. Ritchie is accused of raping, killing and stuffing the body of 9-year-old Felecia Williams into a suitcase.
Police say he threw the suitcase in the water near the Courtney Campbell Causeway in 2014. On Monday, the state called Kelissa Kelley to the stand.
Kelley testified she’s been in a relationship with Ritchie for 7 years. She told the jury she regularly visits and calls Ritchie in jail. She also testified that she gives him canteen money.
The state showed video of the two inside an InstaLoan store in St. Petersburg. Kelley testified Ritchie told her he needed to take care of something and left her there in the store without her car, the silver Lexus she often let Ritchie borrow.
Later, Temple Terrace Police detectives asked to talk to Kelley and then searched her car. She testified she hasn’t seen her Lexus since that time.
The state plans to rest its case Monday. Closing arguments are expected to start on Wednesday.