KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Her phone call said one thing, her testimony another.
After listening to both, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green said Friday he'd revisit the question June 25 of whether to revoke probation for a man who killed two adults and a fetus in 2012.
It's a high-stakes decision for Curt Harper: He's serving probation for killing a Knoxville woman, her fetus and a Knoxville man in a horrific traffic crash on Washington Pike that he caused in May 2012.
Knox County prosecutors say he violated the terms of his probation in February when he got into a physical fight with his fiancee, Amy Morrow, at the Spring Hill home they shared.
If Green decides to revoke probation, Harper, 31, will go to prison. He's got more than six years left to serve.
Harper crashed into a pregnant Chasity Thornell and Nelzon Soto as they stood on the roadway. Thornell was trying to help a girlfriend, who had run out of gas, and Soto lived nearby and was acting as a Good Samaritan.
After Harper, who authorities say was intoxicated, hit them, he drove on to his nearby home. Police later tracked down the University of Tennessee student's vehicle, and he was charged.
As part of his probation in Knox County Criminal Court, Harper is supposed to remain trouble free.
On Feb. 27, he and Morrow fought in their Spring Hill home. She had found text messages from a female to Harper and questioned him about them, Friday's hearing showed.
She punched him in the face, and a struggle then ensued. After Harper drove off that night, they spoke by phone. Morrow's sister, Emily McCloy, who lived nearby and was present for the call, recorded it, testimony showed.
In his effort to show Harper should be stripped of probation, Knox County prosecutor Greg Eshbaugh called McCloy to the stand and also played McCloy's recording of the call that night between Morrow and Harper.
McCloy testified Friday she thought it was important to document what was said between the couple. She said she also took photos of Morrow's bruises on her arm and back, and she said it appeared her sister might have suffered a broken wrist.
As Green listened, an anguished Morrow repeatedly told Harper in the recording that he needed to go into rehab. She said he was an alcoholic who had tried for years to hide the problem.
Morrow told Harper he couldn't come home until he got treatment. Harper repeatedly said he wouldn't get rehab. He also acknowledged he engaged in self-destructive behavior.
"You could have killed me -- the way that you were beating me," she said in the recording.
At another point she said, "Alcohol has ruined your life." She observed that she'd tried to get him sober "about 15 times" with no luck. She told Harper he'd hidden alcohol all over the house so he could sneak drinks.
"You're not coming into this house until you agree to go to rehab!" Morrow declared in the recording.
Harper did get treatment at a Middle Tennessee facility. But in April he still ended up being charged with misdemeanor domestic assault in Williamson County because of the Feb. 27 incident.
In addition to McCloy and the recordings, Eshbaugh subpoenaed Morrow herself, potentially a hostile witness.
Morrow, who has been with Harper about 10 years, offered much different testimony for Green than what he heard in the recorded Feb. 27 phone call.
She said Harper hadn't beaten her. She testified they scuffled over his phone after she punched him. She told Harper's attorney Jeff Whitt on cross examination that some of her injuries photographed that night came because of a previous fall.
"We just pulled the phone back and forth," she testified.
Morrow testified Harper hadn't been drinking that night. She testified she hadn't given her sister permission to record the phone call, and she said she didn't know her sister had taken pictures of her injuries.
Morrow told Green she wanted Harper to get mental health treatment -- that that was her focus. The judge pressed her about why she kept asserting that Harper had a drinking problem during the phone call. Morrow said she believed his real problem was he needed mental health treatment.
"I was worried about his mental health," she said.
Morrow told Whitt during cross examination that it was she who had instigated the Feb. 27 argument and not Harper.
She testified she didn't remember much of what was said during the phone conversation and hadn't heard it since it was recorded. She also testified she hadn't spoken to Harper since mid April.
Green made it clear he had doubts about Morrow's testimony Friday.
The judge, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, said he found McCloy's testimony to be credible. Noting the difference between what Morrow said Friday and what she said in the recorded phone call, Green said if she was acting on Feb. 27 "you missed your calling."
Green also asked Eshbaugh if he planned to add Harper's frequent use of alcohol, as indicated by testimony, as another reason why his freedom should be stripped and he should be sent off to prison.
Eshbaugh said he would do just that in a new court filing.
