Kids and mom testify in kidnapping case

PROVO — Madylin Graham didn't know what her parents were arguing about on Jan. 31, 2008, but she knew something was wrong when her mom began sobbing.

"Mom came upstairs crying, broken-heart-type crying," the 12-year-old testified Wednesday in 4th District Court.

She said she and her siblings went upstairs to clean their play area and her dad came up later to read them a "note" from their mom.

"He said mom was going to go away for a bit, get her head on straight," Madylin Graham said.

"How was he acting?" prosecutor Doug Finch asked.

"Angry," she said. "He looked as angry as he did whenever he would whip us with a belt."

"I didn't feel like I could trust either of them," she continued. "Clearly my dad had made my mom cry, then my mom was going to leave us. So I felt like I couldn't trust them."

The father, Matthew Graham, is on trial for aggravated kidnapping or aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and domestic violence in the presence of a child.

But mother Mindy Graham testified Wednesday that she assured her children that she loved them and would never leave them, no matter what their dad said. She testified she and Matthew Graham had been fighting that morning in their Eagle Mountain home and it continued to get worse. She said she called a friend to come get the kids, but her husband refused to let them go.

She said his anger grew and grew and he eventually strapped on his guns.

"What I was thinking was, this might be the day that he actually hurts me," she said. "He had made references in the past about how he would hurt me and dispose of my body."

However, if she was so worried of being hurt or killed, why didn't she mention that to police officers who responded to the home? asked defense attorney Lisa Estrada.

"In an interview with detective Luke, you didn't tell him you were afraid you were going to die, did you?" Estrada asked.

"I don't recall. I was pretty upset," Mindy Graham said.

Estrada asked about a second and third police interview, and Mindy Graham consistently said she didn't remember specific words.

"But it's true that Matt never assaulted you?" Estrada asked.

"Correct."

"He never hit you, or the kids that day?"

"That day, no," Mindy Graham responded.

Both Madylin and her 10-year-old brother Merrick testified they never saw their dad with a gun in his hands that day, but he was wearing a gun holster like he normally did.

They both said he looked angry when he opened the door to talk with the first responding police officer. At that point, Mindy Graham and the children left the house, but Matthew Graham, an Iraq veteran, stayed inside. He later moved furniture into defensive military positions when he discovered his house was surrounded by a SWAT team.

When officers finally convinced him to come out of the house, he was arrested.

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