Noble Savage workers testify in trial over slaying of its owner

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Four current and former Noble Savage Tavern workers testified today in the trial of the man accused of killing an owner of the downtown Shreveport restaurant in her home two years and five months ago.

The Caddo district attorney's office reports that prosecutors plan to call more witnesses, including crime scene investigators, to the stand this afternoon.

The proceedings against 60-year-old Mark Edward "Chef" Colby got underway at 9:30 a.m. in Caddo District Court in Shreveport.

The Shreveport man has been in Caddo Correctional Center since being booked Sept. 17, 2014, on a charge of second-degree murder. His bond is $5 million.

Colby is accused of fatally shooting 58-year-old Angela Godley, his girlfriend and longtime partner in Noble Savage Tavern, in their home in Shreveport's Shreve Island neighborhood Sept. 10, 2014. Godley's body was found in the laundry room of the house the couple shared. She had been shot several times in the upper body.

A week later, he was arrested in Del Rio, Texas, and returned to Shreveport.

The final two jurors for his trial, both alternates, were selected Wednesday; the first 12 were picked Monday and Tuesday, the Caddo district attorney's office reports.

Jurors Thursday heard testimony from Godley's cousin Terri Applewhite; Michelle Gilliam Ballard, the former Noble Savage Tavern employee who found Godley's body; Noble Savage manager Peter Fetterman, who formerly worked there as a bartender; and Noble Savage owner Eric Johnson, the venue's former manager.

After continuation of testimony from Johnson in the early afternoon, the jury heard from Shreveport Police Department CSI Marcus Mitchell, whose testimony was the subject of intense cross-examination.

On Friday, the prosecution plans to call more witnesses, including more crime scene investigators, as well as expert witnesses from the Caddo Parish Coroner's Office and the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory.

The prosecution plans to wind up its case against Colby by early Friday afternoon. After that, the defense will be mounted by Colby's attorney, Curtis R. Joseph Jr.

Colby has pleaded not guilty.

He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence if he is convicted of second-degree murder.

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