Dale Warner: Motion Hearing Ended with a Twist

Dale Warner with attorney, Shawn Head today. Photo by Tracy Stengel.

There was a Daubert hearing in Lenawee County Circuit Court today in preparation for Dale Warner’s murder trial. The hearing was to determine whether or not to allow Michelle Ponschke of the Michigan State Police Crime Lab to testify during the trial. The defense not only scrutinized Ms. Ponschke’s qualifications but also challenged the relevance of her analysis.

Dale’s wife, Dee Ann Warner, was reported missing on April 25, 2021, until Michigan State Police found her body in an anhydrous ammonia tank on Dale’s property in August 2023. An end of the tank had been cut off and welded back on, sealing Dee’s body inside. Then it was painted.

Ms. Ponschke examined and analyzed seven chips of paint from the tank. She used several scientific techniques to determine if the paint from the tank matched paint on or inside items found in Dale’s barn. The items were 5 cans of paint, 4 paint sticks, and one garbage can lid.

After thorough analysis, Ms. Ponschke determined the white top layer of paint on the tank was similar to two of the stir sticks and 2 of the cans of Rustoleum white paint.

Defense attorney, Mary Chartier, questioned why it took Ms. Ponschke four months to analyze the paint.

Ms. Ponschke replied she did not begin work on them right away. She is also a manager of Trace Evidence for MSP and estimated she had worked on the analysis for about a month.

Ms. Chartier asked if Ms. Ponschke knew how many cans of Rustoleum white paint were sold in Michigan.

Ms. Ponschke said she didn’t know, and when pressed to estimate, she said she wouldn’t put a number on it.

Ms. Chartier said that the paint could be from a million paint cans and that no one could be sure the paint came from Dale’s barn, a paint can down the street, or a paint can two towns over. “You don’t even know the universe from which you’re working from,” Ms. Chartier said.

After further questioning, Ms. Chartier argued before analyzing the paint, it could or could not have come from Dale’s barn. “After all this testing, we’re still in the same spot,” Ms. Chartier said. She expressed concern that Ms. Ponschke’s testimony could be misleading to the jury and was irrelevant.

Judge Olsaver ruled that Ms. Ponschke’s findings were based on sufficient facts and data and will allow her to testify.

The defense also asked to suppress certain acts and hearsay the witnesses for the prosecution were likely to include in their testimonies. Many of these things went on court record during the preliminary exam.

Ms. Chartier argued that Dale supposedly breaking into Dee’s safe, hiding cameras in her home, and putting a tracking device on her vehicle would not fall under domestic violence.

She didn’t want testimony admitted from Dee’s friends that say Dee recoiled when Dale touched her during arguments.

There are also several witnesses that would testify Dale threw Dee into a dresser. Ms. Chartier said that they only believed that because Dee told them and some of them pinpointed the date of the event months apart.

Dee’s massage therapist testified previously that she had seen a lot of bruises on Dee and when asked, Dee said they were from Dale.

Ms. Chartier argued that Dee worked on a farm. She was bound to have bruises.

Ms. Chartier also asked to suppress testimonies of Dale belittling Dee in front of other people, overriding Dee’s authority with her employees, criticizing her appearance and her cooking. She also wanted to suppress testimonies of Dale and Dee arguing face-to-face or via text. Ms. Chartier claimed these things happen in a marriage, but that doesn’t mean Dale is guilty of murder.

David McCreedy, of the prosecution, disagreed. He said all these things showed a history of marital disharmony and was relevant to the motive of the defendant killing his wife. He argued Dale had been stalking Dee for months if not years.

At least one of the witnesses would say that Dee’s face would turn white when Dale rubbed her neck or shoulders and when asked why, Dee had said it was because Dale had choked her years ago.

Ms. Chartier countered that when Dale allegedly choked Dee it was a long time ago. She claimed Dale had readily told police that they had argued the night before Dee was reported missing. He described the fight as, “hellacious.” As for the dresser incident, Ms. Chartier said we don’t know if it actually happened. The text messages of Dee describing the incident was hearsay.

Judge Olsaver said he would take it under advisement and give a written order or place his decision on record before the trial.

The next motion was filed by the prosecution regarding Gregg Hardy, Dee Warner’s brother. Mr. McCreedy said the defense was seeking to allege a series of bad acts performed by Mr. Hardy.

Ms. Chartier said that she planned on hearing testimony from witnesses about Mr. Hardy’s bad behavior. She argued Mr. Hardy ingratiated himself into the investigation and it protected him from being fully investigated. She wants the jury to hear what law enforcement ignored, and what they did or did not do.

Judge Olsaver is going to take it under advisement and will give his decision before the trial.

Yesterday, 96 potential jurors advanced to Round 2 of jury selection which is expected to begin on Tuesday, February 10, 2025. Today, one dropped out due to work issues.

Ms. Chartier renewed the motion of change of venue. Out of the 96 selected to advance, only 4 hadn’t heard of the case. Eighteen thought Dale was guilty but would try to start off being unbiased. Only one person said she was starting with the presumption of innocence. Ms. Chartier argued the extensive media coverage, community chatter, and possibility of stealth jurors made it impossible to get a fair jury in Lenawee County.

Prosecutor Jacqueline Wyse argued, “We don’t have to be ignorant about what is going on around us.” She said with the readily available information on the internet, it wasn’t surprising people knew about the case. Ms. Wyse pointed out there were 95 jurors who committed to be fair and unbiased.

Judge Olsaver took it under advisement and will make a decision before the trial.

There was another motion that was requested to be sealed. The public and the media were asked to leave the courtroom while Judge Olsaver could hear the motion and decide if it needed to be sealed.

Judge Olsaver ruled it didn't need to be sealed and the public and media were allowed to return to the courtroom.

We learned it was Ashley Hanson-Grimes, attorney for Kevin Greca, who asked for a sealed motion. It was almost 4:30 PM and the court was closing soon. A date to hear the motion is expected to be scheduled soon. Mr. Greca was present in the courtroom.

Mr. Greca, formerly of the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office, was the lead detective in the early stages of Dee’s missing person case. He evaded the prosecution’s subpoena for him to be a key witness in this trial for 8 months.

Mr. Greca was arrested in December 2025 by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Ohio. He was arraigned and his bond was set at $50,000. Ms. Hanson-Grimes denied Mr. Greca was dodging the subpoena. She claimed he was in Ohio just to enjoy dinner.

For more background the case of Dee Ann Warner, you can start here.