MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Joe Caronna spun a web of lies, according to the police officer who arrested him. Caronna is on trial for the murder of his wife, Tina, who was found dead in her truck in October 2008.
Bartlett Police Detective Kevin Martin was one of the men who tracked down and locked up Caronna. Friday, Martin told the courtroom what Caronna told him regarding his wife's disappearance.
"Did you talk to him about what happened in his driveway the morning of Saturday, October 25th?"
"Yes ma'am… he said he was working on the Avalanche"
Detective Martin testified about his interview with Caronna regarding his actions the day his wife Tina disappeared.
"We knew that things had been shuffled, the cars," Martin said, referring to the game of musical cars Caronna allegedly played that October morning in 2008, the day his wife vanished.
"Once we asked him what happened, that we knew they had been shuffled then he would tell us, 'Yeah, I did shuffle the cars and I backed [the Chevy Avalanche] in.'"
Martin says Caronna told him, "He had shuffled cars around in the driveway and that he brought the Avalanche into the garage area because he was working on a wire in the seat heater."
Tina Caronna's body was found stuffed between the front and back seats of the Avalanche on Brannick Drive in Bartlett two days after she was reported missing. The location where the truck was found was close to a storage unit where Caronna kept a Chevy Chevelle he intended to work on. The day Tina disappeared the Chevelle was at the storage unit that morning, but later that evening it was parked at the couple's home. Martin wanted to know how Caronna retrieved it.
"I asked him if he was going to work on this car and had to go get this car, how did he go get it? And he would never answer… He wouldn't tell me how he got to it, then when I asked him again he would say he didn't remember."
