SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Gypsy Blanchard was forced to live in a wheelchair for much of her life in Springfield.
On Thursday morning, the 27-year-old woman walked into a Greene County courtroom wearing a gray turtleneck.
She went over to the witness box and took the stand in her ex-boyfriend's murder trial.
Gypsy's ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, is on trial this week for fatally stabbing Gypsy's mother, 48-year-old Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, at her Greene County home on June 10, 2015.
Gypsy testified that it was her idea to kill her mother and that she talked Godejohn into doing it.
LIVE UPDATES: Day 3 of the Nicholas Godejohn trial
Dee Dee Blanchard physically abused her and controlled every aspect of her life, Gypsy said, and she thought killing her was the only way out.
"I wanted to be free of her hold on me," Gypsy said. "... I talked him into it."
Upon cross-examination, though, Gypsy acknowledged that Godejohn had a dominant role in their relationship.
She was the "slave," Gypsy testified, and Godejohn was the "master."
Gypsy was the first witness called by Godejohn's defense team Thursday morning.
She looked much different Tuesday than when she was arrested in 2015.
Gypsy did not wear wear glasses and her brown hair extended past her shoulders.
She spoke softly, and at times she was asked to speak up.
Gypsy said she had a secret relationship with Godejohn. She said they met online through a Christian dating site and became "boyfriend, girlfriend" in October 2012.
Gypsy said her mother Dee Dee would never let her and Godejohn get married.
“She controlled every aspect of my life,” Gypsy said of Dee Dee.
Her mother forced her to use a wheelchair and pretend to be ill so people would give them money, Gypsy said.
"People felt sorry for me," she said. They believed the lie, they believed the fraud."
Her mother made her believe she had muscular dystrophy, cancer, bad eyesight, poor hearing and more, Gypsy said.
When she turned 19, Gypsy said she started to understand she wasn't as sick as she'd been told. She said she didn't realize how healthy she was until after she was arrested.
Gypsy said she tried to run away one night in the spring of 2011. Her mother was asleep, Gypsy said, and she packed a small bag and left home.
She said she went to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, then to her friend's house.
Her mother figured out where she was a few hours later and took Gypsy home.
"She smashed my computer and cell phone," Gypsy said. "She chained me to my bed for two weeks."
Her mother would hit her, punch her and starve her, Gypsy said.
When asked why she didn't tell doctors she was healthy, Gypsy said she didn't think she would be believed.
She thought her mother would punish her for telling the truth, Gypsy said.
“I feared her more than I feared anyone else,” she said.
Gypsy and Dee Dee Blanchard first met Godejohn in person in March 2015, when Godejohn visited from Wisconsin.
She hoped her mother would like Godejohn, Gypsy said, but Dee Dee hated Godejohn.
Gypsy said she loved Godejohn.
Gypsy said she started to steal baby clothes during trips to Walmart in anticipation of starting a family with Godejohn.
Gypsy described having multiple personas she would use to communicate with Gdoejohn:
- "Demona," who was a half-werewolf, half-human girl,
- "Kitty," who was child-like,
- "Candy," her "slutty side,"
- and "Ruby," her "evil side."
Gypsy said she first had thoughts of killing Dee Dee about a year before it happened.
When asked why she didn't kill her own mother, Gypsy said she was too squeamish.
“I don’t like blood. I don’t like the sight of blood," Gypsy said. “… I didn’t believe I could do it on my own.”
Jurors have already watched Godejohn admit to killing Dee Dee.
After his arrest in Wisconsin in 2015, Godejohn was interviewed by detective. A recording of that interview was played for the jury.
Godejohn told the detective he came into Dee Dee's bedroom while she slept, then stabbed her death while Gypsy hid in a bathroom.
Gypsy and Godejohn had sex in Gypsy's bedroom, he said, then they left the home and fled to Wisconsin.
Godejohn said Gypsy asked him to kill her mother.
Family members say Dee Dee Blanchard imprisoned her daughter and forced her to pretend she was disabled.
Gypsy Blanchard is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in Missouri for her role in her mother's murder.
When Gypsy Blanchard was sentenced in July 2016, Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said he could have convicted Blanchard of first-degree murder and sent her to prison to life, but this was an "extraordinary and unusual" case in which Blanchard was abused by her mother.
