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Mitchell said there is legal precedent for an implied waiver, and she planned to prepare a written response to Ney's motion to suppress the statements made to law enforcement.

Allen testified that he was called to the cafe at 6:46 a.m. because a homicide suspect was reported to be there. He said when he arrived, he saw Paulson sitting in a corner drinking coffee.

He said he told Paulson to keep his hands on the table and finish drinking his coffee while he waited for another officer to arrive. When Sheriff Keith Coleman came, they asked Paulson to step outside, which he did without resistance.

Allen said Paulson was holding a wallet-sized photo of three children that he adamantly said he wanted his children to have. He also said Paulson told him there were more pictures in his pickup truck for his children. He said Paulson wasn't sure where the truck was located, but that it was somewhere in a cornfield northeast of town.

Paulson's clothes were wet, and his wallet was soaked and had sand in it, Allen said. He said Paulson told him he had fallen into a creek while attempting to get a drink.

Allen drove Paulson to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, where Saline County officials were planning to retrieve Paulson. During the 12-minute drive, Allen said he asked Paulson "how all this got started."

"He stated she was cheating on him and was going to take the kids," he said.

At the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, Paulson changed out of his wet clothes into a jail jumpsuit, Allen said.

Judge Rene Young took the issue under advisement.

The case was reassigned to Young on Monday, after Judge Jerome Hellmer, who had been handling the case, disqualified himself upon a motion filed by Ney.

Young ruled that statements Paulson made while in custody at Saline County Jail in response to questions from his daughter, Kyrsten Hoffman, would be admissible at trial.

Ney argued that Hoffman was essentially acting in concert with Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents when she asked her father questions about what happened to her mother. He said the agents suggested to Hoffman that her father could just plead guilty instead of dragging her and her brothers through a trial.

However, Hoffman testified that the KBI agents did not say anything that persuaded her to question her father in violation of his right to counsel.

"I never thought it could hurt him," she said tearfully. She said she asked the questions she asked because she is human and she "wanted some kind of explanation."

"I'm his child, and I never thought he'd do anything like this," she said.

-- Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by email at emathews@salina.com.

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