"He told me he wanted me there for support," Hansen wrote in the letter she gave to a friend for safekeeping on Oct. 3, 2006. "But always in the back of my brain, I think, 'What if Kelly ends up the same way as Taneke?' "
Her voice quiet but clear, Hansen read the letter Thursday to the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury hearing the murder case against her 47-year-old brother.
Her demeanor as she read was a sharp contrast to the timid, at times inaudible, woman questioned for three hours by prosecutor and defense lawyers as her brother glared from across the room.
Defense attorneys Timothy J. Tarpey and Michael P. Parkinson have told the jury Kelly Hansen is a liar who feared being charged as an accomplice and sold out her brother for immunity from prosecution.
The defense says the truth is in Kelly Hansen's first statement to homicide detectives after Daniels' body was found in April 2006: That her brother told her Daniels died of a drug overdose and he secretly buried her in a panic over going to prison.
In her first 30 minutes on the witness stand, Hansen haltingly responded to questions from Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman. She paused as long as 30 seconds before replying and often squeezed her eyes tight as though blotting something from her vision.
"Is there some other reason you're nervous besides testifying in court?" Fairman asked.
"My brother, all the intimidation," Hansen replied.
After a recess in which the jury was taken from court, Fairman outlined to Judge Shelley Robins New what she called threats that Glenn Hansen made against his sister to try to scare her from testifying.
When the jury returned, New let Fairman play a 2006 audiotape that Kelly Hansen made of a phone message from her brother.
