Accused murderer's ex-girlfriend tesifies she was forced to dismember body

(FOX 2) - The then-girlfriend of 21-year-old Andrew Fiacco on trial for the murder of his childhood friend gave her side of the story in court Thursday.

After weeks of testimony from police and detectives, as well as the victim's parents, the prosecution called their final witness to the stand on Thursday afternoon -- Eevette MacDonald. Fiacco is accused of murdering 19-year-old Stephen McAfee on March 10, 2016, when they were in a vacant lot near 34 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue in Bruce Township around 2-3 a.m. Police said Fiacco shot McAfee multiple times and left the body there, then returned, forcing his then-girlfriend Eevette MacDonald to help him dismember the body. Part of the body was buried in the lot, and part behind Fiacco's home.

The story came to light months later when MacDonald told a friend about the murder, who went to police. She arrested in April 2017 and led police to Fiacco. While Fiacco confessed to the murder and dismembering the body, he's currently on trial claiming self-defense. MacDonald has already pleaded guilty to disinterment or mutilation of a body and accessory after the fact, and agreed to testify against Fiacco during his trial.

Trial underway for 21-year-old Macomb Co. murder suspect Andrew Fiacco (updating)

In court Thursday, MacDonald said she met Fiacco when she was 15 years old at Romeo High School. They moved in together in Fiacco's parent's home just before she turned 17, and she had met McAfee through Fiacco between five to 10 times. She said Fiacco routinely accused her of sleeping with McAfee. It escalated so far he once drove her to McAfee's house, asking his family members if they recognized her. They did not, and she said he threw her purse at her and drove away. She walked a few minutes before he turned around and picked her up.

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On the night of the murder on March 10, 2016, she said Fiacco was angry she was going to Florida to visit a friend, and again accused her of sleeping with McAfee. That night, she said he was next to her when she went to bed, but gone when she woke up around 2 a.m. She checked the basement, then the garage to find his car was gone. When she woke up later that morning, Fiacco had returned. She said he told her that he and McAfee had hung out at a gas station and Fiacco dropped him back off. She didn't think anything of it at the time.

MacDonald said she learned McAfee was missing a week or so later when she came back from Florida. She asked Fiacco if he knew anything about it -- but not too much because she'd "get accused of caring too much about it." Then, his answers changed.

"He asked me how I would feel if Stephen was gone, if he was dead," she said.

MacDonald said Fiacco told her he killed McAfee, about a month after he'd gone missing in March 2016. 

"Because Stephen had seen something on Andrew's phone that he wasn't supposed to relating to the mafia," she said. She said he said nothing about shooting McAfee in self defense.

MacDonald said Fiacco had told her he was a technical guy for a mafia, and had been a hit man. 

She told him she didn't believe that he killed McAfee, MacDonald said in court, so he decided to show her. She said he took his brother's gun, something he'd never done before, and drove them to the scene. He wasn't able to find it immediately, driving up and down the road a few times.

"I was terrified," she said. "I was scared. I didn't know what was going to happen."

MacDonald testified that Fiacco made her walk in front of him into the wooded area, telling her not to turn around. First, she spotted a shoe. Then, the body.

"I couldn't look at the face. I looked at the hand, because he kept telling me I needed to look at it," she said. He told her everybody needs to see what a dead body looks like, she said.

They left, but returned later with an axe and a duffel bag. She said she was still held at gunpoint and that he told her she had to help dismember the body because the mafia knows what she saw. In court Thursday, she described Fiacco forcing her to swing the axe, but maintains she didn't make contact with the body. He carried out the act, placing body parts into the bag and into MacDonald's trunk.

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Prosecution made it a point to note that when Fiacco and MacDonald first came upon the body again, Fiacco took three things from the body -- a watch, headphones and a vape. He kept the watch in their bedroom, MacDonald said, and it would beep at the same time every night. He told her it beeped at the time McAfee died, she testified.

A month or two later, she said Fiacco was trying to kick her out of the house, but she couldn't leave with the body in her trunk. "I told him he needed to take care of what he had done," she said.

But, she said, he told her the mafia knew what she did, and she needed to keep up a protection contract and finish the job. They bought a bucket and quick cement at Home Depot, she said, and used a wagon to take the duffel bag to the edge of the tree line. No one was home, it was the middle of the day. Everyone was at work. After the burial, she said Fiacco started a fire in a firepit and burned the duffel bag. 

Two weeks later, MacDonald said the couple broke up and she moved out of the house and into her father's. They stopped talking regularly, but: "He would still randomly send me texts reminding me not to say anything," she said. She'd block him, but he would contact her on different numbers and social media profiles.

MacDonald said she and Fiacco spoke with police in September 2016 about McAfee's disappearance. In court, she admitted she lied, telling police she didn't know what happened to McAfee. 

"I was afraid if I told them the truth, they wouldn't be able to react fast enough -- they wouldn't be able to help me or my family," she said.

She said he told her she and her family were safe under a protection contract, as long as she stayed with him. Eventually, she told a friend. Police said that friend went to authorities a month later, and Eevette was arrested in April 2017.

She was charged with disinterment, a 10-year felony, accessory after the fact, a 5-year felony and lying to police, a 4-year felony. As part of a plea bargain, they dropped the last charge. MacDonald's also eligible for the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, or HYTA, which allows her a clean record if she follows the court's rules. Prosecutors said they wouldn't object to it -- and wouldn't object to probation.

When cross examined by defense, Eevette said Fiacco told her shortly after they met that he was part of the mafia. She said when Fiacco told her he had killed McAfee that he seemed sad. Defense asked if for five months -- from the time she learned about the murder to the time she moved out in September -- she lived as a hostage in the Fiacco home, unable to leave? She said she could, but she was afraid for her life. MacDonald said Fiacco's mother didn't like her moving into the house. She had told them her family life was not good at home.

Defense pointed out that she will be sentenced for what she pleaded guilty to -- disinterment and accessory to a crime after the fact -- on a date later than her court testimony in Fiacco's murder trial on Thursday. He pointed out that under HYTA, she could get just probation.

"That's a heck on an incentive to tell the prosecution just what they want to hear," defense said.

"I can't answer that question yes or no. I don't exactly understand that question." she replied.

Watch the MacDonald's testimony on FOX 2 News Now below:

Court went on recess until Friday morning.