Waterman admitted she knew of plans to kill her mother

When pressured by investigators, Rachelle Waterman said she knew there was a plan in the works to kill her mother months before Lauri Waterman was abducted from their home in Craig and killed in November 2004.

Jurors on Tuesday viewed interrogation videotapes in which Waterman acknowledged to a state trooper that she knew a former boyfriend was planning to shoot her mother, but she called her current boyfriend just two hours before the killing was to be done to call it off.

As it turned out, Brian Radel didn't shoot Lauri Waterman, 48, outside the Craig High School that day after dropping Rachelle off for volleyball practice. He forgot a key piece to his gun.

A few more weeks went by and things heated up again after Rachelle Waterman told Jason Arrant, then her boyfriend, that her mother tried to push her down the stairs. That was when the two men -- 24 years old at the time -- hatched another plan. This time they would take Lauri Waterman from her home, force her to drink alcohol, kill her and make her death look like a drunken driving accident.

Waterman, then a 16-year-old, told state trooper Sgt. Randy McPherron she called from a volleyball tournament in Anchorage a few days before her mother was abducted, and told Arrant not to go through with the killing.

"I said 'No, don't do it,' " Waterman told the trooper emphatically. "I thought it was going to be OK."

Waterman also acknowledged that she talked to her mother just hours before Radel broke into the Waterman home but didn't warn her.

When she returned from the volleyball trip and her mother was missing, she called Arrant and he told her it was done, she told the trooper. Waterman said she was horrified.

When McPherron asked her why she didn't warn her mother, tell her father or go to police and tell them two men were going to kill her mother, she said she didn't think they had the nerve to go through with it.

She told McPherron that she didn't go to authorities because she was scared of going to jail.

"I didn't know how involved I would be considered. I did tell them, 'No,' " she told McPherron.

McPherron interviewed Waterman several times after her mother's charred remains were found inside her torched minivan. By this time Arrant and Radel had been arrested. Arrant told investigators that Waterman was in on the plan.

At first, the teen remained composed, even chatting with them about her plans one day to attend college, until the conversation turned to her relationships with the two older men.

In the interviews, Waterman initially denied having problems with her mother and described their relationship as "pretty good." She denied having a sexual relationship with either man.

"We need everyone to tell us the absolute truth," McPherron told her.

Eventually, Waterman acknowledged she'd had sexual encounters with both men, most recently with Arrant.

"They may have misunderstood something you said ... to motivate them to do this thing," McPherron said.

At that point, Waterman started crying and covered her face with her hands.

"It keeps coming back to you," McPherron said.

Waterman is being tried for a second time on murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping and other charges. Her first trial in 2006 ended in a hung jury.

Sgt. Christopher Thompson, a state trooper who conducted a forensic examination of the computers, testified that he found nude photographs of Waterman on Arrant's computer, as well as instructions for posing. "These guys were true believers. You had them so wrapped around your finger," McPherron said.

Waterman said that wasn't true.

"Once they have their minds set on something, they do it," she said.

Both Radel and Arrant are serving prison sentences for the killing.

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