Defense rests case in Modery homicide trial
WASHINGTON – After calling only seven witnesses, including the defendant’s wife, the defense in the Gregory Modery homicide trial rested its case Thursday morning. The brief defense testimony was in contrast to more than 70 witnesses over three weeks that took the stand for the prosecution. Modery, 32, of McMurray is charged with homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault, robbery, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit each of those acts in connection with the Dec. 12, 1999, disappearance of Ohio medical consultant Ira Swearingen. Swearingen was on his way to Uniontown to assist with surgery at Uniontown Hospital the next morning.
Alexander Martos, 35, previously of Bentleyville and Monongahela, has confessed to shooting and killing Swearingen after he, Modery and John Shaker kidnapped him from the area near the adult bookstore at Kammerer along Interstate 70. Martos has testified that Modery was with him when the shooting occurred and had picked the spot for the murder.
Defense witnesses who have been in prison with Martos, Modery, or Shaker, have testified that Martos and Shaker at different times made statements indicating they were going to set Modery up for the homicide charge. Two of the witnesses have previous convictions for making false statements to police.
Testimony Thursday was brief. Greg Klement, a life-long friend of Modery’s, said Modery never called his garage to tell anyone to “get clean.” He said he did get such a call the night of Dec. 17, 1999, after Debrah Levandosky drove past Modery’s house and saw numerous police cars there.
“Mr. Shaker got on the phone. He asked me if Sean (Wolowski) was there. I said yes. He said to tell Sean to go home and clean his room and sweep the floor,” Klement said.
Klement said he didn’t know what Shaker meant, but he passed the message along to Wolowski. Wolowski has testified that he heard Modery make the statement in a telephone call to Klement’s garage Saturday afternoon and he then disposed of a weapon Modery had hidden under his bed.
According to phone records, Modery did call Klement Saturday afternoon, Dec. 18, 1999, the day after his arrest. Klement said no one was at the garage except him when the call came in and Modery didn’t give him instructions for anyone.
Under cross-examination, Klement said that he owns a hunting camp about a mile and a half away from the Greene County site where Swearingen’s body was found. He said that while the camp has been in his family for about 20 years, Modery has only been to it twice. Klement said Modery was last at the cabin about a year before Swearingen was murdered.
District Attorney John Pettit also asked Klement if he was intoxicated. Klement said the last drink he had was the night before between 10 and 11.
“So any odor of alcohol I noticed on you would be from last night?” Pettit asked.
The only other defense witness called Thursday was Modery’s wife, Christine Modery, who testified that her husband was the primary caregiver for their daughter since 1991 when the child was eight weeks old.
“We agreed that Greg would be the primary caregiver while I completed school,” Mrs. Modery said.
Mrs. Modery is a pharmacist and was completing her schooling at the time of their daughter’s birth. Around that same time, Modery’s mother died and he received some inheritance that made the arrangement possible financially without strain. Mrs. Modery said that once she got a job as a pharmacist, her husband continued to serve as their daughter’s caregiver.
“It was agreed that until she started school, he would stay home,” Mrs. Modery said.
Mrs. Modery said her husband started working part-time seasonal work with Mark Welsh in 1999, allowing him to still put their daughter on the bus in the morning and to be home with her when she got home from school.
“He was a great dad. He’d take her fishing, tracking deer together, swimming at Mineral Beach. They were best buddies,” Mrs. Modery said.
Judge Katherine Emery gave the jury the option of when they wanted to hear closing arguments and begin their deliberations. Emery told the jurors that if they began deliberations Friday, she wanted them to continue for at least several hours either Saturday or Sunday, while things were still fresh in their minds. The jurors decided they would rather start deliberations Monday.
Closing arguments will begin Monday at 9 a.m.