Prosecution witness: Someone else could have stabbed homicide victim
A doctor who was a prosecution witness in the homicide trial of Herbert C. Herrington testified Tuesday that it is possible that the stab wound that killed Charles Cramer could have come from someone else. Dr. James L. Frost, who performed an autopsy on Cramer after his Nov. 16, 2001, stabbing death at a Point Marion party, testified that if Herrington were pinned down under Cramer, he may not have been able to strike the fatal blow.
All prior witnesses have testified that Cramer had Herrington pinned to the ground when the fatal blow was struck.
Based on a drawing done by one witness of the scene, defense attorney Mark F. Morrison presented Frost with a hypothetical situation. He asked Frost if, as depicted in the drawing, Herrington was pinned down on his left side with Cramer facing him, Herrington could have stabbed Cramer with enough force to kill.
Noting that the blow was struck with such force that it punctured Cramer’s left lung in two places, Frost said it was doubtful that Herrington, 25, could have gotten enough momentum behind the swing to cause such an injury.
In the position Morrison presented, Frost testified that it would be difficult for Herrington to get his arm around Cramer and stab him with enough force to kill him.
“If someone had come up behind and thrust a knife … would that have caused a wound like this?” asked Morrison.
“Yes,” said Frost.
But prosecutors requestioned Frost, who said that he was only accounting for a stationary position presented by Morrison. Since the men would have been moving around during the tussle, Frost testified that his testimony to the hypothetical situation might not apply.
Earlier in the day, Morrison asked Melissa Masi, Herrington’s former girlfriend of three years, if she struck the fatal blow to Cramer since the men were fighting about her.
She testified she did not.
Masi spent the bulk of the morning on the stand being questioned about the night of Cramer’s death.
She testified that Cramer, 28, was hitting on her at the party before the men got into a fatal fight.
The 18-year-old, now 8 months pregnant and married to another man, said Cramer told her at one point to “drop the zero and get with a hero.” That statement preceded two more physical altercations between the men that evening.
Before the third fight broke out, Masi testified, Herrington, 25, handed her a kitchen knife and told her, “protect yourself and stay in the house,” before rushing outside to attack Cramer. At the time, witnesses have testified that Cramer was in the process of being put into a car to be driven home.
Masi testified she was frightened by the men fighting, and took the knife outside in hopes of scaring the men into stopping the melee.
But when another man at the party saw her with the knife, Masi testified, he forcibly held her arms down until she dropped the weapon.
Although she did not testify that she announced she had a knife when questioned by District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon, Masi told Morrison that she yelled to the men that she had the weapon in hopes they would stop fighting.
She told jurors she did not see where it went.
Masi testified Herrington was pinned beneath Cramer when she saw his hand go back and come down, in a punching motion. Then, she testified, Cramer said he had been stabbed.
Herrington, she testified, said the stabbing was accidental.
“And then he smiled,” said Masi.
Although Herrington asked her to leave after the stabbing, Masi testified she stayed at the scene, and helped Cramer into the house along with other people. Partygoers tried to stop Cramer from swallowing his tongue and applied pressure to the stab wound while waiting for police and medical personnel, testified Masi.
“He was in and out of consciousness. He was shaking real bad and his eyes were rolling back in his head,” testified Masi, amidst sobs from Cramer’s family.
After police arrived and Herrington, who hid from authorities, according to testimony, was taken into custody, Masi testified she wrote him a note, intending for state police to give it to him.
In the note, Masi, who called Herrington her first love, urged him to “stay strong.”
“Say self defense, it was a threat for your life,” read Masi from the note.
The note also promised Herrington she would hire him an attorney, and was signed “Melissa Marie Herrington” although the two were not married.
Masi told Morrison that she only wrote that to Herrington because she loved him and did not want him to go to jail for stabbing Cramer.
But when asked if she wrote to Herrington while he was imprisoned on this homicide charge, Masi denied doing so. Confronted with a letter from Morrison, Masi then testified she may have written him the letter, but an objection to the date of the letter stopped Morrison from questioning her further about its contents.
Before District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon objected, however, Masi read part of the letter in which she told Herrington, “I’ll be going to court with you. They want me to be against you.”
Masi also told Morrison that during one of the fights, Cramer hit her three times. She testified that she got angry and kicked him back, but thought that the hits were only because she “got in the way.”
While Masi testified that she went outside to break up the fights between Cramer and Herrington, other witnesses have testified that she got involved and had to be dragged away from the fighting because she was assaulting the men.
Testimony is expected to pick up this morning before Judge Steve P. Leskinen, when prosecutors will likely wrap up the commonwealth case.