Man faces trial on homicide charges
Eyewitnesses testified Friday that a McClellandtown man sped past them on Route 21 in German Township until he caught up with a motorcycle and hit it, killing both people on board, including his ex-girlfriend. As a result of that testimony, Edward Allan Belch will stand trial in Fayette County Court on charges of criminal homicide for the May 10 incident.
State police said the impact left an imprint of a Harley Davidson emblem from the seat of the bike on the front of Belch’s truck, which rode on top of the rear of the bike for 50 feet near the Balsinger Road intersection.
Belch’s former girlfriend, Terri Lynn Gresko, 44, of Edenborn, who had obtained a protection from abuse order against him, was the passenger and Thomas D, Myers, 54, was driving the bike.
An autopsy report said both died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
After the preliminary hearing, First Assistant District Attorney Joseph M. George said he might seek the death penalty in the case.
Magisterial District Judge Brenda Cavalcante remanded Belch, 44, of 148 Blaine Ave., to the county prison without bail after ordering both homicide charges held for court.
The case will be forwarded to county court, where Belch will stand trial or accept a plea agreement.
While the severity of the homicide charges could be reduced from first-degree to third-degree due to Belch’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the incident, George said it could “absolutely” be a death penalty case because of two aggravating circumstances: Gresko had a PFA against Belch, and two people were killed.
He said if the prosecution decides to pursue the death penalty, he will file a notice in court before Belch is formally arraigned in the next few weeks.
Also after the hearing, Belch’s attorney, David J. DeFazio, said police reports state his client had a .159 percent blood-alcohol content an hour and a half after the collision, nearly twice the state’s .08 percent legal intoxication level.
He said intoxication is a mitigating factor that blocks the death penalty, and Belch said the crash was an accident.
“The intoxication will play a role in the trial,” DeFazio said. “He says it was an accident all along.”
One witness, Kimberly Sue Davis of Carmichaels, testified that she was driving west on Route 21 when a westbound black truck sped past two or three vehicles behind her and pulled in front of her, getting between her car and the motorcycle.
“I had to slow down so he could get in front of me,” Davis said, noting that Route 21 is a two-lane road in that area.
Seconds later, she said, the collision occurred.
“He never stopped. No brake lights. …The two people flew off (the motorcycle),” she said.
Motorists near the scene stopped, and many called 911 and got out of their vehicles to stop traffic, Davis said.
She said Gresko and Myers were lying in the road, but she didn’t see Belch until police handcuffed him and took him to a patrol car.
“He was going 65-70. He was flying,” Davis said, under cross-examination.
She said the truck blocked her view of the collision.
Peggy Ocker and her daughter Jessica were behind Davis.
She said her daughter noticed that she was traveling 52 mph when the truck passed them.
Although she said she didn’t see the collision take place, she knew one occurred because debris was flying through the air and there was a cloud of smoke or dust.
“You could just tell there was an impact,” Ocker said.
She said she walked up to Gresko as Belch was approaching. Ocker testified that she heard Belch say, “Terri, I told you I was going to get you,” as he walked toward her.
“I was mad. I was upset. I was yelling at him. I told him not to touch the body,” Ocker said.
She said she was pulling Belch by his arm, trying to keep him from the woman’s body, but he rolled her over and checked for a pulse.
While he was standing over her, Belch said, “I’ll go to jail for this,” Ocker testified, adding that Belch smelled from alcohol and appeared intoxicated.
Two days before the collision, police said, Belch was driving Gresko home from a bar, and he accused her of seeing other men and became irate. When they arrived at her home, he allegedly pushed her to the ground and threatened to kill her. Police said he also broke a number of items at her home.
He was arrested on simple assault and two summary charges, and placed in the county prison. Someone posted his bail on May 10 and he encountered Gresko and Myers in the Wal-Mart parking lot in South Union Township.
Gresko and Myers left on the motorcycle, but Belch caught up to them, police said.
The first witness at the hearing, Todd Michael Vecchiola, testified that Belch passed and pulled in front of him, but he slowed down when he passed the 19th Hole and Twin Rocks bars and appeared to scan the parking lots.
He said the collision occurred some distance in front of him, but he saw what he thought was a body tumbling on the road.
State police Cpl. Joseph D’Andrea, a collision analyst and reconstruction specialist, said the rear of Myers’ motorcycle was 23 inches under the front of Belch’s truck.
“The Dodge truck actually drove up on the back tire of the bike,” he said.
The truck “drove the bike tire down” causing the bike to leave a 50-foot skid mark on the road, D’Andrea said.
A tissue and blood mark under a skid mark left by the truck indicated the truck ran over one of the victims, he said, and the motorcycle came to a stop more than 450 feet from the point of impact.
The hearing was held in the Fayette County Public Service Building in Uniontown instead of at Cavalcante’s office in Masontown due to security concerns rising from reported threats.
About a dozen state troopers provided security for the hearing. They placed Belch in a bulletproof jacket when they escorted him into and out of the building. George said the threats that had been reported earlier in the week were merely rumors.