Apr 5, 2006 6 min read

By Jennifer Harr Herald-Standard

An alleged conspirator in Curtis Haith’s 2001 death testified Tuesday that he sat in a car and watched as two men “brutally” beat Haith on the doorstep of his Sycamore Street apartment in Connellsville at the behest of Crystal Weimer.

Joseph Cyril Stenger, 23, of Connellsville testified in Fayette County Court that he was leaving a Connellsville bar in the early hours of Jan. 27 when he saw Crystal Weimer driving by Stenger testified he was drunk and on drugs when he got into Weimer’s car. The two headed to Uniontown, where Weimer picked up two still-unidentified men, Stenger testified.

The four headed to a Dunbar mobile home, where Stenger testified that the men grabbed a baseball bat and crowbar. Then they headed to the home of a man named “Curt,” Stenger testified.

Weimer, 28, of Connellsville is charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide for allegedly asking the men to beat Haith, 21, around 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 27, 2001.

Stenger indicated to jurors that he knew the men were going to beat someone up. When they got to Haith’s home, Stenger testified that the men hid while Weimer lured Haith outside.

The men started hitting Haith and he tried to fend them off, Stenger testified.

Eventually, one hit Haith hard in the back of the head and he went down to the ground, Stenger testified. The entire time, Stenger testified, he sat in Weimer’s car, drunk and drugged, listening to the radio.

While the men beat Haith, Stenger testified Weimer yelled and kicked him.

“You were watching this man get brutally beaten. What did you think?” District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon asked.

“It made me sick,” Stenger testified.

He indicated he got out of the car, and without aiming, fired it in Haith’s direction “to get it over with, to stop everything.”

The bullet went through Haith’s cheek and came out of his lip. It was not fatal, but Stenger testified that until police told him, he believed that it was his shot that killed Haith.

Stenger testified he stole the gun and planned to sell it for drugs. After the shooting, he testified, he threw the weapon into the Youghiogheny River in South Connellsville.

Stenger already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit homicide in 2004 in exchange for nine to 18 years in prison. The sentence runs at the same time as sentences for multiple robberies, and was contingent upon his testimony against Weimer.

He will be sentenced next week.

“They was only supposed to kick his (expletive), then it got ugly … then I could tell they weren’t just beating him, they were trying to kill him,” Stenger testified.

Stenger testified that the next day Weimer warned him not to tell anyone because he would be in as much trouble as her. He testified he ultimately came forward because “I was afraid of being told on first.”

On cross-examination, Stenger acknowledged to Public Defender Jeffrey Whiteko that he gave police five or six different statements about what happened that night. In one, Stenger told police that Weimer admitted to him that another man killed Haith and asked Stenger to keep the secret.

Other statements vary on Stenger’s involvement in Haith’s death and whether he knew whom the men were going to beat up. In all of them, Stenger testified he lied.

Jurors heard from several others prosecution witnesses who have had or currently have criminal cases lodged against them.

Carol Harris testified that she talked to Weimer in prison at some point between December 2004 and May 2005.

Harris, who gave police a written statement, appeared reluctant to testify about her conversation with Weimer. She initially testified that Weimer just told her that she was there when Haith was beaten, and then, after Vernon had her review the statement, Harris testified that Weimer admitted involvement to her.

Jason Mills testified that he partied with Weimer on Jan. 26, and when he saw her later, bruised, she told him, “I’m going to have something done about it,” Mills testified.

He was unsure what time that happened, and did not give that statement to police until November. Mills acknowledged that a few days after Haith’s death that he told police that Weimer was injured after a fight with her boyfriend, Mike Gibson. He told jurors he “was supposed to say that.”

Robert Mackey also came forward in late 2005, and testified that Weimer told him she was with an abusive man and she was, “tired of it.” He testified that Weimer admitted she got men to beat Haith to death, and intended for him to be killed.

But under further questioning from Whiteko about when the beating took place, Mackey said it was in 2003.

“Well, guess what? He died in 2001,” Whiteko said. “No further questions.”

Mackey, meanwhile, said that Weimer was dating a man named “Curt” at that time, too.

Harris, Mackey and Mills all testified that they received no incentives to testify in court.

In addition to testimony, jurors saw Weimer’s black coat and jeans, which both had mud on them. Connellsville police Sgt. Ronald Haggerty Jr. testified that Weimer gave him the clothes on Jan. 27, 2001. She was wearing them when police came to a Uniontown home to question her, and reportedly told authorities she was wearing those clothes the night before.

John Evans, a forensic scientist at the state police crime lab in Harrisburg, testified that the mud on the clothing was consistent with one of seven mud samples taken from Haith’s yard.

Evans testified he compared the sample to the clothing and looked for both color and particle size using a strong microscope.

A second state police forensic scientist, Frank Kist, testified that he performed DNA analysis on bloodstains Weimer’s clothing. The stains were compared to DNA from Weimer, Haith and Weimer’s boyfriend, Mike Gibson.

Kist testified that blood on Weimer’s jeans matched her genetic profile. Blood on her coat matched Gibson, Kist testified. He also compared DNA from a bandana and sweatshirt found near Haith’s body, but testified the DNA did not match Weimer, Haith or Gibson.

Jurors also heard testimony from Allegheny County forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht.

He testified that Haith’s face was badly bruised, and that the beating inflicted on him caused his brain to swell, shutting off the function of his heart and lungs. That ultimately killed him, Wecht testified.

Wecht testified that Haith could have lived for “a few to several minutes” after the beating. A neighbor testified previously that she heard someone outside yelling for help for about 25 minutes before she called 911 for help. Police who showed up found Haith dead at the door of his apartment.

Wecht detailed 15 separate areas of injury to Haith’s head and face.

Wecht also testified that there were two curvy lines on the back of Haith’s right hand. Neither Wecht nor Dr. Bennett Omalu, who performed Haith’s autopsy, noted anything more, but police later discovered that the half circles were bite marks.

A forensic odontologist is expected to testify today that those bite marks match Weimer’s teeth, and that the bite was inflicted within 20 minutes of Haith’s death.

The case is being tried before Judge John F. Wagner Jr.