Weimer found guilty of third-degree murder
Fayette County jurors deliberated for about two hours on the fate of criminal homicide suspect Crystal Weimer on Thursday before asking to be sent home for the day. The panel has to wade through numerous witnesses that range from convicts to dental experts in an attempt to determine if Weimer, 28, of Connellsville urged two men to beat Curtis Haith, 21, to death on Jan. 27, 2001. They will return at 9 a.m. today to resume deliberations.
In 2004, Connellsville police Sgt. Ronald Haggerty Jr. charged Weimer with criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide. Haith’s body was found outside his apartment on Sycamore Street in Connellsville around 5 a.m.
On Thursday, a tearful Weimer testified she partied with Haith the night before his death, and dropped him off at a Connellsville bar, but had nothing to do with his death.
When Haggerty questioned Weimer on Jan. 27, he testified he found her with a black eye and broken toe. He testified she told him two stories about how she got the injuries. In court, Weimer’s former boyfriend, Michael Gibson, testified that he hit her in the face because she bit his finger. He testified that days before, they were goofing around and he accidentally broke her toe.
Weimer’s testimony mirrored Gibson’s.
Weimer testified she voluntarily gave police the clothes she wore the night before because she wanted to help with the investigation. A scientist testified that dirt from Haith’s yard matched soil on Weimer’s coat and jeans.
“I didn’t know how I was helping,” she said, crying. “Now I see.”
Her attorney, deputy public defender Mary Campbell Spegar, reminded jurors of Weimer’s cooperation in her closing arguments.
“Why, if she had something to do with it, would she be so cooperative?” Spegar asked.
She also reminded jurors that a forensic scientist testified that Haith’s blood was not found on Weimer’s clothing – Gibson’s was.
“If there has ever been reasonable doubt in a case, this is the case,” Spegar said.
She stressed that many of the commonwealth witnesses had criminal records, and suggested that principal witness Joseph Cyril Stenger testified against Weimer falsely to help himself.
Stenger was the lone person to put Weimer at the scene of Haith’s death. He testified that she picked him up, and drove from Connellsville to Uniontown to pick up two other men who ultimately beat Haith with a crowbar and a baseball bat.
Stenger testified he sat in Weimer’s car and watched as the men hid and she lured Haith from his apartment. Haith tried to fend the men off, Stenger testified, but they continued to beat him. Stenger testified he wanted to stop the beating, so he got out of the car and shot Haith. The shot was not fatal, but Stenger did not know that until police told him.
District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon said that sometimes when the facts are there, prosecutors have to make deals. She acknowledged that Stenger did a “horrible thing” and called him “yellow,” but reminded the panel that the beating, not Stenger’s gunshot, caused Haith’s death.
“As tough a criminal and punk that he is, (Stenger) got a lump in his throat when he talked about watching Curtis Haith getting beat to death,” Vernon told jurors.
Although some of the prosecution witnesses had criminal records or were in jail, Vernon said that they had no reason to lie because none, except for Stenger, received anything for their cooperation. She told jurors that none of the witnesses knew one another, but all heard Weimer make admissions about her involvement in Haith’s death. Some testified she planned the beating in retaliation because Haith hit her.
“(Weimer’s) not only a biter and a fighter, but she’s a talker and a crier,” Vernon said, referring to Weimer’s outbursts on Thursday.
As the attorneys were discussing what charges the jurors would hear, Weimer cried uncontrollably, at times sounding as if she couldn’t catch her breath.
“I can’t be here. I can’t do this,” she said.
At one point, Weimer looked up at the ceiling of the courtroom and said, “You ruined my life. I can’t believe you did this to me.”
After constables asked her family to leave the courtroom, Weimer seemed to immediately calm down.
“They can come back. I’m all right,” Weimer said calmly.
Her crying went on for about 30 minutes while jurors were on a break and then for a few minutes after they returned to hear closing arguments.
Both Vernon and Spegar touted their dental experts to jurors.
Dr. Constantine Karazulas, a Connecticut forensic odontologist, testified that he believed a picture of a bite mark on Haith’s hand was consistent with a dental mold of Weimer’s teeth. He also testified that the bite came between seven and 30 minutes before Haith’s death.
Pittsburgh forensic odontologist Dr. Michael Sobel testified as a defense witness that, using the picture, it was impossible to tell if Weimer’s mold matched the bite. He testified that he tested 22 random molds and found seven others that matched. Sobel also testified that it was impossible to time when Haith’s hand was bitten.
Spegar asked for an acquittal on both charges.
“I implore you, find her not guilty,” she said. “That is absolutely, unequivocally the only fair verdict in this case.”
Vernon beseeched jurors to convict Weimer of murder.
“Please do justice. That’s all we’re asking you to do. Don’t let the person who set this thing in motion walk away,” Vernon said.
Jurors have the option of convicting Weimer of first or third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or acquitting her. To find for first-degree murder, jurors must believe the crime was pre-meditated and done with malice. They would need to find malice for a third-degree murder conviction, but do not have to believe the crime was planned.
To convict Weimer of voluntary manslaughter, jurors would have to determine the killing was done in the heat of passion, without time to calm down.