Fayette County jury hears from prosecution witness in attempted homicide trial
A Fayette County jury heard from a prosecution witness Tuesday in the second day of testimony in an attempted homicide case involving an alleged domestic violence dispute.
Assistant District Attorney Meghann Mikluscak provided a tape of an interview with Darion Seehoffer that was conducted by forensic interviewer Desirae Patterson with a Child’s Place at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Seehoffer testified that he saw William Eugene Isler, 47, of Uniontown punch Rita Lowery, his girlfriend of 17 years, in the face with his fist three times and that Isler also choked her on the evening of May 5 at 159 Connellsville St.
“He put his arm around her neck and choked her,” Seehoffer said in the taped interview. ” … She was crying. She said she doesn’t have the money.”
Seehoffer testified that she stopped breathing and that he called the police.
Isler is being tried for attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment.
Uniontown Police Officer Kurtis Defoor testified that when he entered the residence at around 10:52 p.m., Lowery was unresponsive and slumped over in her chair, with vomit on her shirt and the floor.
He said he called an ambulance, and that she was flown by medical helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.
In a taped court proceeding from earlier this month, Dr. Charles Rosen, an expert in neurosurgery, said that when Lowery arrived at the hospital, she scored a three on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which is the lowest score on that scale.
He testified that she was not responding to stimulus and that her condition appeared ominous.
He added that she was taken into the operating room immediately.
He testified with a “high level of certainty” that the source of her injuries, a subdural hematoma, was from a trauma, but he said he is not an expert in the types of trauma that could have occurred.
Assistant Public Defender Mary Spegar asked if Lowery’s injuries could have been suffered accidentally, such as from a fall down the steps or on concrete, to which Rosen said yes.
The jury also heard from Uniontown Police Capt. Dave Rutter, who testified that in an interview with Isler, Isler said the incident was a result of an argument of missing money for a cable bill.
Rutter added that when he advised Isler of Lowery’s condition, he put his head in his hands and whispered, “I didn’t squeeze that hard, please.”
During Rutter’s testimony, Isler was shaking his head.
Spegar asked Rutter why the first interview was not recorded, to which he replied that the office was closed at the time, and he could not locate a recorder.
Mikluscak also played a tape of Isler’s confession, which Rutter said was obtained after the first non-recorded interview, where Isler said he believes he put his arm around her neck for about 20 seconds, but “just to calm her down.”
Testimony resumes at 10 a.m. today before Judge Steve P. Leskinen.