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Testimony begins in 2012 Point Marion attempted homicide case

By Susy Kelly skelly@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read

A Rices Landing woman testified in Fayette County Court on Wednesday that she had just finished telling her friend she didn’t want to go to Kentucky with him when she felt herself being hit on the head with a rock.

Franklin Millard Broyles, 43, of Maidsville, W.Va., faces trial for attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault and simple assault following the alleged attack on 26-year-old Nicole Stallard, who was found suffering from head injuries at Broyles’ home on May 21, 2012.

Stallard testified that she had known Broyles for a few months and that she viewed him as a close friend. He wanted more than friendship though, she testified.

On May 18, 2012, Broyles came to where Stallard was living in Point Marion and invited her for a ride on his all-terrain vehicle, she told the jury. She said he stopped the quad in a field near an old glass factory, where no one else was around.

“(Broyles) was talking about Kentucky,” Stallard testified. “He wanted me to go with him to see his mom and family.”

She said when she told him no, because she was concerned about growing homesick, “He just basically told me he wanted me to go, I didn’t have a choice.”

After insisting she wasn’t going to Kentucky with him, Stallard testified she walked away, intending to go back to her house. That was when she said she heard a “big thud” on her head. She said she turned to see Broyles in her periphery with a baseball-sized rock, and she was hit again.

Stallard told the jury she touched her head and felt blood, then became light-headed. He hit her again, she testified, and then it was “lights out.”

Stallard allegedly spent the next couple of days in Broyles’ mobile home, in and out of consciousness. She ultimately was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., where she underwent surgery and spent about a month in recovery.

Assistant District Attorney Meghann Mikluscak showed Stallard photographs of herself that were taken when she was released from the hospital, depicting the injuries and scars, and Stallard broke down into tears.

Since the incident, Stallard testified she suffers from pain, seizures, confusion and numbness in her arm.

Broyles’ attorney, Jason Taylor, asked Stallard if she had any prior head injuries before May 2012, and Stallard said no.

He asked her if she was dating Broyles at the time of the alleged incident, and Stallard said she was not. She testified that she had spent the night at his house before, but they were not dating.

The alleged victim’s sister, Shannon Stallard, of Dilliner, testified that Broyles “was very obsessive about (Nicole Stallard) and everything that had to do with her.”

Another sister, Brandi Stallard, of Crucible, testified that she saw Broyles become very angry about a week before the alleged incident, after Nicole Stallard told him she didn’t want to see him anymore.

“He said that he loved her and he couldn’t understand why she was treating him that way,” Brandi Stallard testified. “He said he was going to love her whether she liked it or not.”

Brandi Stallard told the jury she became concerned when she didn’t hear from her sister Nicole over the weekend that began on Friday, May 18, 2012, so she went to Broyles’ house on Sunday to look for her. Broyles, who had “wide-open scratches on his face,” reluctantly let her in, the woman testified.

According to Brandi Stallard, her sister was lying in a bed on her side facing the wall in Broyles’ bedroom, with a blanket covering her up to her ears, and that Nicole Stallard raised a hand to wave and say, “Go,” without turning to look at her sister.

Brandi Stallard testified she left, thinking her sister was telling her to leave. That night, Brandi Stallard said she began to have questions about her sister’s behavior, so she went back first thing in the morning.

This time, Brandi Stallard said she found her sister sitting upright in Broyles’ bed, reaching out “like a child,” and again saying, “Go.” At that point, Brandi Stallard said she realized her sister wasn’t telling her to go, but instead asking to go.

She and a friend helped Nicole Stallard to the car, Brandi Stallard testified, and the injured woman climbed into a child’s car seat inexplicably.

Brandi Stallard said she observed bruising on her sister’s neck, and noticed that her hair had been brushed and blood had been cleaned from her nose and ears. Additionally, her sister was missing some of her false fingernails, Brandi Stallard testified.

Carla Nalepka, an emergency medical technician for Fairchance EMS, testified that she responded to the 911 call to Point Marion where Nicole Stallard had been taken to her mother’s house.

“The first thing that stood out for me was that she was totally confused,” Nalepka said. “That’s a sign of a head injury.”

“She was very afraid. She didn’t want anyone to come near her,” Nalepka added.

Nalepka described the bruising on the alleged victim’s head as “very dramatic,” and testified that she also noted finger marks on Nicole Stallard’s arm.

The prosecution is expected to call as its next witness the neurosurgeon who treated Nicole Stallard when testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today before President Judge John F. Wagner Jr.

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