Friend says pregnant bombing victim intended to seek child support

A childhood friend of a pregnant Connellsville woman killed in 1999 when her home was fire-bombed told a federal court jury in Pittsburgh on Thursday that about a month earlier her friend considered seeking child support payments for her unborn daughter fathered by the man authorities say set the bomb.

Susan Pritts of Dawson testified that Deana Mitts, her friend since she was 14, also told her in a telephone conversation that she was being stalked by Joseph P. Minerd.

Pritts' testimony came during the third day in the capital murder trial of Minerd, who is accused of fire-bombing the McCormick Avenue townhouse of his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Mitts.

Minerd is being prosecuted under a federal statute in which he is charged with setting a fire that results in the loss of life. Because Mitts' apartment was rented from an out-of-state owner, the case became the jurisdiction of federal authorities.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Minerd if he is convicted.

Authorities contend Minerd, 46, of Bullskin Township, used a pipe bomb to destroy the Connellsville townhouse Mitts shared with her 3-year-old daughter, Kayla, who also died in the explosion.

Investigators say Minerd was the father of Mitts' unborn child and set the fire because of her refusal to have an abortion.

"She was going to see into it," Pritts said Mitts told her during a telephone conversation around Thanksgiving 1998 in which she asked about seeking child-support payments.

During that same telephone conversation, Mitts told her she saw Minerd repeatedly drive around her apartment.

Mitts and Minerd had broken off their engagement several months earlier, Pritts testified.

Prosecutors contend Minerd stalked Mitts, then used a homemade pipe bomb to blow up and set fire to her home on Jan. 1, 1999.

Jurors spent most of the day yesterday hearing how investigators revised their initial theory in which they first believed the fire was an accident, possibly because of a natural gas leak, to later concluding it was intentionally set by Minerd.

Edward C. Bender, a forensic chemist with the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, told jurors he examined a metal sample from Mitts' apartment and quickly concluded that it was from a pipe bomb.

Bender specializes in the analysis of pipe bombs for the ATF. He said he has participated in investigations into the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the 1995 destruction of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the downing of TWA Flight 800 and the park bombing during the 1998 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

"I didn't believe that it could be in that condition from any other way other than a pipe bomb," Bender testified.

That finding led investigators to return to Connellsville four months after the fire and comb through debris, an exercise that unearthed more remnants from what they believed to be part of the pipe bomb.

Authorities then exhumed the bodies of Mitts and her daughter and conducted a second autopsy in which they found additional parts of the bomb.

Bender was able to take those fragments and for the most part reassemble the 2-by-8-inch steel pipe authorities say was used by Minerd. Based on the size of the explosion at the Mitts townhouse, Bender said he believed the pipe used there was probably filled with some type of gunpowder.

During their investigation of Minerd, authorities seized four cans of gunpowder from his home. Under questioning by defense attorney Richard Kammen, Bender said those cans were nearly full and probably were not used in making the pipe bomb that destroyed Mitts' home.

The powder found in Minerd's home is routinely used to reload shotgun ammunition, Bender testified.

Bender could not say how the pipe bomb was ignited or exactly what materials were used in the device. He testified that based on evidence from the scene, investigators could determine that the pipe bomb exploded in Mitts' living room.

But the damage found at the site was not just from a pipe bomb, Bender testified.

"The damage I found at the scene could have come from a fuel layer explosion in conjunction with a pipe bomb. That could have caused that damage," Bender testified.

The defense yesterday attempted to chip away at some of the scientific evidence. Defense attorney Richard Kammen questioned Bender about pieces of pipe and drill bits recovered by investigators from Minerd's home.

Neither matched materials found at the fire scene, Bender said.

Meanwhile, Ray Kuk, another forensic chemist with the ATF, told jurors that he tested five samples of debris retrieved from Mitts' townhouse. Only one sample tested positive for an accelerant, gasoline, Kuk testified.

Minerd's trial will resume Monday before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Maurice Cohill.