Indiana County man to stand trial in slayings of daughters, estranged wife

Six-year-old Sara Beatty was playing with Barbie dolls and talking to her father on the afternoon of June 1.

Lewis Paul Beatty then strangled his daughter and cut her throat with a hunting knife, starting an afternoon of violence in Indiana County, Trooper Timothy Lipniskis testified on Friday.

“Mr. Beatty advised to me that he reached over and killed his daughter,” Lipniskis said during Beatty's hourlong preliminary hearing.

Beatty was ordered by District Judge Guy Haberl to stand trial on police accusations that he slit the throats of his two young daughters and his estranged wife, set two homes on fire and fatally shot three pets.

District Attorney Patrick Dougherty said he plans to decide in the next few weeks whether he will seek the death penalty.

“Death penalty cases are long; they're cost-intensive,” Dougherty said. “I want to make sure that the victim's family is on board for a death penalty case.”

Family and friends of the victims — Sara; Amanda, 11; and Christine Beatty, 33 — cried at times during the hearing.

Haberl heard testimony in the county courthouse rather than his courtroom because of space and security concerns.

Lewis Beatty wore a yellow prison jumpsuit and was permitted to have his hands freed of shackles during the hearing so he could take notes. He appeared to wipe his eyes when county Coroner Mike Baker testified that the three victims died on June 1 from blood loss after their throats were slit.

Lewis Beatty confessed to the murders and arson in an interview at 1:30 a.m. June 2, Lipniskis testified.

Beatty allegedly slit Sara's throat at their Morrow Road residence in South Mahoning. Later, Amanda got home from school and wanted to see Sara, Lipniskis said.

“When Amanda attempted to go down the hall to see her sister, he said he choked her” and slit her throat, the trooper said.

Beatty said he shot and killed a pony, a dog and a goat because “there would be no one left to take care of the animals,” Lipniskis testified.

The suspect then went to a bank to change account information and purchased a soda at a convenience store in Plumville, the trooper said. Beatty then staked out Marion Center Bank and waited for Christine Beatty to leave work, he said.

Lipniskis said Lewis Beatty followed his estranged wife to her home on Pfeiffer Road in East Mahoning.

After a brief conversation, Beatty allegedly choked his wife and slit her throat with a kitchen knife.

Trooper Timothy Frew, deputy fire marshal, ruled that fires at the two homes after the slayings were intentionally set. Police believe Beatty set the Pfeiffer Road home ablaze and returned to his Morrow Road residence and set it on fire.

Frew testified that there were two points of origin in the Pfeiffer Road mobile home: one on a living room couch and the second in a bedroom.

Four points of origin were found at the Morrow Road mobile home: on the floor of one bedroom, on the bottom bunk bed in another bedroom, on the floor near a couch in the middle of the home and in a utility room, he testified.

All of the small fires appeared to have been set by an open flame; no accelerants were found, Frew said. Accidental causes were ruled out.

“One fire wasn't responsible for another,” he testified in explaining his arson determination.

Public defender Fred Hummel questioned Frew's ruling.

“You can't actually say with any degree of certainty that these fires were intentionally set,” Hummel said on cross-examination. “It is possible that these could've been accidentally set.”

Frew disagreed.

Hummel questioned Lipniskis on his applications for search warrants and about when Beatty was handcuffed. After Beatty escaped from the Morrow Road fire, Lipniskis said, he was handcuffed to an ambulance gurney. Beatty was accompanied by a trooper to Indiana Regional Medical Center for treatment of smoke inhalation before he was interviewed by state police, Lipniskis said.

His attorney pointed out that Beatty said several times during the interview that he did not remember a specific action during the murder spree.

Hummel declined to comment after the hearing.

Beatty remains in jail without bail.

Christine and Lewis Beatty were separated and had a verbal custody agreement, police said. Sara was the couple's biological daughter. Police said Lewis had adopted Amanda, who was Christine's biological daughter.

The Beattys married in May 2005 and purchased the Morrow Road home in 2007, records show. A divorce was pending.

The last death penalty case tried in Indiana County was that of Joshua Turner, 22, in 2010. Turner is serving a life sentence for killing a toddler in 2008.

The last time the death penalty was handed down in the county was for Ronald Weiss, 64, in 1997. Weiss was convicted of murdering a 16-year-old girl.

Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.