Deana Mitts' former suitor beat and choked her when she refused to have an abortion and stalked her for several months leading up to her death, her mother told a federal jury Monday. Pauline Mitts of Connellsville dabbed tears from her eyes and sobbed sporadically during nearly three hours of testimony, telling jurors she disapproved of her daughter's relationship with Joseph Minerd. Minerd, 46, of Bullskin Township, is charged in the New Year's Day 1999 bombing and fire that killed Deana Mitts, 24, and her daughter, Kayla, 3, both of Connellsville. Deana Mitts was eight months pregnant, and tests revealed that Minerd was the father. He faces the death penalty if convicted. In July of 1998, Pauline Mitts confronted Minerd at the Greenwood Heights Church of God in Connellsville and warned him he had better not harm her family. "I will always be looking over your shoulder, and if you ever do anything to harm them, I'll kill you," Pauline Mitts said she told Minerd. Pauline Mitts said that in July 1998 she saw bruises on her daughter's neck and that her daughter had a black eye that month. According to police records, Pauline Mitts told investigators that her daughter said Minerd had inflicted the injuries and threatened to kill her if she did not have an abortion. Pauline Mitts also said that Minerd often cruised by their home and followed her and Deana Mitts after they left church services. On Dec. 29, 1998, Pauline Mitts was at church when she received a phone call from her daughter, who was hysterical, saying Minerd was circling her Rose Square apartment in his truck and told her mother that if "'I'm not at the church in 20 minutes, send someone to help me. I'm afraid he's going to hurt me,'" Pauline Mitts said. Although Minerd allegedly abused and stalked her daughter, Pauline Mitts said she never told her husband, Earl, even after police said they'd found a piece of pipe bomb in Deana Mitts' body. "I wanted to tell Earl, but Deana feared for her dad's life," Pauline Mitts said, adding that her daughter was afraid Minerd might hurt her father if he confronted Minerd. Pauline Mitts testified she and her husband hired a lawyer in 1999 to file a civil lawsuit, in which they intended to sue the apartment complex and gas company for damages. The fire that killed Deana and Kayla Mitts was initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak. When asked by Minerd's attorney, Richard Kammen, of Indianapolis, why she did not tell police about Minerd's alleged abuse and stalking, Pauline Mitts said she never imagined anyone would be capable of such an act and did not want to accept the possibility that her daughter could have been murdered. "Harm is one thing, but murder is another," Pauline Mitts said. "I couldn't imagine that anybody would want to ever murder an innocent girl."

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