A Washington County man accused of killing his estranged wife and their two children told police he "just snapped" on the day of their slayings, a state trooper testified Wednesday. "He said he couldn't take it anymore," Trooper Thomas Kress testified during a preliminary hearing. After District Judge Valerie Costanzo ordered the case to go to trial, prosecutors said they will decide in the coming weeks whether to seek the death penalty against Orlando Guarino, 38, of Marianna. They hope to wrap up an investigation that could lead to charges being filed against friends who helped Guarino elude police for 15 hours on July 10, the day after the bodies were discovered. "We'll decide all that in short order," District Attorney Steve Toprani said after two hours of testimony concerning the strangulation of Ashley Guarino, 22, and smothering deaths of the couple's daughter, Dreux, 2, and son, Orlando Jr., 11 months. In front of family and friends on both sides, Assistant District Attorney Mike Lucas laid out the prosecution's case against Guarino, who showed little emotion during the hearing. Relatives declined to comment. Guarino argued with his estranged wife at the home they once shared in Marianna the morning of July 9 over a text message on her cell phone, Kress said. "He couldn't tell me what happened. He said he went outside and when he went back in the house he found them 'the way they were,'" Kress said. Ashley Guarino's body was found near the washing machine. She was strangled and beaten, said Dr. Abdulrezak Shakir, from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. The bodies of the children were found upstairs in their beds. At one point, Guarino thought about taking his own life, Kress said. State police Cpl. Beverly Ashton testified Guarino showed different emotions the day of his arrest. When approached by the news media, he was outgoing and upbeat, she said. He was more somber when talking to police. He told Ashton he "must have done it, but it's not in my character," she said. A note on a paper plate laid out his wishes to be with his family, police said. Toprani said the note, "written contemporaneous to the events of the day," told of Guarino's wishes to be with his mother and his brother. Guarino, shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, flashed a "V" sign to his friends and family as he was led from the courtroom. He did not speak. A trial date has not been set.

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