Witherell trial witnesses give different stories

Prosecution witnesses gave different versions Friday of what murder suspect Jeremy Witherell said happened the night his wife fell to her death from a third-floor apartment balcony in Monroeville.

One witness said Witherell told him he was not on the balcony when she fell. Another said Witherell indicated he was near her and wished he could have grabbed her hands before she fell.

Witherell, 31, is charged with criminal homicide in the 1992 death of his first wife, Michelle Witherell, who was found in a pool of blood after a 33-foot fall at the LaVale Apartments.

On the third day of Witherell's trial, Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski called witnesses who knew the suspect in an attempt to show that he gave conflicting versions of what took place in the Monroeville apartment on the night his wife died.

Prosecutors have said that Witherell, now of Cranberry Township, struck his wife, 24, with a blunt instrument, causing a skull fracture, before she fell on Dec. 20, 1992.

Witherell has told police his wife, who had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.195 percent - nearly twice the legal limit to be declared intoxicated in Pennsylvania - fell or jumped from the balcony.

Among the prosecution witnesses was Geoffrey T. Patterson, who worked with Jeremy Witherell at the Pittsburgh City Paper, where his brother Brad Witherell was publisher.

Patterson, who described himself as the defendant's former best friend, said Witherell told him in January 1993 that his wife became upset with him at a Monroeville restaurant and went out on the balcony when they returned home.

Patterson said Witherell told him he spent 30 minutes in the bathroom, and that when he came out the sliding glass doors to the balcony were wide open, the balcony had broken away and he saw his wife on the ground.

But the woman's brother, Rhet Mellema, 30, of Colorado, testified that Jeremy Witherell told him at Mercy Hospital, where the victim died, that she 'was on the balcony and her hands slipped off and he wished he could have grabbed them.'

Another brother, Todd Mellema, 38, also of Colorado, said he heard Witherell say in the same hallway conversation, 'If only I'd have grabbed her.'

Monroeville police Detective John Pawlowski testified that Witherell told him the day of the incident that he and his wife were drinking at a restaurant and argued when a City Paper client spoke to him.

When they returned home, Witherell said, he started playing solitaire and ignored his wife while she got a beer from the refrigerator and went out on the balcony, the detective said.

Within 10 minutes, Witherell said, he thought he heard a thud but then wasn't sure what drew his attention to the balcony, Pawlowski testified.

The detective said Witherell told him he first feared his wife might have jumped, but dismissed the thought and began calling her name as he moved onto the balcony and saw her body below.

Jurors heard a tape recording of Witherell's 911 police call in which he screamed into a cellular phone and pleaded for someone to help.

Witherell, who showed emotion as the tape was played, could be heard screaming into the phone, 'She jumped off the (expletive) roof.'

The trial will be in recess Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Day and resume Tuesday in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Gerald Bigley. Borkowski is expected to call the victim's mother, Cathy Mellema, to testify.

She and her husband, Evert, of Parker, Colo., conducted their own investigation in the case after the manner of death was originally listed by authorities as undetermined.

Robert Baird can be reached at (412) 391-8650.