CLEARFIELD - The attorney for a Houtzdale man police say killed his mother in March attempted to sow seeds of doubt while implying that the man's then-girlfriend played a larger role in the killing.
Whether those seeds will sprout in the minds of jurors remains to be seen, but Jesse James Campbell's attorney, Chris Pentz, used every opportunity to introduce the idea Monday in Clearfield County Court.
''How do you fall asleep next to a murderer?'' Pentz asked 22-year-old Kacey Fisher, who testified that she fell asleep on her couch with Campbell after hearing him describe how he killed his mother, Cindy Jo Coleman, 49, March 13.
Fisher said she was confused and too scared to call police after Campbell's alleged admission that he beat his mother with a 5-pound dumbbell and stabbed her.
Pentz pressed Fisher to explain why other witnesses, including the neighbors who called police, recalled she knew of the plot.
Fisher told the court she had no knowledge of any plan to kill Coleman and said she dismissed Campbell's rantings as just anger-fueled talk.
''I had nothing to do with it,'' Fisher said as Pentz grilled her on every detail of her statement to police the morning after the killing.
District Attorney William Shaw introduced several letters from Campbell to Fisher written after his arrest. The contents of the letters never came out in testimony, but in one of the letters, Campbell told Fisher how he defended her honor in jail, where he said everyone thought he was psychotic.
He signed the letter, ''I love you always, Until They Kill Me, Jesse.''
Fisher, who showed scant emotion, avoided looking at Campbell, looking either at whoever was questioning her or at the ceiling.
Pentz said during questioning that police found Fisher's bloody clothes in the trash bin outside her MacAteer Street apartment in Houtzdale and that another witness testified that Fisher asked her to supply her with an alibi for the police.
''I thought he was nuts,'' Fisher told Shaw when asked why she didn't call police once she learned of Campbell's actions.
Earlier, neighbors Angela Acey and Jim Hoopsick said Fisher told them Campbell went to kill his mom, prompting the 3 a.m. phone call to police that eventually led to the discovery of Coleman's body by her parents about 5 a.m.
Pentz also picked away at pathologist Dr. Gordon Handte's lengthy description of Coleman's injuries, suggesting that the fact that Coleman's skull wasn't fractured could point to someone smaller and less strong committing the crime.
Handte said the force of the blows to Coleman's face and head didn't necessarily mean they weren't done by someone strong, just that they weren't hard enough to break bone. He also said that Coleman slowly bled to death.
He said Coleman had defensive cuts and bruises on her hands and arms from the weight and steak knife, the weapons the prosecution contends already were in Coleman's Houtzdale apartment when Campbell arrived and found his mother asleep on the couch.
Handte also said that toxicology reports showed Coleman had no alcohol or drugs in her system at the time of her death, something Pentz jumped on to draw suspicion to Fisher's story that Campbell tried to wake his mother but couldn't before he killed her.
Jurors heard from several witnesses who described Campbell saying he was going to kill his mother ''because she was driving him nuts'' in the weeks leading up to the killing.
The evening before Coleman was killed, several witnesses, including Fisher, said Campbell went to Coleman's and took a computer.
Later that night, Coleman and Campbell had several arguments over the phone before Campbell left to buy cigarettes, Fisher said.
A friend and co-worker of Coleman's testified that on the night of the killing, Coleman talked to her for almost an hour after their shift about her fear of her son and their arguments.
Coleman left for home shortly before midnight, declining an offer from her friend to stay the night at her State College home.
''I told her to watch her back, be careful and that I loved her,'' Kathleen Larkin said.
Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7446.
