Man accused of killing Jean Tuggy ‘in cold blood’ is now headed toward trial in Centre County
Pennsylvania prosecutors plan to pursue first- and third-degree murder charges against the South Carolina man accused of killing a Pine Grove Mills woman in her home more than five years ago.
Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Kelly Sekula said during a 45-minute preliminary hearing Monday that the state’s primary focus is seeking a conviction of first-degree murder, meaning the killing of Jean Tuggy was premeditated.
Christopher Kowalski, 34, was charged in February after a yearslong investigation into the fatal shooting of Tuggy, a 60-year-old who died in January 2016 of a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators wrote in an affidavit of probable cause that Kowalski admitted to killing his former Wegmans co-worker because he was “depressed, down and hopeless.”
Kowalski also said he killed Tuggy “in cold blood,” Ferguson Township police detective and lead investigator Caleb Clouse testified Monday.
“He also said he always wanted to be a gunslinger. He kind of admired people like Wyatt Earp and John Wayne,” Clouse testified. “He watched a lot of those movies and he always wanted to be a gunslinger and a lawman.”
Police first interviewed Kowalski for about 45 minutes at a grocery store where he worked before transporting him to the Charleston County sheriff’s office. The latter interview lasted “a few hours,” Clouse testified.
Kowalski said he contemplating killing Tuggy for months because she was an “easy target” who wouldn’t be able to fight back, Clouse testified.
“He said that he had thought about it long enough,” Clouse testified. “And he also said that it was time to get the job done.”
Defense lawyer Thomas Egan III did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Centre County District Judge Casey McClain sent Kowalski toward trial on one count of criminal homicide. Kowalski is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.