Prosecutors rest in trial for man charged in 2016 killing of a Pine Grove Mills woman
Pennsylvania prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after presenting three days of testimony in their bid to prove the man charged in the 2016 killing of a Pine Grove Mills woman did so intentionally.
At least eight people testified during the opening portion of the trial of Christopher Kowalski, who is charged in the fatal shooting of Jean Tuggy.
That included two of Tuggy’s friends, three Ferguson Township police officers, a firearms expert, an investigator from the state attorney general’s office and the forensic pathologist who completed Tuggy’s autopsy.
Among the final moments of the case laid out by prosecutors was showing the jury of eight women and four men a photo of Tuggy that was displayed at her memorial service. It was at odds with the bloody photographs prosecutors showed Monday.
Much of Tuesday’s testimony came from Ferguson Township police detective Caleb Clouse and supervisory special agent Christopher Weaver, the two lead investigators.
Clouse detailed the steps he took after being assigned the case in summer 2018. The hundreds of pages that summarized the investigation to that point, Clouse testified, was “almost overwhelming at times.”
He sought information from the pair’s mutual employer, the churches they attended and those who knew them. He sifted through phone records and tracked down the firearm used to kill Tuggy.
Kowalski, 35, had a fascination with guns and was “well-versed” in firearms, Clouse testified.
Prosecutors also played Kowalski’s hourslong confession. He described the killing as “a scary movie come true.”
Senior Deputy Attorney General Kelly Sekula used her opening statement Monday to paint Kowalski as a “cold-blooded killer” who killed Tuggy, 60, because she was an “easy target.”
Defense lawyers Thomas Egan III and Christopher Mohney are expected to use at least Thursday in an attempt to prove Kowalski was legally insane. They have not contested the killing.
Kowalski, who has autism, was so mentally ill he either didn’t know what he was doing or was incapable of obeying the law, his legal team plans to argue.
Kowalski’s mental illness, Egan told Centre County Judge Brian Marshall, is a “long-standing, pervasive issue.”
Closing arguments and the final instructions from Marshall will likely begin Monday. The jury would then begin deliberating.
