Survivor testifies; jury to get case

Saw Weaver with a knife, she says

By Monica Pryts

MERCER COUNTY — Heather Lorigan said she remembers being stabbed by Ronald Victor Machado in the leg and seeing him and Krystle Sue Weaver both holding knives during an attack in her Greenville apartment, which left the mother of two in a wheelchair.

Ms. Lorigan, 22, testified Tuesday in Ms. Weaver’s homicide trial and also recalled her father, Thomas Lorigan, yelling for help before he died May 20, 2008, in Ms. Lorigan’s former home at 94 Clinton St., Apartment 103.

Testimony wrapped up Tuesday before Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed. Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems and Ms. Weaver’s attorney, Stephen Misko of Butler, will present closing arguments at 9 a.m. today, then the case will go to the jury.

Ms. Weaver, 22, Fowler, Ohio, is charged with killing Lorigan, 44, Greene Township, and seriously injuring Ms. Lorigan, who has been recovering at the Sugar Grove Township home of her grandmother, Marilyn Allen. Ms. Lorigan — who has been referred to throughout the trial as Heather Turk — has dropped her ex-husband’s surname and is now using her maiden name.

Machado, 21, Jamestown, Ms. Weaver’s boyfriend, was also charged and hanged himself May 24, 2008, in his cell at Trumbull County Jail, Warren. He and Ms. Weaver once lived at the apartment with Ms. Lorigan, her ex-husband, Michael Turk, and the Turks’ two daughters.

Machado’s suicide has not been mentioned during the four days of testimony in the trial.

Ms. Lorigan was wheeled down the center of the room, past her family and Ms. Weaver’s, and her chair lifted onto the witness stand.

In Ms. Lorigan’s testimony:

On May 19, her father baby-sat her two daughters, Faythe, then almost 2, and Caelyn, then 13 months, while she worked at St. Paul’s, West Salem Township, as a personal care attendant.

Ms. Lorigan called him around 12:05 a.m. May 20 to pick her up and the family of four went to Walmart, Hempfield Township, for milk and stayed for about 20 minutes.

She didn’t expect anyone to be at the apartment because Ms. Weaver and Machado had been staying with Ms. Weaver’s family. They set the girls and groceries on the kitchen floor and Lorigan tried to turn on a light, but nothing happened.

He went to the living room while Ms. Lorigan made a bottle for Caelyn and she then heard footsteps and her father saying “Stop.”

“I turned around and my dad said ‘Help me,’ ” Ms. Lorigan said, speaking slowly.

He walked toward the stairs to the second floor and she saw Machado and Ms. Weaver. “They both had knives,” Ms. Lorigan said.

The pair started up the stairs and Ms. Lorigan called 911 from her cell phone. They came back downstairs and Machado kicked Lorigan and called him a bitch, and Ms. Weaver took the phone from Ms. Lorigan.

Ms. Lorigan told Kochems she didn’t remember the 911 call, being stabbed or who stabbed her. She later learned she was stabbed in the right thigh, stomach and left side of the head and doesn’t expect a full recovery for at least five years.

In cross-examination, Misko reviewed reports filed by Sgt. Paul Molton of Greenville-West Salem Township police, who interviewed Ms. Lorigan three times since the stabbing.

The reports said Ms. Lorigan didn’t remember Ms. Weaver holding a knife or seeing who stabbed her. “That’s a lie,” she said, later adding she remembers seeing Machado stab her in the leg.

“That was the first place he stabbed me,” she said.

Ms. Lorigan said Ms. Weaver was holding a knife that belonged to Ms. Lorigan’s ex-husband, Michael Turk, who moved out in January 2008 and left behind a knife collection. Ms. Lorigan didn’t know Ms. Weaver and Machado had any of those knives.

Ms. Weaver had told police Ms. Lorigan kicked them out of the apartment, which Ms. Lorigan said she would never do.

The jury was then asked to leave the room and Misko asked Reed to acquit Ms. Weaver on all the charges against her: homicide, criminal attempt to commit homicide, criminal conspiracy to commit homicide, burglary, aggravated assault and two counts of robbery.

There was no evidence or testimony that Ms. Weaver participated in any of the stabbing, helped Machado plan the crime or knew what was going to happen, Misko said.

All she did was ask Ms. Lorigan if she called the police and Ms. Lorigan remembers Machado stabbing her. Machado took Ms. Lorigan’s purse and stole the $300 in rent money inside, not Ms. Weaver, Misko said.

“Who’s the one that did this? Ron Machado did,” he said.

Kochems argued that Ms. Lorigan saw Ms. Weaver with a knife and there’s no question that the couple was lying in wait at the apartment and didn’t have the right to be there.

When Ms. Weaver told police Machado spent Ms. Lorigan’s money, she really meant they both spent it, Kochems said.

Reed said he wondered how Turk’s knife got to the apartment when police photos showed some of his collection at Ms. Weaver’s home.

He was also concerned about whether the couple had a right to be at the apartment May 19 after they removed items that belonged to them.

Reed said he wouldn’t render a verdict without a jury trial but dropped the burglary charge, which stemmed from the couple entering the apartment. Misko’s motion to dismiss the other charges was denied.

Misko prepared to call the defense’s witnesses and Ms. Weaver said she didn’t wish to testify.

In other testimony:

ä Turk said he left his knives in the apartment’s living room closet and he may have shown them to Machado at one point. He didn’t know what happened to them after he moved out.

ä Molton said he didn’t have these items sent for DNA and fingerprint testing: Ms. Lorigan’s cell phone; the light bulbs Machado allegedly unscrewed in the apartment; the two knives recovered from a stream near Ms. Weaver’s home; Lorigan’s fingernail clippings and clothes; fabric from Ms. Weaver’s car; and a partial, bloody footprint from the kitchen wall.

He sent items for testing that he thought were pertinent after interviewing Ms. Weaver and Machado, and those included a sweatshirt and belt from Ms. Weaver’s bedroom that had Lorigan’s blood on them.

Molton also said Ms. Lorigan told him she saw Ms. Weaver holding nothing during the attack.

ä Floyd Bottles, Espyville, Pa., Ms. Weaver’s grandfather, and Brenda Stefanski Hoffman, Burghill, Ohio, a friend and neighbor of the Weavers, said their opinions of Ms. Weaver’s reputation is that she’s non-violent.

ä Susan Weaver, Ms. Weaver’s mother, said she heard someone come home early May 20 after she had gone to bed but didn’t check to see who it was. Ms. Weaver has told police she and Machado spent the night at her Fowler home after the murder.

Later May 20, Mrs. Weaver let police search the home after Ms. Weaver and Machado had left, and they asked her to call them if she saw Machado.

She called police after seeing Machado that night at Mrs. Stefanski Hoffman’s home, where he was arrested.

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