The prosecution played over two hours of an interview between law enforcement and the woman accused of killing Timothy Pahl for jurors and the more than 15 friends, family members, fraternity brothers and neighbors there to watch during the second day of trial.
Elizabeth Chinn, 34, was arrested in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania State Police. She is charged with first-degree murder, burglary, grand larceny and two counts of conspiracy.
During the interview, which occurred after PSP arrested Chinn, Monongalia County Sheriff’s Detectives and a PSP Trooper spend more than two hours questioning Chinn during which she eventually admits she killed Pahl.
She told detectives she left the place she was staying and walked through the woods near Pahl’s home. Chinn said she hadn’t slept since she was picked up from the psychiatric hospital a few days before and she wanted a warm place to sit for a minute.
What various witnesses have described as an “immaculate” home with nothing out of place, Chinn took for a model or staged home.
“It didn’t look lived in so I thought I’d be OK to lay down,” Chinn said.
Before sleeping on Pahl’s bed, Chinn said she took a gun from the nightstand and put it in her pocket. She heard him coming upstairs and hid in a closet in the dressing room attached to the master bedroom.
Chinn said she thought she could get out quiet, but that Pahl grabbed her and was hitting her. During the struggle the gun went off and Chinn thought she got shot because Pahl kept hitting her.
Eventually, Pahl fell and Chinn ran out, she said.
In the interview, Chinn also said she had her blue hoodie and tan satchel, both from American Eagle, on when she went to Pahl’s home. Monday, a detective testified he found those items in Pahl’s basement.
On April 24, an informant for the PSP came in with information about a murder in West Virginia, Trooper Edward Urban testified on Tuesday. The informant said the victim was shot and had details about the vehicle police believed Chinn stole from Pahl.
As Urban was on the phone with the West Virginia State Police to try to find where in West Virginia this murder might have occurred, Detective Jon Friend called the PSP seeking help in their investigation of Pahl’s death.
What Friend said “mirrored” the informant’s information and the PSP surveilled the hotel Chinn and others were staying at before ultimately arresting them.
In the hotel room were three pistols, knives — including one engraved with Pahl’s name and Ann, his wife — jewelry, a passport belonging to a Donald Pahl, Ann’s driver’s license and more, PSP Trooper Anthony Stempian testified.
A .22 rifle and a shotgun were found in the truck, which matched the VIN of the one stolen from Pahl’s home, Stempian said.
Mon County Detective Stephen Currie told jurors how those guns were mostly matched to Pahl.
The Ruger .357 used to kill Pahl was not in the hotel room. However, a Rock Island .45 was, Currie said.
Glenn Weaver Jr., who pleaded guilty to burglary, grand larceny and two counts of conspiracy as a result of this incident testified he traded the .357 for the Rock Island .45 to a friend but that he didn’t know it was the murder weapon when he did.
The person Weaver traded the weapon to had traded it when Currie found him, as had the next person, and the next, who said he gave it to a family member to keep in a safe. Currie recovered the gun from that safe, he said.
Pahl’s son, Andrew, found the purchasing paperwork for that revolver and the serial numbers on the paperwork and weapon matched, Currie said. The 9mm was also matched through paperwork Andrew found.
The Marlin .22, found in the truck, was identified through Pahl family photos. Andrew said his father owned a shotgun, but couldn’t find any paperwork for the one found. There was also no proof the .380 was ever in Pahl’s home, Currie said.
Andrew also identified several pieces of jewelry found in Pennsylvania as belonging to his father or mother, Currie said.
The trial will continue today with the remaining 10 minutes of the interview video and the rest of Currie’s testimony, which was cut short Tuesday because of the time.
