DANVILLE – After slashing his girlfriend 20 times with a steak knife, Westley Wise fell in her blood numerous times while smoking cigarettes, a police officer testified.
“He knew he killed her. She was screaming for help,” Danville Patrolman J.D. Stanley testified Wednesday afternoon at the homicide preliminary hearing for Wise, 33.
“He said he didn’t call 911 because he didn’t want to get into trouble,” Stanley said.
Stanley read the statements made to him by Wise while the defendant was being examined in Geisinger Medical Center. He had taken anti-depressants and sedatives.
Following the one-hour hearing, Montour County District Judge Marvin Shrawder sent the case to court. Wise was returned to the county jail without bail on an open count of criminal homicide in the death of Jessica Frederick, 26, Jan. 24 at their home at 508 E. Front St.
No decisions
Following the hearing, County District Attorney Robert Buehner Jr. said he hasn’t decided if he would seek the death penalty in the case.
“I don’t have to decide until the formal arraignment,” he said. The arraignment could be March 10 and most likely in April, Buehner said.
Regarding the possibility of an insanity defense, public defender Michael Dennehy said it “was way too early” to decide that.
“We need to find out the facts before we decide,” he said. “We’re still finding out the facts.”
During the hearing, Stanley said Wise told him and Danville Patrolman Chris Plafcan he got into an argument with Frederick and admitted cutting her with a kitchen knife for no reason.
“He said they broke up a week ago and both had started pushing,” Stanley said. Wise told the officers he took a knife from the kitchen sink and slashed her in the throat first and then slashed her body while she was lying on the floor. Wise told them he drank seven 12-ounce cans of Miller Lite beer before the altercation, Stanley said.
Stanley said Wise told them the knife he used was serrated with a black handle and he stabbed her while their 21-month-old daughter Addison was upstairs.
Stanley read from the notes he took and said he asked Wise twice if they were his answers and he said they were.
Wise, represented by public defenders Dennehy and Laurie Pickle, called no witnesses.
Prosecution witnesses
Buehner, assisted by attorney Rebecca Warren, called three witnesses.
Six relatives of Wise attended the hearing and several relatives of Frederick, including grandparents Veda and Al Kopitsky of Coal Township, were on hand. Trudy Koch, Wise’s aunt, and her husband Scott of Benton, said Wise’s brother Barry Wise Jr. of Pottstown was there but his father, also of Pottstown, was unable to attend. Mrs. Koch said Barry Sr. “couldn’t take it.” One Wise relative said “It was too heart-breaking” to talk about the case.
The hearing was held in a filled commissioners’ conference room in the courthouse. The courtroom wasn’t available because it is being renovated.
Wise, the attorneys, Shrawder and Danville Sgt. William Wilt III sat around the table in the conference room.
Stanley said he gave Wise his Miranda Warning orally because he did not have a Miranda sheet with him. He didn’t tape the conversation since he didn’t have a tape recorder. Stanley said his cell phone was dead and he could not leave Wise in the hospital room.
“I was lucky to find a tablet,” Stanley said of the paper he used to transcribe the defendant’s statements during cross-examination by Pickle, a public defender.
Plafcan also testified Wise told them he didn’t call 911 because he didn’t want to get into trouble.
He said he was present when Wise told County Coroner Scott Lynn he took pills after the stabbing because “he wanted to go sleep and was tired.”
Plafcan said Wise told him and Stanley he and Frederick got into an argument and pushed and shoved each other.
“He grabbed a knife from the sink and stabbed her in the throat. She went to the ground. He kept stabbing until she stopped. He went upstairs to change clothes, smoked some cigarettes, sat on the couch and went to bed. The next thing he knew his dad was waking him up,” Plafcan said.
Empty pill bottles
Lynn testified he found at least three empty pill bottles on the counter and table in the kitchen. One bottle had blood on it, other bottles had their lids off, he said. Because of that, Lynn went to the Danville police station where Wise was being held. Wise admitted taking the pills. Lynn and another Danville Ambulance Service paramedic decided to take Wise to Geisinger Medical Center. Lynn said the pills were a mixture of anti-depressants and a sedative-type. On cross-examination by the defense, Lynn said he believed there had been a 911 call to the Wise-Frederick home a week before, but he did not respond to the call and he didn’t know who responded.
Lynn said an autopsy of Frederick’s body, done two days after her body was found, in Lehigh Valley Hospital showed she was stabbed a total of 20 times, including at least twice in the back. She was stabbed multiple times in the hands area which indicated they were defensive in nature, like she was attempting to ward off an attack. Lynn said there were at least three or four neck wounds. An internal exam showed the wounds penetrated the chest cavity and one neck wound severed the carotid artery, he said.
Any one of three wounds to the chest would have been fatal, Lynn said, including the blow to the carotid artery and two wounds to the chest with each penetrating the lung cavity.
911 call
Lynn testified the ambulance responded to a 911 call shortly after 10 a.m. Jan. 25 about two unresponsive people at the Wise-Frederick home. An older man opened the door and said, “There’s one in the kitchen. She’s dead and somebody else is upstairs.” Lynn and the ambulance crew saw Frederick lying on the kitchen floor. The older man went upstairs. Because the crew didn’t feel safe, they left the home and asked police to respond immediately. After Wilt and Police Chief Eric Gill arrived, Lynn went back inside and observed blood splatter, a knife in the kitchen, a knife in the dining room and blood tracks on the floor leading to the steps.
Lynn said the older man, later identified as Wise’s father, Barry Wise Sr., came out of the home and was taken to the police station. “We were told there was another person and a small child in the house,” Lynn said, adding police made multiple attempts with a public address system and trying to call the home and the Wise cell phone.
Wise eventually came out of the home carrying the baby. Lynn took the small child who was taken to the hospital to be examined.
Lynn said the approximate time of Frederick’s death was between 7 and 8 p.m. Jan. 24 or 12 to 14 hours before her body was discovered.
E-mail comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com.
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Westley Wise is escorted into the Montour County Courthouse on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
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