Published: October 26, 2009 11:37 pm      

Officer: Suspect owned up to killing

SOMERSET — A borough policeman testified Monday that Bruce Emerick confessed – just minutes after his fiancee was shot to death on Dec. 29, 2007 – that he fired the shot.

Officer Eric Grus said Monday that Emerick told him, “It was me. I’ll tell you anything.’’

The testimony came on the first day of Emerick’s criminal homicide trial in Somerset County court. He is accused of shooting and killing Jeanine Downing, 33, at the couple’s East Main Street apartment as the two struggled over his rifle.

Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney James Jacobs, Grus recalled seeing Emerick being arrested in a neighboring apartment after Downing, a mother of five, was shot under her right jaw and died on the spot.

“He was emotionally distraught. He was crying,’’ the officer said. “He was covered in blood.’’

Trying to undermine Grus’ credibility, defense attorney Jerome Kaharick of Johnstown pressed Grus on what Emerick said – exactly. Kaharick noted that elsewhere Grus quoted Emerick as saying, “I did it. I’ll tell you anything.’’

Grus said only that Emerick – who was 19 at the time – said “words to that effect.’’

In opening arguments, Jacobs told jurors, “Folks, you don’t load your gun unless you intend to shoot someone or something.’’

The night of Dec. 28-29 was a rolling set of escalating disputes between Downing and Emerick that turned deadly. It was a birthday party for Downing that came to be defined by alcohol and jealousy and violence.

In the end, Downing and her stepbrother went to her apartment and the door was answered by Emerick with a baseball bat in one hand and a rifle slung over his shoulder.

She went in anyway.

In a rear bedroom, Emerick’s cousin, Richard Shaffer Jr., and Jennifer Jacobs, a friend of Downing, tried to calm Emerick.

Downing expressed thoughts about committing suicide and then she and her fiance fought over the rifle when it went off, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing held in May 2008.

That’s when District Judge Art Cook threw out first- and third-degree murder charges against Emerick.

Dr. Abdulrezak Shakir of the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office testified Monday that an autopsy performed at Washington Hospital showed that Downing’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent, more than twice the allowable limit to drive. Officers said Emerick did not appear to be drunk.

Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said he called Shakir into the case because of his expertise in forensic pathology.

And as he did with Miller, Kaharick demanded to know from Shakir why “homicide’’ was checked as the manner of death on autopsy forms.

Miller testified that homicide was an opinion he formed – as required by state law – after consulting with police. Shakir also checked homicide, though admitted he could not rule out another manner of death – such as accident.

“You wrote what the police told you,’’ Kaharick, his voice rising, said to Shakir on the stand.

“That is not correct,’’ the doctor shot back. He told the attorney that – if he were questioning his ethics – he’d better be able to back it up.

Shakir testified that markings under the jawbone indicated that the gun barrel was directly on Downing’s jaw when the weapon was fired.

Jacobs also called Officer Ruth Beckner to the stand.

Beckner testified to getting Jenn Jacobs, a witness, out of the area and to the police station.

Under cross-examination by Kaharick, who asked why Jacobs that morning could not recall seemingly simple things such as Emerick’s last name, Beckner replied, “She witnessed a very, very traumatic event.’’

Beckner said she could not explain 911 tapes in which Jacobs told the emergency operator that her girlfriend had just killed herself.

Kaharick challenged every one of the half-dozen witnesses Monday, asking them if they were there when the shooting occurred. None was.

The trial continues this morning and is expected to last most of the week.