Hearing held for three involved in Bradford County killing
TOWANDA, Pa. (WETM) — A preliminary hearing was held on Friday in Towanda for the three suspects officials say were involved in the killing, dismemberment, and burning of Michael Pruitt back in March.
According to 18 News reporters at the hearing, Ronda Parker, Terry Parker, and Summer Heil were all present in person with their attorneys in front of Judge Jonathan Wilcox on Friday, April 26, as he concluded all three will be tried on all charges after District Attorney Richard Wilson directed the prosecution in presenting evidence for the case.
Wilson brought in 11 witnesses over the five-hour hearing, all of which played some role in piecing together what happened during that weekend from March 8 to the 10th.
Wilson started the morning by adding an additional felony charge to Heil of hindering prosecution, a felony in the third degree after Wilson stated in a news conference in March that more charges were expected. Later in the hearing, Wilson brought up another charge for Heil and added a second count of abuse of a corpse after testimony from witnesses revealed Heil stabbed Pruitt’s body several times before being dismembered.
Ronda Parker’s daughter was first on the stand, explaining to the judge a series of concerning screenshots that were sent to her by Ronda Parker that were between Ronda and Terry Parker while she was at work on March 10. The screenshots led to her contacting the police thus sparking the investigation.
Ronda Parker’s daughter left the stand after speaking about the family dynamic between her and her mother and her feelings toward Ronda Parker and Terry Parker.
Several other witnesses were called to the stand, primarily from law enforcement who explained their role in the investigation. District Attorney Wilson brought up each intervening trooper who spoke with the three suspects after their arrests. The troopers went into detail about the information that was admitted to them by the suspects and used it during the hearing.
Pictures were shown from the crime scene to the judge and the suspect’s attorneys as troopers who were at the scene that day explained in detail what they saw inside and around the home on Sawyer Road in Springfield Township, Bradford County.
Troopers went into detail about the cleanup efforts made inside the home to hide that a possible killing took place inside the residents while bringing up the burn pit on the property where human remains were discovered.
District Attorney Wilson brought in a forensic scientist from Mercyhurst University who brought in a team of students on March 12 to go through the burn pit. The witness was asked a series of questions about what was found that day in the burn pit and concluded that the bones of one person were found and were human. She said that after reconstruction it was learned that there were gunshot defects in the skull and found evidence of dismemberment.
New information that wasn’t presented to the public until the hearing involved the potential weapon used in the killing. A trooper from state police in Harrisburg said that two .44 caliber black powder revolvers were found in a bedroom closet, along with a Walmart-brand wood-cutting axe, during a search of Terry Parker’s Harrisburg home.
A trooper from the state police barracks in Carlisle who interviewed Terry Parker explained that by law Terry can only own black powder firearms due to him being a convicted felon, but Terry Parker never admitted to troopers he used one of the revolvers to shoot Pruitt, however, Ronda Parker said during an interview with state police that the gun used in the killing was a revolver, but wasn’t confident about guns enough to say what it exactly was.
As for the axe, a witness from Walmart Corporate was brought in to provide CCTV footage of Terry Parker and Heil inside a Walmart store in Harrisburg on March 9 where they were seen buying a shovel, an axe, and three sets of work gloves.
Original Post: Three arrested; human remains found and identified in Bradford County killing
This evidence was presented after another trooper testified regarding the search of Terry Parker’s Ford Fusion in Harrisburg that contained a receipt from the transaction of the axe, shovel, and work gloves.
Following the display of evidence and no witnesses brought up by the defense, the closing arguments were done where the attorneys asked for certain charges to be dropped based on certain technicalities and other criteria.
District Attorney Wilson spoke after and ended by saying that based on the evidence, Ronda Parker and Terry Parker conspired together to lure in Michael Pruitt to the residence on Sawyer Road where Wilson said Terry Parker killed him after being shot a total of five times.
Wilson added that Summer Heil knew that Terry Parker killed Pruitt and was involved in the tampering of evidence by assisting him in dismembering the body and stabbing the corpse several times when she saw it for the first time while Ronda Parker worked on cleaning the inside of the home of evidence.
Judge Wilcox listened to both sides and said that in his 24 years on the bench, this was one of the best preliminary hearings he had ever heard in terms of how it was presented.
In his final remarks, he denied the defendants their request to drop various charges and said all three would be tried on all counts.
Ronda Parker faces charges of criminal homicide, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Terry Parker faces the same charges of criminal homicide, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Summer Heil now faces charges of two counts of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and hindering prosecution.
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