UPDATED on Oct. 15 at 4:35 p.m.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Testimony is complete in the first-degree murder trial of a Warrington man accused of killing his girlfriend outside her West Conshohocken home. Jurors saw and heard video of the shooting on the trial’s second day — and of the breakup that precipitated it.
Michael Dutkiewicz, from Oakfield Road in Warrington, is accused of shooting and killing Alyssa Wiest, 25, outside her home on Moorehead Avenue minutes after she ended their relationship.
Jurors were shown a doorbell video of the events on Wednesday. Wiest and Dutkiewicz got back to her house from a bar at 11:55 p.m. on May 17. At 12:19 a.m., Wiest was seen on her doorbell camera carrying a suitcase and putting it in her driveway. Behind her, Dutkiewicz said, “Dude. Can I get the rest of my stuff?” Wiest replied, “You’re so dramatic,” as she walked back inside the house. Dutkiewicz followed her in.
Prosecutor Yasmine Finnegan on Tuesday told jurors that at 12:23 a.m., Dukiewicz searched on his phone “how to load and shoot a revolver.”
Finnegan said he grabbed the gun Wiest kept in the console by her television and went up to her bedroom, then fired two shots at her inside the home as she ran down the stairs and out the front door.
The doorbell camera showed her running and screaming as he chased her off camera, followed by two more shots, a pause and a final shot. He ran back into view of the camera, got in his truck and drove away.
Neighbors on Tuesday testified they heard a scream before the gun shots. One described it as “guttural, like her whole body was screaming.” Another described it as “pure fear.”
Medical examiner Ian Hood testified Wiest was shot four times in the back. One of those shots went through her spine, immediately paralyzing her before it tore through her heart, killing her within seconds.
Hood said Wiest was shot in the head after she fell to the ground, but it was a graze wound.
Dutkiewicz drove to his family’s home in North Wildwood and hid the gun, which was later recovered with cooperation from him and his parents.
Defense attorney Tim Woodward said it wasn’t a whodunnit or a how-dunnit, but instead a why-dunnit. He said Dutkiewicz was blindsided by the breakup and the couple had been drinking that night. Add in a gun and Woodward called it a toxic situation, but maintained it lacked the premeditation required for first-degree murder.