Witnesses: Wash. Co. Murder Suspect Threatened Suicide Prior To Turning In Self
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The trial for a man accused in the stabbing death of his estranged girlfriend in Washington County continued Wednesday.
Witnesses testified that Jordan Clemons threatened suicide in the hours before he turned himself in.
The girlfriend of one of Clemons' close friends testified she picked him up from the area in Washington County, where victim Karissa Kunco's car was found, promising to get him the help he needed.
Eventually, his mother came to get him.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said the day before Kunco's body was discovered, she and Clemons communicated via Facebook about meeting again.
It was a month after she had filed a Protection from Abuse Order against him. He was facing a number of his own legal problems and sounding suicidal.
Kunco agreed to meet with Clemons. But the next day her car was found slammed against a tree with a lot of blood in the back seat.
And in another wooded area, some skid marks and women's clothing were found; and then under a tree stump and a pile of leaves, the nude body of a woman, which was eventually identified as Kunco.
The jury also saw surveillance video of victim at an ATM and the defendant buying an Xbox at a local Walmart hours before Kunco's body was found.
Surveillance video of Kunco taken at 6 p.m. on the day before her body was discovered shows her making two withdrawals of $100 each at an ATM on Brownsville Road and Route 51 in Whitehall.
In the hours before that, investigators say she had agreed to meet Clemons nearby.
The vision of her wearing a pink top was too much for some of her family and friends as they left the courtroom in tears.
Before her car crashed into the tree, investigators say that it was also spotted at a gas station in Washington County where gasoline was purchased.
Then, at about 2 a.m., investigators say Clemons arrived at a Walmart in a Washington County shopping center to purchase an Xbox 360 gaming system.
The one he wanted cost $316.94. He took it to the checkout counter and paid for it with the debit card Kunco's father gave her to use for emergencies and signed for it. Investigators also believe he made two unsuccessful attempts to use either her or her father's cards that night.
Then, at 2:14 a.m., just hours before Kunco's body would be discovered, prosecutors say Clemons drove her car, the car where large amounts of blood were found inside out of the Walmart parking lot.
Friends testified that by the next morning, Clemons was threatening to take his own life once his name was connected to Kunco's death in various news reports.
And State Trooper Tom Schuster testified that once Clemons turned himself in, "He said, 'You have it all wrong. I did not kidnap her. We went to the bank, we began to argue and she hit me in the head and that's all I remember.'"
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