Testimony begins in domestic violence trial
While his ex-wife sobbed and wailed on the witness stand Tuesday as she testified about years of physical and mental abuse, David Imhoff sat expressionless in a Washington County courtroom, occasionally making notes on a yellow legal pad.
Judge John DiSalle called a 90-minute recess so Brenda Worstell, 34, of Burgettstown, could compose herself before continuing to recount sordid details of heroin addiction, drug dealing and confrontations with her husband – later ex-husband – that caused her to fear for her life.
In the final episode April 24, 2013, Worstell testified Imhoff sent her “to go sell heroin to somebody and they ended up ripping me off.”
She told the jury when she returned, Imhoff, 37, knocked her to the floor of their 445 Moon Road trailer home in Chartiers Township, bloodying her, leaped atop her and strangled her, yanking her arm so her palm would contact a gun and fire it, leaving a print and residue.
“It wouldn’t reach,” she said of her arm.
Worstell said Imhoff, who had taken drugs that day, intended to kill her and claim to police he acted in self-defense.
“I thought I was going to die right there,” she testified.
As this scenario unfolded, Worstell said Imhoff “had a crazy look in his eyes” and told her, “I should just blow your brains out … Something changed in his eyes and he started crying. I was worried about him killing himself.”
The couple married in 2009 and divorced nearly two years later, but they reunited. The trial before six men, six women and one female alternate is scheduled to continue today.
Imhoff is facing a host of charges including aggravated assault, unlawful restraint and prohibited possession of a firearm from April 24, 2013, plus simple assault and harrassment filed in connection with a Dec. 22, 2012, episode.