Sep 14, 2016 5 min read

A state trooper charged in a domestic violence incident testified Wednesday he was vexed by an angry text message he got from his wife – who was sick with a cold and alone with their two young children – while he was out drinking beer with his friends.

“I wrote her back, ‘Kill me?’ I was puzzled by that,” said Christopher Joseph Campbell, 34, of 229 Fieldbrook Drive, North Strabane Township. He went on to say she also told him he “should be hit” and made other threats.

Campbell, who testified in his own defense on the second day of his trial before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman, is charged with simple assault.

Police said Campbell allegedly struck Emily Campbell, 32, with an open hand during an argument Oct. 25 and later grabbed her and threw her to the ground in a yard next door to their house when he returned later that night.

Christopher Campbell is suspended without pay. He was sworn in as a trooper in 2008.

The text messages the couple exchanged while Campbell was out drinking with his friends – starting during a Steelers game early in the afternoon – figured in his and his wife’s testimony.

Cross-examined by Assistant District Attorney Kristin Clingerman, Campbell admitted to sending his wife texts that included calling her “a (expletive) degenerate psychopath,” accusing her of being “a drunk” and telling her to “commit yourself.”

Alluding to mental health issues Emily Campbell described in her testimony, Clingerman asked the state trooper whether that was the best way to defuse the situation.

“That probably wasn’t the best choice of words,” Christopher Campbell conceded.

Attorney Christopher Blackwell, who represents the trooper, reminded jurors his client “is not accused of failing to defuse a volatile situation.”

Emily Campbell on Tuesday took the stand to accuse Clingerman of “putting words in my mouth” to further the criminal case, insisted she was the “aggressor” and said she was being a “drama queen” when she initially gave her account of the incident.

Clingerman asserted the victim’s testimony at trial contradicted the previous accounts she gave to police, a neighbor and under oath at a December preliminary hearing.

Blackwell said the prosecution “spent most of their case trying to destroy their own witness.”

Christopher Campbell’s version of events was similar to the most recent one offered by his wife. He said he came home about 8:30 p.m. and the argument soon became physical despite his attempts at talking through it.

The first physical altercation that night allegedly took place in an upstairs hallway when Campbell put his hands in front of his face to protect himself when his wife lunged at him.

Campbell “reasonably believed the force that he used was necessary” to counter the force his wife directed at him when she was scratching his neck and face, Blackwell said.

Clingerman presented jurors with photographs taken by police of Emily Campbell that Clingerman said undermine this claim. Along with bruising on the right side of her face, her eye had swollen shut within seven hours of the incident and there were scratches on the eyelid.

Campbell said following the incident in the hallway, he left the house – making a six- to eight-inch hole in the drywall on his way down the stairs, according to a police officer – and returned later to find his wife had called his parents in an attempt to seek their help in resolving the situation.

At some point after he returned, his wife left their home apparently to seek refuge with their then-neighbors.

Sgt. David Richards of North Strabane Township police, one of two officers who responded, said Douglas Digiovanni told him he saw Emily Campbell run across the yard screaming, “Not again, not again.” Richards said the witness saw her trying to pull open the door of the house before her husband grabbed her by her torso and they both wound up on the grass.

Blackwell said his client was trying to calm his wife down and showed “no intent to harm (Emily Campbell) or cause any physical injury. He was trying to get her back into the house.”

Christopher Campbell weighs roughly 230 pounds. His wife weighs about 120 pounds.

Both denied he’d ever previously hit her.

Questioned why he didn’t tell police his actions in the hallway were defensive, Campbell said he didn’t want authorities to get his wife arrested.

Blackwell summarized his client’s reasoning: “If I was going to be arrested, I didn’t want her to get in trouble because we have two young kids.”

Clingerman questioned why Campbell left his children in the care of someone he apparently regarded as unstable and take other steps to control the situation, such as calling an ambulance or doctor.

Jurors were sent home in the evening after about four hours of deliberation and told to return at noon today.