May 7, 2015 6 min read

Freda Thorpe, mother of Jordan Clemons who is on trial for the first-degree murder of Karissa Kunco in January 2012, testified in Washington County Court Thursday afternoon that her first inkling her son was in deep trouble occurred when she received a phone call while attending a pastoral conference in Atlanta, Ga.

Kunco’s mother, Kathy Makowski, phoned because her daughter was missing.

“I had never talked to her before,” Thorpe testified. “She said, ‘Where are they?'”

Thorpe was then told Clemons “kidnapped” Kunco.

“I tried to call my son, Jordan,” Thorpe told the jury. “I tried to find him.”

In repeated attempts, Thorpe was unable to reach Clemons. She was, however, in touch with other family members, and at some point Jan. 12, 2012, she learned Kunco was dead. Thorpe, a Florida resident who is overseer of ReNewed Destiny Kingdom Ministries II, took a Pittsburgh-bound flight to return to the area with her brother, Commodore Perry Kemp, a former wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers who lives in Atlanta.

Thorpe and her son finally connected by phone after the plane landed in Pittsburgh.

“I said, ‘Do you now what happened?'” Thorpe told the jury under direct questioning by First Assistant Public Defender Brian Gorman. Clemons’ response was, “Mom!? No!” she recalled. “He sounded horrified that I was asking him that.”

Thorpe, a former area resident, said she learned police surrounded a house in Westland. “I was afraid he would be shot. My son is like, over the edge right now,” she said Thursday, recalling that night in January. In one of the conversations, Clemons told his mother, “I’m sky-high right now, and I’m going to get higher if you turn me in.”

Clemons was not in Washington County, but in Pittsburgh, where Thorpe and Kemp eventually retrieved him.

Clemons was under the influence of alcohol, his mother testified. She described his demeanor as “edgy and, like, sloppy.

“He can’t take ordinary life without drugs,” Thorpe said, adding Clemons, her youngest son, who is now 26, had problems with alcohol and drugs for about 12 years.

Thorpe was in touch by phone with Trooper Pierre Wilson, who testified earlier Thursday as a prosecution witness. He was among those who took Clemons into custody at the state police barracks in Washington the night of Jan. 12, 2012. Wilson also testified Clemons smelled of alcohol.

Kemp and Pastor Melanie Davis, a Bridgeville resident who met the flight from Atlanta at the Pittsburgh airport, also testified for the defense about Clemons being under the influence the night of Jan. 12.

Gorman called two additional witnesses. Tammy Sowers, of Hickory, said she watched a television news broadcast the morning of Jan. 12, 2012, and saw a missing person report about the blond-haired Kunco. As she stood at the foot of her driveway with her great-nephew, who was catching his school bus, Sowers said she saw a black, soft-top car driven by a blond that nearly hit them. Sowers said she took note of the license plate, four digits of which matched the image she had earlier seen on TV. The car, she said, “turned” into Sabo Road, where Kunco’s body was found by surveyors.

Returning to the witness stand was state police investigator Trooper Thomas Schuster, who, when questioned by Gorman, discussed a brand of kitchen scrubber that was found in Kunco’s car. The fibers of the scrubber, when separated, are used as a sort of filter smoking crack cocaine. A small plastic bag containing a white residue was also found in the car. Under questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Chad Schneider, Schuster said no pipe or drug paraphernalia were in the car.

The prosecution rested its case Thursday morning after Julia Brolley, a DNA analyst for the State Police Crime Laboratory, Greensburg, from 2005 through 2013, told of finding sperm that matched Clemons’ DNA profile in a swab taken from Kunco’s body. The condition of the sperm indicated the two engaged in sexual intercourse within 24 hours of her death, the analyst testified.

Scrapings from Clemons’ fingernails contained his own DNA, that of Kunco and a potential third, unidentified individual, Brolley testified.

Kunco’s blood matched stains on Clemons’ shoes, she told the jury.

Clemons, a former Fort Cherry football standout and Observer-Reporter Football Player of the Year who previously lived in Canonsburg, is accused of killing Kunco, his former girlfriend, and dumping her body in a wooded area of Mt. Pleasant Township. Kunco was last seen alive Jan. 11, 2012. State police allege after killing her, Clemons dragged her naked body into the woods along Sabo Road and covered it with leaves, brush and a tree stump. Her throat was cut. Kunco accused Clemons of beating her in December 2011 and she obtained a protection-from-abuse order against him from Allegheny County Court.

The first witness of the morning was Leah-Ann Andrews, a clerk at Winkle’s Pit Stop, a gasoline station and convenience store at 3232 Millers Run Road, Cecil, who testified she often saw Clemons at the business with a blond-haired woman, but he entered the shop alone at about 6 a.m. Jan. 12, 2012. She refused to sell him cigarettes after he failed to produce identification beyond a PNC bank card.

Andrews said she feared Clemons, whom she described as “fidgety,” intended to rob her, and after he exited the store, the clerk asked her next customer remain there. She reported the encounter to a Cecil police officer when he arrived at a regular time to purchase coffee.

Paul Kunco, Karissa’s father, did not testify because both the prosecution and defense agreed both father and daughter could use his PNC credit-debit card, but Clemons did not have Kunco’s permission to use the card or access the account.

Clemons could face the death penalty if convicted. Judge Gary Gilman recessed the trial until Monday morning and the jury could begin its initial phase of deliberations.