Daughter testifies in homicide trial
A Burgettstown woman testified Thursday her ex-boyfriend Brian Wilbert “was in a horrible frame of mind” during the moments before her father fatally shot him.
“He was staring through me,” said Darlo Bongiorni. “I’ve never seen Brian like that.”
The man Wilbert allegedly focused on was her father, James Bongiorni, 69, who faces a single charge of criminal homicide in the shooting death of Wilbert, 38, of Imperial following an argument April 27, 2016. His daughter testified on the third day of his trial before a Washington County jury.
Prosecutors are focusing on evidence and testimony suggesting Wilbert was allegedly unarmed and not lunging at the older man when Bongiorni fired the single shot that killed him.
The shooting occurred at Kerr Street and Hillcrest Avenue, outside Darlo Bongiorni’s home.
The defense argues the shooting was an act of self-defense by a father who left his home – one street over from his daughter’s – to come to her aid after she already called 911 multiple times that night without police coming to her help.
Albert Veverka, one of Bongiorni’s attorneys, described events that night as the “culmination of years of domestic abuse, both physical and mental,” on the part of Wilbert against his ex-girlfriend, with whom he shared a child. Veverka described a series of previous instances – from 2006 to 2008 – when Wilbert assaulted Darlo Bongiorni or terrorized her family.
He also allegedly threatened Darlo Bongiorni and her then-live-in boyfriend over the phone during the day and again about an hour before he arrived drunk from McKees Rocks with his friend, Charles Marsico.
Darlo Bongiorni testified she tried for a while to keep her son’s father in her life despite the abuse because she wanted to have a family.
Veverka read portions of protection-from-abuse orders she had sought against Wilbert in which he asked her about her relationship with Wilbert.
Darlo Bongiorni called her father a “great man” and her “best friend” during her testimony, also breaking down crying several times, which also appeared to elicit tears from her father.
Assistant District Attorney Rachel Wheeler pointed out Wilbert did not physically harm Darlo Bongiorni the night of the shooting.
Wheeler also asked about a PFA petition Darlo Bongiorni filed in 2010. In that case, she alleged her father held a 9 mm handgun to her head.
Veverka pointed out a judge denied her an emergency petition, and she later withdrew the case.
According to her testimony and previous statements to police, James Bongiorni told Wilbert to leave and that he had a gun before he pulled the trigger of the two-shot, .38-caliber Questioned by Wheeler, Darlo Bongiorni “absolutely” disagreed with the statement her father always carries a gun.
Wheeler drew from a recorded statement her witness had given to a county detective in October 2016, portions of which were played for jurors Thursday.
Police found Wilbert sitting unconscious in the driver’s seat of the Pontiac Grand Am. A Bowie knife was between the seat and the door.
No testimony has shown he was holding it at the moment he was shot.
Under questioning by Wheeler, Darlo Bongiorni maintained she did not recall telling the detective many details in her October statement.
She said she could not recall telling the detective she had not seen Wilbert coming at her father with a knife. Nor could she remember saying she didn’t see a knife in Wilbert’s hand – or him dropping one – after he was shot.
She also did not recall telling the detective her mother, Sandy Bongiorni, ran down the road yelling, “I hope you die, Wilbert,” and fired off two gunshots herself after her husband already fired the first – details she said she heard from her son.
She did, however, testify she saw a knife glinting in Wilbert’s hand when he reached into the Grand Am parked nearby. She said Wilbert reached into the vehicle and held something up before striding to meet her father – who walked down Kerr Street in his pajamas and slippers – face to face.
She said “everything happened so fast,” and she “passed out three times” that night.
“This is very hard for me,” she interjected at one point, “and we keep going over the same things.”
Judge Michael J. Lucas said he expected the trial to resume at 9 a.m. today.