Accused child killer Nathan Shaw was in Blair County Court on Friday for his preliminary hearing stemming from the Dec. 26 stabbing death of a six-year-old Tyrone boy and the rape and beating of his mother.
After less than 90 minutes and three witnesses, Magisterial District Judge Fred Miller decided that all charges against the 25-year-old suspect be held for court at the county level.
The prosecution’s main witness was the boy’s mother. The Daily Herald is not identifying the woman since she is a rape victim.
The woman who has been described as Shaw’s ex-girlfriend testified that Shaw arrived at her home on Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 8:30 on the night of the murder.
She said she let Shaw in the home and eventually he put duct tape over her mouth. She told the court Shaw said he was going to kill her. She said the duct tape was not the type of tape that she kept in her home.
She said Shaw punched her in the head and face and her son, Jared Klein, referred to Shaw as “daddy” and asked him to stop hitting her. Shaw is not the biological father of the boy.
He said Shaw punched the boy in the face and hit him repeatedly. She said Shaw started to choke both her and her son.
She said she attempted to get away from Shaw by kicking him. She said Shaw bit her. The woman said she told her son to run but he didn’t go far before Shaw was able to get hold of the child. She said she made another attempt to break free from Shaw.
She said she was choked to the point where she became unconscious. The woman said she regained consciousness and found her hands had been tied. Shaw was holding her while they were both on the steps that led to the second floor of her home. She said she passed out again and later regained consciousness on her bed.
She asked Shaw what had happened and said Shaw claimed he had used CPR to revive her. She said Shaw told her he loved her and would not let anything happen to her.
She asked Shaw about her son and he said the boy was okay. She said she told Shaw she had seen him punching the boy. According to the woman, Shaw said he was just trying to knock the boy out.
She said Shaw then tried to rape her but was unable to because of a lack of performance.
She said she told Shaw she wanted him to leave. Shaw then said he would check on another child in the house. The woman has a two-year-old daughter that was fathered by Shaw.
While Shaw went to check on the child, the woman attempted to use the phone to call for help. When he came back to the room, Shaw told the woman that by the time police arrived she and her children would be dead.
She said Shaw looked for items she believed he could use as weapons including a small baseball bat and a screw driver. She said he was pacing and looking out the window. She said she told Shaw he was scaring her. He eventually calmed down and put the items in another room. She said Shaw tried to rape her again and was eventually able to do so.
He got dressed and got the baby and brought it to the woman. The woman testified Shaw said he was going to get Jared and that the boy was unconscious but still alive.
She said she heard a door and Shaw never came back to the room. She eventually was able to look out the window and noticed her car was gone.
She testified that at one point, Shaw had told her he was going to take her car and drive fast and kill himself.
She said her legs had been bound with her pajamas. She said she was eventually able to crawl and went downstairs and saw her son and blood was all over. The woman said she screamed the boy’s name. She said she became aware that the phones in the homes had been damaged and did not work.
The woman’s testimony indicated the events involving Shaw occurred within a one-hour time frame.
She went to a neighbor’s home seeking help. She said the neighbor initially shut the door on her because the neighbor didn’t recognize her due to her injuries.
She pleaded for the neighbor to let her in and the neighbor did when she realized who was at the door. The neighbor called for help while the woman went back to get her daughter from her house.
She said the neighbor’s husband went to check on the boy. She said when he returned she kept asking if Jared was okay but the man would not answer her.
The woman was taken to the hospital for treatment and spent several days there before being released. The woman described her injuries in detail to District Attorney Richard Consiglio in court yesterday. Photographs were also introduced into evidence regarding the injuries.
The woman was cross-examined by defense attorney Ted Krol of Altoona. The woman’s testimony on cross-examination included details about her relationship with Shaw. There had been communication between the two while Shaw was serving a prison term for theft and assault.
She said the communication happened when Shaw was first in prison and it stopped because she had no further interest in him. Shaw was paroled from prison in December of last year. The defense asked if she saw Shaw after his release.
There were three occasions after his release and prior to the Dec. 26 incident where the two saw each other. First was at the residence of Shaw’s father then when the two dined out and on Christmas Eve.
The defense wanted to know about a possible reconciliation between the two. The woman indicated there was no reconciliation between the two.
She said she was not sure how Shaw arrived at her home on the night of the boy’s murder. She said Shaw had spoken to her and her children by telephone earlier in the day.
She said Shaw wanted to know if the woman had a relationship with the property manager where she lived. She said it was not Shaw’s business if she did have such a relationship. She said Shaw told her Jared had told him about it and she was upset that Shaw had “used” her child.
She said Shaw did not use any physical object when she and the boy were attacked downstairs. She said her daughter witnessed the attack in the downstairs area.
She told the defense attorney she wasn’t sure if Shaw had left more than once during the incident.
She was asked if anyone else was in the house during the time of the attack and she said no one else was there. She was asked if anyone else could have entered the house while she was unconscious. She said Shaw was the only one there that night.
After her testimony, the woman remained in the courtroom.
The prosecution presented two other witnesses during the preliminary hearing.
Pathologist Dr. Gordon Handte who conducted an autopsy on the boy testified the child died because of a knife stab wound to his neck. The cause of death was hemorrhaging and the manner of death was homicide. He said the knife was still in place when he conducted the autopsy. He said it severed the boy’s jugular vein. He said the knife was somewhat difficult to remove and had penetrated the left side of the spinal column. He indicated this showed the force that was used to make the wound. He also described the other injuries that had been inflicted on the child. He said the other injuries happened within 30 to 35 minutes of death. He said the victim would have suffered significant pain.
On cross-examination, Handte testified the boy could have lost consciousness. He was asked if that would have limited or caused the boy not to have suffered. He said even during unconsciousness, there is a perception of pain although it is different than when someone is conscious.
Handte was also asked if the other injuries could have caused the death and he indicated those injuries would not have caused the boy to die.
Tyrone Police officer Greg Ray testified about the retrieval of the woman’s car from Oklahoma. Shaw was apprehended in Kay County, OK two days after the murder after a high-speed chase there. Ray testified about traffic citations and a report he had obtained from Oklahoma officials.
Authorities in Oklahoma held Shaw on $1 million bond before agreeing to allow his return to Pennsylvania on a parole violation. Shaw was charged with murder on the day of his return on January 10.
He was held without bail at Blair County Prison after his arraignment. Shaw was remanded to Blair County Prison after the preliminary hearing.
DA Consiglio said yesterday’s hearing went as expected. A formal arraignment is scheduled for March 3 in Blair County Court with a pre-trial conference scheduled for April 24.
