North Strabane man convicted of premeditated murder of his wife by shooting

A Washington County jury took about 90 minutes to convict Scott Edmonds of North Strabane Township of first-degree murder in the 2014 death of his wife.

The verdict, which carries a life sentence, was announced Tuesday after jurors heard Edmonds’ testimony in the case. He was expressionless as the verdict was read.

The 60-year-old sat on the witness stand for two hours and testified that he believed his wife, Louise Weis-Edmonds, died by suicide by inflicting a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

His testimony nearly derailed his trial when he twice mentioned to the jury that the lead investigator investigating his wife’s shooting death had later been fired because of problems in another case.

Edmonds, who shot Louise Weis-Edmonds in the back of the head in her North Strabane townhouse on March 25, 2014, mentioned John Wybranowski twice during his testimony, drawing harsh criticism from Judge John DiSalle, who ordered the comments to be struck from the record but did not order the trial to be dismissed.

Wybranowski was a North Strabane Police detective and lead investigator in the Edmonds murder case until he was fired from the department in January 2016 for violating the township’s computer use policy and police department directives by allegedly viewing and copying documents found on the computer and cellphone of a former parks and recreation director. A mediator assigned to handle a union complaint after Wybranowski’s firing claimed the former police officer was not credible during an internal investigation and likely lied in portions of his interviews on the matter.

However, since none of this information could be presented to the jury in Edmonds’ trial, which began last Wednesday in the Washington County Courthouse, he attempted to introduce it through his own testimony during cross-examination on the witness stand.

“Ten years of thinking about a story. The cops are all liars?” District Attorney Jason Walsh asked rhetorically in his first question to Edmonds. “Is that your story?”

“No, I wouldn’t say they’re liars,” Edmonds replied. “They tend to exaggerate. Maybe some of them are liars.”

As questions continued about discrepancies in memory between Edmonds’ account of what was said during his interrogation and what is contained in court documents written by police, the defendant named Wybranowski and spoke about his role in another case.

“Well, Detective Wybranowski was fired for tampering with evidence,” Edmonds said before looking directly at the jury. “I bet you didn’t know that.”

Walsh objected, and DiSalle asked Edmonds to leave the witness stand while the attorneys held a side session to discuss the situation. DiSalle then instructed the jury to ignore that last comment, admonishing Edmonds and telling him not to make such comments again.

“The witnesses must answer questions and not blurt out statements,” DiSalle said before turning to Edmonds. “You nod in agreement. I expect you to comply. Now, take the stand again.”

During a tense exchange, Walsh repeatedly used the phrase “common sense” when he asked Edmonds whether his wife’s death could have been suicide, as he claimed, and why his explanation differed from what investigators said he said in an interview immediately after the shooting.

“This whole case is just a conspiracy against you, isn’t it?” Walsh said.

“Well, the lead investigator was fired for tampering with evidence,” Edmonds replied.

Once again, the lawyers went off track, and DiSalle tried to get the testimony back on track while urging the jury to ignore these comments.

“There is no evidence to support these facts,” DiSalle said of Edmonds’ mention of Wybranowski’s name.

During his testimony, Edmonds, wearing a gray suit and checkered tie, spoke in a soft but deep voice, sometimes laughing nervously. The jury of six men and six women seemed riveted by the testimony and watched Edmonds closely as he spoke.

During his direct testimony, Edmonds said his wife had become a heavy drinker in recent months after caring for her ailing parents and her “favorite uncle” had died six days before her death. Edmonds said Weis-Edmonds placed great importance on her appearance and was once a makeup artist, which is why he suspected she would shoot herself in the back of the head.

“My wife shot at everything that was farthest from her face,” Edmonds said.

Edmonds said they had both been drinking throughout the day when he went upstairs the day of his wife’s death and fell asleep around 6:15 p.m. Just before 9 p.m., he was awakened by a noise he wasn’t sure if it was a gunshot or the townhouse’s malfunctioning garage door closing.

“I heard a loud bang,” Edmonds said.

He called 911 and told the dispatcher he believed there had been a gunshot in the house and said he found his wife bleeding on the kitchen floor. He then went to the neighbors next door and asked for help.

“I was panicking,” he said. “I was hysterical.”

A neighbor came over to help as Edmonds lay on top of his wife, cradling her. Edmonds had no explanation for how the .380 handgun used to shoot Weis-Edmonds was found in the bag of a pool table in an adjacent room.

“I looked around and didn’t see a gun,” Edmonds said of the officers who responded and asked him to show his hand and tell them where the gun was. “I said, ‘What gun?'”

Wybranowski found the gun more than three hours later in the pocket of a pool table in an adjacent room. He did not testify or mention the circumstances under which he left the police station.

Edmonds, a physical therapist, also denied talking on the phone to a patient’s wife from his home office more than an hour before he heard the “bang,” in which a man’s voice could be heard saying: “I killed Louise. I’m sorry.”

Edmonds said he told police during his interview that Weis-Edmonds’ death was his fault because he did not provide her with adequate support.

“I wasn’t there for her. I didn’t support her emotionally. I neglected her,” Edmonds said. “I wasn’t unkind to her, but my job is more important to me. I blame myself and I still do.”

However, he appeared to insult his late wife’s family on several occasions, prompting relatives sitting in the audience to respond to some of his comments. In one comment, he said Weis-Edmonds’ brothers hadn’t been much help in caring for their parents, and in another, he made a derogatory remark about his wife’s brother, who gasped and then put his hands on his head before leaving the courtroom.

This culminated in his closing remarks, when defense attorney Mark Adams asked his final questions.

“Mr. Edmonds, did you kill your wife?” said Adams.

“No, I didn’t,” Edmonds replied.

Adams then asked him why he decided to testify, to which Edmonds replied that he wanted to set the record straight so that his wife’s family would know what he claimed happened, not what was printed in the local newspaper.

“Because, frankly, I don’t give a shit,” Edmonds said at the end of his direct statement.

Walsh addressed this statement in his final question during cross-examination.

“In Mr. Adams’ last question, you said you didn’t care (expletive),” Walsh said.

“It’s been 10 years,” Edmonds said. “I don’t give a shit. I just want to tell my story.”

During closing arguments that afternoon, Adams mentioned Wybranowski’s name and asked why he was on the prosecution’s witness list but never testified at trial, even though he found the gun hours after numerous other police officers at the crime scene failed to do so.

“We can only guess what his testimony would be,” Adams said.

In her closing argument, First Assistant District Attorney Leslie Mylan urged the jury to use “common sense” when considering the facts of the case to conclude that Edmonds pulled the trigger. She said they had sought a conviction of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.

“The only scenario that seems reasonable to us is murder,” Mylan said.