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Friday, July 04, 2003

By Virginia Kopas Joe, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Teenager Matthew Bumbaugh told a jury yesterday about a hysterical phone call from his best friend, Ian Bishop, who said he had just killed his brother.

Bumbaugh, 17, and his mother testified about how they rushed to Bishop's house in Hempfield and found carnage -- 18-year-old Adam Bishop sprawled in a bathtub, bleeding, with what Bumbaugh described as a "large hole" in his head.

And they spoke about how calm Ian Bishop, then 14, and his suspected accomplice seemed to be, Bishop drinking from a gallon of milk and remarking that "maybe that would be good" if his brother drowned in the tub.

Tears, drama and graphic testimony and photos punctuated the first day of Ian Bishop's homicide trial yesterday in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court.

In his opening statement, defense lawyer Thomas Ceraso told the jury the brothers had a good relationship and that they would hear "no credible testimony" that Adam Bishop's death was a case of premeditated murder. Rather, he said, it resulted from a fight between the brothers and a third teen.

Assistant District Attorney Pat Noonan said Ian Bishop, now 15, was a cold-blooded killer who planned the attack on his brother, hit him on the head 18 times with a claw hammer and dragged him into the shower to drown. The prosecution is seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Noonan said Ian Bishop has shown no remorse since his brother's death and that just hours after the killing, told friends that they should "watch the evening news," then went to Westmoreland Mall where witnesses said he was laughing.

The killing occurred April 19, 2002, in the Bishops' comfortable home in Hempfield.

A second suspect, Robert M. Laskowski, 16, will be tried later.

The brothers' parents, Jeffrey and Karen Bishop, sat in a front row in Judge Debra Pezze's courtroom, looking down as the jury viewed photos, projected onto a large screen, of the severe damage to Adam Bishop's skull and face.

Bumbaugh, of Grapeville, recalled that on the afternoon of the killing, Ian Bishop called him, asking him to come to his house "and bring a gun" and saying he had killed his brother.

Bumbaugh and his mother, Terri Bumbaugh, drove to the Bishop home. Both mother and son said they saw a calm-looking Laskowski at the door and Ian inside, walking up the stairs, also appearing calm and drinking from a gallon of milk.

Both said they saw blood on the floor at the top of the steps, leading into the bathroom, where they found Adam Bishop on his stomach in the bathtub with the shower running.

"He had a large hole at the rear of his head," Matthew Bumbaugh said.

"I could hear him gurgling and said, 'We need to shut the water off or he'll drown,' " Terri Bumbaugh testified. She said Ian Bishop replied: "Maybe that would be good."

The Bumbaughs called 911 and, with neighbors' help, moved Adam and turned off the water. He was flown to UPMC Presbyterian where he was pronounced dead at 8:37 that night.

Matthew Bumbaugh said he saw a bloody claw hammer and a wooden billy club lying on a wicker laundry basket in the hall. He said that Ian Bishop appeared to have changed his clothes and described his friend at that point as "a zombie, it wasn't Ian, he was different."

Terri Bumbaugh sobbed during her testimony and at one point asked the prosecution to remove photos of the bloody site from the monitor.

Before his opening, Ceraso once again moved to have the case sent to juvenile court because of the age of the accused. Once again, Pezze declined.

The trial was recessed for the weekend and resumes Monday at 9:15 a.m.