Motive, smoking gun and shocking defense revealed in John Chapman murder trial

LAS VEGAS — Another 10 witnesses or so took the stand Tuesday in the cross-country kidnapping and murder trial of John Chapman. It’s been four and a half years since he and Bethel Park woman, Jaime Feden went to Las Vegas and the Nevada desert, but Feden never made it home.

Channel 11 has exclusive coverage of the trial from the Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. Amy Hudak is the only reporter from Pittsburgh in the courtroom as local family, friends and law enforcement testify in the case.

>> Timeline of Bethel Park woman’s disappearance, man’s alleged confession of her murder

The day started with Danielle Wauthier, a scientist with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office back on the stand. In 2019, when she helped investigate and collect evidence in the case, she worked with the mobile crime lab. Wauthier testified that she photographed the inside of Jaime Feden’s townhouse on Timberidge Drive in Bethel Park after she was reported missing by local friends and neighbors in mid-November 2019. We now know that was nearly two months after Feden was left dead in the Nevada desert.

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Inside Feden’s townhouse, Wauthier collected a black backpack. That bag contained wire cutters, zip ties and duct tape. Wearing gloves, Wauthier removed each piece of evidence from manilla envelopes and brown bags and showed the exhibits to the jury. Several credit cards were also photographed in the townhouse and shown in court.

Keith Lewis, Jaime Feden’s Uncle, also took the stand Wednesday. He testified that he and his wife, Kirstin Lewis helped manage Jaime’s trust fund after her mom passed away from cancer when Jaime was just 11 years old. The prosecution says the $200/week Jaime was getting from the trust fund was being siphoned into John Chapman’s bank account.

A digital forensic examiner with the Allegheny County Police Department, Matt Rosenberg, said he recovered pictures of Jaime Feden off of a deleted drive on one of John Chapman’s cell phones. The pictures showed Jaime zip-tied to a signpost in the Nevada desert with duct tape covering her mouth and nose. The family of Jaime Feden was asked to leave the courtroom before those images were shown to the witness and jury.

>> Who is Jaime Feden: Bethel Park woman who was kidnapped, killed in Nevada desert

The defense argued that there is much more to the story and that Jaime Feden and John Chapman had a unique relationship. The defense says Feden consented to be tied up and duct taped when she was intimate with Chapman and that’s what the two were doing in the desert when Jaime died. They argued this killing wasn’t intentional, it was accidental. The defense even presented roughly a half hour of pornographic images of different women bound, gagged and duct taped during sexual acts. At least one of those pictures depicted Jaime Feden. A picture was also shown to the jury of a nightstand drawer in Jaime’s bedroom that had rope inside of it.

>> Man who allegedly confessed to local woman’s murder now saying he didn’t do it

Friends including Karen Kolessar and Brenda Pieczynski testified that Jaime was excited about her trip to Vegas with John Chapman. Kolessar said Jaime wanted to start a new life with Chapman in Vegas and that she was selling many of her things. Pieczynski testified that Jaime told her she’d be gone for two weeks and saved for the trip for nearly a year. Pieczynski added that she also got a Facebook message from Jaime saying she and Chapman had broken up. She was the second person to testify that Jaime revealed she had recently broken up with John Chapman.

A special agent with the FBI, Justin Swartz showed cell phone data from two of John Chapman’s phones. He testified that data showed Chapman and Jaime traveled together to Lincoln County, Nevada the day Jaime died and that both cell phones returned back to the Pittsburgh area days later, even though Jaime never made it home. Rosenberg added during his testimony that after Sept. 25, the day the medical examiner said Jaime died, Feden’s phone started searching very different topics and a lot of pornography that usually wasn’t searched for.

>> Ex-wife of man suspected of murdering Bethel Park woman in 2019 speaks out

Thursday, we’re expecting to hear from the local detective who allegedly got the videotaped confession from John Chapman at the Bethel Park police station and from one of John Chapman’s now ex-wives.

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