{"id":5557,"date":"2013-05-23T08:21:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T12:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2013-05-23T09:08:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T13:08:06","slug":"court-records-murder-victim-repeatedly-threatened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=5557","title":{"rendered":"Court records: Murder victim repeatedly threatened"},"content":{"rendered":"

PFAs suggest decades-long history of domestic abuse<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Court<\/a>

Court records show that Jamica Woods, 37, of East Fallowfield Township, expressed repeated fears that Gregory A. Twyman, 44, her longtime boyfriend, would kill her.<\/p><\/div>\n

On Tuesday, an East Fallowfield Township man made good on threats to kill his longtime girlfriend that date back more than a decade, court records suggest.<\/p>\n

Gregory A. Twyman, 44, was taken into custody shortly after calling 9-1-1 to report the fatal shooting of Jamica M. Woods, 37, his longtime girlfriend \u2013 and the mother of their 18-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Court records show that Woods sought a Protection-from-Abuse\u00a0 (PFA) petition three times, most recently in December; however, no PFA was active on Tuesday, according to court records.\u00a0 Woods, who was studying computer information systems, made the dean\u2019s list last spring, according to a news release from Harrisburg Area Community College.<\/p>\n

In the Dec. 20 petition, which was filed temporarily in district court and never finalized in county court, Woods cited a \u201clong history of court proceedings\u201d involving the two of them. \u00a0She wrote that he had called about 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 and learned that she had sought a PFA and that\u00a0 \u201che would go to jail\u201d if he approached her. \u201cHe said if I go to jail, wait to see where you go,\u201d the petition said, adding that she believed he would \u201ccause physical harm or even kill\u201d her.<\/p>\n

In 1999, Twyman was charged with terroristic threats, court records said. The criminal complaint said that Twyman, identified as Woods\u2019 ex-boyfriend, called Woods from Florida and wanted to see their daughter. When Woods told Twyman he first needed to resolve issues with the police, \u201che got mad and said when he came home he was just going to blow her [expletive] head off,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Twyman served 71 days in jail for threatening Woods on Jan. 4, 1998, court records said. The complaint said Twyman, identified again as an ex-boyfriend, ran from behind her residence when she was loading laundry into her car, followed her into the home, forced her on the floor, locked the door, and grabbed a knife from the kitchen. He punched her in the face and head and said if she told anyone, \u201che would kill her,\u201d the complaint said. Later, he called Woods when police were at her residence and stated: \u201cYou called cops; I\u2019m gonna get you,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Dolly Wideman-Scott, who heads the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, said the tragedy underscores the difficulties of escaping from an abusive relationship. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to get out, especially when women are repeatedly threatened,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are usually more in fear of the violence after they take action to stop it. That can make perpetrators really angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wideman-Scott said it is important for woman and their loved ones to know that resources are available to help and that threats should be taken seriously.\u00a0 \u201cYou never know what that tipping point will be,\u201d she said. \u201cYou never know when an abusive person will explode.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said women experiencing domestic violence are always advised to call police for their safety and they are also told about options such as emergency shelters, counseling and legal aid.\u00a0 She said some police departments have started to use a Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) that has proven valuable in determining which situations may escalate into a fatality.<\/p>\n

Coatesville Police Officer Rodger Ollis said the program uses a series of insightful questions that quickly help identify the likelihood the situation will worsen. He said as word of the program\u2019s success has spread, more departments are implementing it. \u00a0He said in Maryland, where LAP is nearly universally applied by law enforcement and domestic violence programs, the homicide rate for domestic-abuse victims fell 41 percent in a year.<\/p>\n

According to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, between 2001 and 2011, at least 1,700 people in Pennsylvania died as a result of domestic violence. National research into the circumstances preceding domestic violence homicides led to LAP, a two-pronged intervention process featuring a screening tool and accompanying protocols that enable law enforcement and other first responders to assess domestic violence victims, identify those at highest risk of being killed and immediately initiate contact with a domestic violence service provider, according to the coalition\u2019s web site.<\/p>\n

According to Twyman\u2019s homicide criminal complaint, he called 9-1-1 at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, stating: \u00a0\u201cI need the police; I just shot my girlfriend.\u201d \u00a0When police arrived to take him into custody, he was on the porch of the residence they shared on Rokeby Road smoking a cigarette, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

The day before the murder, the defendant had changed his Facebook profile picture to a shotgun shell, with a shotgun as the background.\u00a0 In response to posted comments, the defendant stated that the picture was \u201ca slug fool,\u201d that it was \u201cgon be too late\u201d if law enforcement tried to intervene, and \u201cOnce i handle my business, i don\u2019t give a [expletive]!\u201d\u00a0During an interview with police, Twyman said he and Woods \u201chad been fighting for days and that he had bought the shotgun shells last week at Walmart,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Twyman, who has an extensive criminal history and was awaiting trial next month on drug charges, has been charged with first-degree murder and related offenses. He was taken to Chester County Prison, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 30, court records said.<\/p>\n

For more information on domestic violence prevention, visit the state organization\u2019s web site at http:\/\/www.pcadv.org<\/a> or the county resource: http:\/\/www.dvccc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PFAs suggest decades-long history of domestic abuse By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times On Tuesday, an East Fallowfield Township man made good on threats to kill his longtime girlfriend that date back more than a decade, court records suggest. Gregory A. Twyman, 44, was taken into custody shortly after calling 9-1-1 to report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[918,2181,433,127,2170,2179,2178,2183,2182,2180],"class_list":["post-5557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-coatesville-police-officer-rodger-ollis","tag-dolly-wideman-scott","tag-domestic-violence-center-of-chester-county","tag-east-fallowfield","tag-gregory-a-twyman","tag-harrisburg-area-community-college","tag-jamica-m-woods","tag-lethality-assessment-program-lap","tag-pennsylvania-coalition-against-domestic-violence","tag-protection-from-abuse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}