BESHARA TRIAL Other testimony

Comments of those who testified Friday in the trial of Benjamin Beshara:
Jennifer Pountious of McDonald, who said Marilyn Guthrie was her best friend, said she and Guthrie discussed plans for a vacation together and played cards July 9, 2005. Pountious testified she never spoke to Guthrie again after Guthrie left her McDonald residence at 12:15 a.m. July 10. Pountious said Guthrie told her she planned to attend a church service at 7:30 a.m. July 10.
Julie Knowlton, a Rural Metro ambulance paramedic who responded to the Parkcliff Avenue scene July 10, said the woman on the pavement, who was later identified as Guthrie, was unconscious and stopped breathing while being treated by the ambulance crew, which took her to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:29 a.m. that day. "The left side of her face was completely swollen and deformed," and her left leg was broken, Knowlton testified.
Lt. Edward Holcomb, of the Youngstown Fire Department, said he was among the firefighters who responded to a car fire in an isolated area off North Belle Vista Avenue on the city's West Side at 10:55 a.m. July 10. "There was no way to access the area," he testified, adding that the burning car was at least 100 yards from the road and firefighters couldn't get their hoses to it. "All that was left was the shell of the car," Holcomb said of the burned-out vehicle, whose license plate was traced by police to Guthrie.
Patrolman Louis Ciavarella, of the Youngstown police crime lab, testified he took photos at the Parkcliffe location July 10 and at the Belle Vista location July 13. Ciavarella said he found a lady's wristwatch near the burned-out car July 13.