A hearing has been set for Friday in the criminal case against the Bradford man charged with murdering his girlfriend Tammy Prosser on May 10, 2021.
Anthony Fenton, 37, is charged with homicide, aggravated assault with extreme indifference to the value of human life, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Fenton was arrested May 10, 2021, for allegedly assaulting Prosser in his upper apartment at 117 Main St., Bradford. Prosser was treated at Bradford Regional Medical Center, and then flown to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. She was taken off life support on May 12.
While Fenton alleged that Prosser fell down the stairs, emergency responders said the injuries didn’t indicate that, as bruising on her body matched the sole of Fenton’s boot, the criminal complaint alleged.
Fenton had called 9-1-1, saying that Prosser was unconscious and needed immediate help. Police responded with paramedics. Prosser was on the floor between the bed and the wall and showed no signs of life, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.
Fenton’s attorney, Public Defender Phil Clabaugh, filed a motion to suppress statements and evidence.
According to court documents, at the time of the incident, Fenton was removed from the room where Prosser was being treated. He said he wanted to leave, but police did not allow him to leave the residence on his own. Instead, Police Chief Mike Ward went outside with him.
Clabaugh said police were restricting Fenton’s movements. Therefore, he was “subject to custodial arrest that was not supported by probable cause based on information known to the officers at the time,” the motion to suppress read.
Officers continued to question Fenton, yet he had not been given his Miranda rights, the motion read.
One of the paramedics told police that Prosser’s injuries were so severe “this could be murder/strangle,” according to hearing testimony. However, the motion read, other emergency personnel said Prosser may have fallen down the stairs as Fenton reported.
Therefore, at the time Fenton was being questioned, there was not probable cause that any crime had been committed “to justify his detention” and any statements he made, or evidence obtained, “were the basis of an unlawful arrest and should be suppressed,” the motion read.
Fenton was further questioned at the police station by Ward and McKean County Detective Ryan Yingling, and his footwear had been removed, the motion read.
Because he was unlawfully detained, “any evidence obtained from his unlawful arrest should be suppressed as ‘fruit of the poisonous tree,’” including any statements to police in his two-hour-thirteen-minute interview, any physical evidence obtained including his boots, and DNA testing from the boots, the motion read.
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer has filed a motion to dismiss the suppression motion, saying it is vague and fails to state the grounds for suppression.
Clabaugh has also filed a motion for discovery, seeking a report from Yingling and the contents of Fenton’s phone, or the release of Fenton’s phone so he can retain an expert to view the contents for himself, the motion read.
Friday’s hearing, set for 9 a.m. at the McKean County Courthouse, is scheduled as a pretrial conference and a motions hearing. Fenton remains incarcerated in McKean County Jail without bail.
According to the online docket, there is no trial date scheduled as of yet.
