The homicide retrial of Phillip D. Walters is set to resume today—Wednesday, Sept. 23—after Tuesday featured opening statements and testimony from police officers and emergency response officials involved in the case soon after Walters reported his girlfriend, Haley Lorenzen, was missing from his Falls Twp. home on Dec. 30, 2018.
Walters is charged with murder in connection with Lorenzen’s death. He was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, but his lawyers appealed and the state Supreme Court granted him a retrial in 2024.
His trial started Monday with jury selection. Senior Judge Thomas A. James, of Columbia County, is presiding. The case is being prosecuted by District Attorney Joe Peters and First Assistant District Attorney Deborah Albert-Heise. Attorneys Bernard Brown and Jordan Leonard are representing Walters.
During opening statements on Tuesday, Peters called Walters a coward, who snuck up behind Lorenzen while she was in the bathroom and bashed her from behind with a hammer, then strangled her.
Peters urged the jury to believe testimony they will hear later in the trial from Gabel Bell, who told police that she helped Walters dump Lorenzen’s body off the Falls bridge into the Susquehanna River on the cold dark morning of Dec. 30, 2018.
Peters told jurors that they might not like Bell, who said she was having an affair with Walters at the time of Lorenzen’s death and received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony at Walters’ first trial.
Peters also warned jurors that they will hear about graphic text messages exchanged between Walters and Bell, in which Walters revealed plans to harm Bell’s young daughter.
Bell is expected to testify later in the trial.
Brown told the jury that the prosecution case falls short of eliminating reasonable doubt about Walters’ guilt in several areas, including forensics. No forensic evidence collected from Walters’ home indicated a homicide had occurred there, Brown said.
Brown also noted that Lorenzen had been in contact with at least one other man on a chat/dating website and that both Walters and Lorenzen’s father had suggested that Lorenzen’s former boyfriend might have driven across the country from Oregon to see her. Lorenzen had traveled from her home in Oregon to live with Walters months prior to her death.
Three Tunkhannock Twp. police officers, including police Chief Edward Morristell, testified about visiting Walters’ home, in the Mill City section of Falls Twp., in the early days of what appeared at first to be a missing person case after Walters called 911 to report that Lorenzen had disappeared, leaving her purse behind.
Morristell said he felt uneasy, as Walters appeared quiet and unemotional, and that he worried he and his officers might be set up for an ambush when Walters asked them repeatedly to explore the basement of the building, which contained several apartments.
Morristell said Walters was arrested on Jan. 9, 2019, after Bell told police about her role in disposing of Lorenzen’s body and investigators conducted interviews with her and Walters.
Morristell said he and another officer took a ride with Bell,starting at Walters’ home, and asked her to describe the route she and Walters took to dump Lorenzen in the river. He said he did not make any turns or change navigation unless Bell directed him to do so.
The route Bell told officers she and Walters took led directly to the Falls bridge, Morristell said.
Judge James told jurors on Monday that Walters trial could last six to eight days, but might be finished sooner than that.