Neighbor of slain Berwyn woman drops gun permit appeal

WEST CHESTER » A Berwyn man who has been identified by authorities as a “person of interest” in the 2016 homicide of a Tredyffrin woman this week abruptly withdrew his petition to have a judge overturn the decision of the Chester County Sheriff’s Office denying him a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Joseph P. Green Jr., the West Chester defense attorney representing David Bookstaber, told Common Pleas Judge Patrick Carmody that his client had made the decision to abandon his attempt to receive the permit because of rulings the judge had made that went against him.

Those rulings included denial of Bookstaber’s attempt to have the proceeding closed to the public and the media so as not to have reports about the case damage his reputation, and to allow certain hearsay testimony to be delivered by witnesses called by the sheriff’s office, including the lead prosecutor in the homicide case involving the death of Denise Barger, Bookstaber’s next door neighbor.

Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza was scheduled to be called as a witness by attorney Dawson R. Muth, the solicitor for the sheriff’s office, presumably to back up the assertion that Bookstaber is a “person of interest” in the Barger homicide. Green and Muth discussed with Carmody what Barraza was expected to say in answer to Muth’s questions in a private, “sidebar” conference, after which Green told the judge that his client was dropping the permit case.

Neither Green, Muth, or Barraza would comment on what was said in the sidebar conference after Carmody concluded the hearing. Green maintains that information about Bookstaber’s request to overturn the sheriff’s decision denying him a concealed weapons permit because of his character and reputation is confidential.

Green had said during the proceedings that Carmody’s adverse rulings were forcing Bookstaber to choose between his Second Amendment rights to own and bear firearms, and his Fifth Amendment rights against selfincrimination.

Michael F. McDonald, Barger’s brother and the person who found her lifeless body the morning of June 17, 2016, said earlier Wednesday that he was bewildered at the request by Bookstaber for the gun permit.

“I cannot believe that he is trying to get a concealed weapons permit, or that anybody who had been a person of interest in a murder investigation would even be able to get one,” he said Wednesday in an interview. “It boggles my mind.”

McDonald, of Berwyn, said that Tredyffrin police had kept in touch with him over the months following his sister’s death, but that they did not share specifics of the investigation with him.

“I know they are actively pursuing stuff,” he said. “They want to make sure they get it right because they only have one shot at it. It’s better to get it right and make sure about it than to see someone walk free.”

He said he was aware that there had been “words” passed between his sister and Bookstaber, and that he was not surprised when he learned that Bookstaber had been identified as a person of interest in the investigation. “It starts to come together a little but when you put the pieces together.”

Information uncovered by the Daily Local News makes it clear that authorities have been looking at Bookstaber’s actions concerning Barger since the day her body was found.

In June 2016, Tredyffrin police first announced that they were investigating the “suspicious death” of Barger, who was found by a family member who had gone to her home in the 900 block of Heatherstone Drive to check on her condition after not hearing from her. She lived alone, her husband Thomas Barger having died in March 2015. Later, District Attorney Tom Hogan said the case was a homicide, and suggested that the perpetrator knew the victim.

“Every indication we have is that this was a targeted attack,” Hogan said at the time. “Given the location of where the victim lived, which is out of the way of well-traveled spots, this does not appear to be a random attack.” The cause of death was blunt force trauma.