Trial to begin in Washington County killing from 2012
More than three years after 21year-old Karissa Kunco was found stabbed to death on the side of a road in Washington County, her ex-boyfriend will stand trial beginning today.
Jordan Alexander Clemons, now 26, is scheduled to appear this morning in the Washington County Common Pleas Court room of Judge Gary Gilman. If a jury finds Clemons guilty of criminal homicide, he could face the death penalty.
Ms. Kunco, who had a volatile off-and-on relationship for several years with Clemons, was reported missing Jan. 11, 2012, and found dead the following morning. Police said Clemons stabbed the Baldwin woman to death and dumped her body on the side of Sabo Road in Mount Pleasant.
During a February 2012 preliminary hearing, Randol Taylor testified that he received a phone call
from his friend Clemons on the morning Ms. Kunco was found dead.
“He said, ’I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She’s dead,’ ” Mr. Taylor testified.
Clemons, a former standout running back at Fort Cherry High School, is also charged with aggravated assault, abuse of a corpse, access device fraud, unauthorized use of a vehicle and tampering with physical evidence. He has been held in the Washington County Prison since Jan. 13, 2012.
Public defender Brian Gorman, who represents Clemons, declined to comment. A representative from his office said Clemons is expected to go to trial and to not enter a plea before it begins.
Opening statements will follow pretrial items this morning. A jury was selected in March.
District Attorney Eugene Vittone filed a notice of aggravating circumstances in May 2012, indicating he would seek capital punishment against Clemons, citing previous violent felony convictions and a protection-from-abuse order Ms. Kunco sought after she accused Clemons of beating her up a month before she was killed.
In that PFA petition, she neatly printed, “I fear for my safety.”
A judge approved the order, but police said at the time they had been unable to find Clemons to serve him with a notice.
Judge Gilman on Tuesday said the temporary petition for protection from abuse would be permitted as evidence, as would statements Ms. Kunco made at St. Clair Hospital after Clemons attacked her, court records show. Hospital workers will not be able to identify her attacker, the order states.
During a neurological examination in December 2014, a doctor noted Clemons’ “cognition is impaired,” and Mr. Gorman sought and was granted follow-up testing in March, court records show.