Venango Township homicide trial starts Monday
A jury including four alternates has been selected for the trial that begins Monday, July 15, for a Hilliards woman charged in the March 2023 shooting death of her boyfriend.
Jessica Lee Callahan, 20, is facing a homicide charge in the March 20 death of Tyler J. Whitlatch, who was 31.
State police said Callahan called emergency dispatchers and said she shot Whitlatch at a residence on Kohlmeyer Road, Venango Township, and was taking him to the rodeo grounds in Washington Township.
Responding troopers found Callahan seated near the vehicle there and Whitlatch lying on the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The county coroner’s officer determined he died from a gunshot wound to the torso.
Callahan told police she and Whitlatch had been in a relationship since October 2022, and the shooting followed an altercation at the home of one of her relatives. She is being held in the county jail without bail.
The jury of 12 and four alternates was chosen Thursday during a selection process that began shortly after 9 a.m. and ended about 7:30 p.m. in Butler County Common Pleas Court.
