Homicide suspect Jessica Lee Callahan testified Wednesday, July 17, that she fired a shotgun at a bush in her yard and not at the man she shot and killed with a shell containing buckshot.

Callahan, 20, of Hilliards, testified on the third day of her trial in the March 20, 2023, death of 31-year-old Tyler Whitlatch.

State police charged her with homicide, alleging she shot Whitlatch following an argument at her home on Kohlmeyer Road in Venango Township.

Callahan testified that she began shooting shotguns when she was 7 years old and won awards in competitive shooting.

She admitted to lying to police in two accounts of the incident she provided before telling the truth.

“I lied to the police officer because I was scared to go to jail,” Callahan said.

She said her relationship with Whitlatch was fun when it began in November 2022, but that he became abusive and accused of her sleeping with other men. Despite the confrontations and arguments, she said she loved him then and still does.

Callahan said she and Whitlatch spent March 19 at the home of one of his relatives, used crack cocaine and stayed awake through the morning of March 20 so she could drive him to work at 4:30 a.m. No one was there when they arrived and he couldn’t reach his boss by phone, so they went to her home, she said.

She said she didn’t want her father to see her with Whitlatch, so they waited in her car about a mile away until her father left home at 6:30 a.m., then went to the home and went to sleep. She said she didn’t want her father to know she was dating Whitlatch.

After waking up around noon, she said Whitlatch got mad at her over a voicemail she received from a friend telling her that a friend of hers was trying to reach her.

She said she called the friend who left the message, but Whitlatch overheard the conversation, got mad, called her names and pushed her. She said she fell and her elbow struck a dresser and was bruised. She said she initially lied to her friend about being with Whitlatch, but then told her that she was with him.

Callahan said she ran down the stairs and sat on the living room couch, and Whitlatch came downstairs and continued calling her names. She said she grabbed the shotgun that was kept behind the couch and went outside. Whitlatch then left the home, walked past her while laughing at her and mocking her, but then turned toward her.

“He turned toward me and I shot,” Callahan said. “I shot the bush. I did not shoot him.”

On Tuesday, a state trooper testified about photos he took of the bush that showed eight apparent strikes from shotgun shell pellets. Police recovered a spent shotgun shell in the yard 56 feet from where Whitlatch’s phone was found. The phone was found near the road. An autopsy revealed Whitlatch had been struck by four pellets. Three pellets struck him in the back, while the path of the fourth that struck his shoulder couldn’t be determined, according to a forensic pathologist who testified Tuesday.

Callahan said she ran to Whitlatch after he fell down and then called the friend she spoke with earlier and told her that she shot Whitlatch.

Next, she said, she went inside, retrieved her phone and a towel, got in her car and pulled up near Whitlatch, who was able to get into the car. She said she saw a hole in his shoulder from the gunshot.

Callahan said she started driving to Butler Memorial Hospital and was driving fast on Route 38 and still on the phone with her friend when Whitlatch’s head hit the dashboard after she drove over a high point in the road.

She said her friend told her to call 911, so she pulled over near the North Washington Rodeo grounds, called 911 and performed CPR on Whitlatch. When medical personnel arrived, he was pronounced dead. Her call to 911 was played in court Monday.

Callahan also on Wednesday denied telling her cellmate in the county prison that she wanted to kill Whitlatch and saying she should have removed his teeth and taken his body to a pig farm to be eaten by pigs.

Her former cellmate, Deane Petzel, 57, of Connellsville, who is serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to a federal mail fraud charge and is waiting to be sentenced in a federal wire fraud case, testified Tuesday.

Petzel said she and Callahan became friends, but she wrote down what Callahan said about the case after she left their cell. She said Callahan told her that she hid behind the bush and shot Whitlatch, and she would have been better off if she removed his teeth and took his body to a pig farm. Petzel said Callahan drew a sketch of the shooting scene.

Callahan said Petzel was sympathetic toward her, wanted her to refer to her as her mother, cleaned their cell, gave her items from the commissary and asked about the shooting. She said she drew the sketch because Petzel was asking about the incident and wanted to understand what had happened.

Under cross examination, Callahan admitted to lying to police and lying to her family and her friend about seeing Whitlatch.

When differences between her account of the shooting and the account she told the 911 dispatcher were pointed out, she said she was “out of her mind” when she was talking to the dispatcher. Callahan sounded hysterical in the 911 call.

Callahan said Whitlatch, who didn’t drive or have a home, was not walking away to find a place to live nearby when she fired the shot.

The trial resumes Thursday in Common Pleas Court.