Here's some more on our JW crack ho murderer poster child - what a sweetheart!
link: http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1033207271102350.xml
`. . . not a killer, she's a thief'
Saturday, September 28, 2002
By LISA CORYELL
TRENTON - The people closest to Pamper Petterway know her as a drug addict and a swindler, but yesterday refused to believe the unemployed laborer could have bludgeoned an elderly woman to death.
Petterway's husband, Darrell Gilchrist, and her best friend, Jane Melton, fiercely defended the Adeline Street woman accused of killing 81-year-old Stella Garczynski during a robbery Wednesday.
"She's not a killer, she's a thief," a shocked Gilchrist kept insisting. "She has stolen from me, she has taken stuff from me, she has swindled my bank account. She's a thief. But she is not a killer."
Police arrested Petterway Thursday afternoon as she allegedly tried to gain power of attorney over Garczynski's account at the First Union Bank on West State Street.
They said Petterway met Garczynski during a chance encounter Wednesday morning at the First Union branch on Liberty Street. After telling Garczynski a sob story about needing a place to live, Petterway followed the elderly woman to her residence on Home Avenue, ostensibly to look at houses for sale on the street, police said.
Once inside Garczynski's home, Petterway tried to physically restrain the victim so she could rob her but became incensed when Garczynski resisted by deeply biting Petterway's thumb, police said.
What ensued was a fierce battle between the two women, police said. They said Petterway hit the elderly woman with a brass lamp, a heavy statuette and a picture frame before binding her, strangling her and eventually stabbing her in the head, neck and arms with such force that the knife blade broke off in Garczynski's body.
"It's a horrific crime scene," Trenton Police Capt. Robert Tedder said the night of the murder.
But Melton, Petterway's neighbor and best friend for 15 years, refused to believe the police account. She said the mother of a daughter and teenage son was not violent.
"I can't believe she would do that to someone who is 81 and defenseless," she said. "I can't."
What Melton could believe was that Petterway allegedly attempted to use the dead woman's credentials to gain power of attorney over her life savings.
"Now that's Pam," she said. "She'll pencil whip the hell out of you, forge your name and cash your checks. But she's not a person to physically hurt someone."
Melton said Petterway steals to get money to support her drug habit.
She said Petterway kept company with drug dealers, drug runners and other addicts who hang out on South Broad Street, a few blocks from her home.
"The police need to go around the corner and start searching those people because one of them did this, not Pam," Melton said. "I think she was just stupid enough to get up into (Garczynski's) bank account. Whoever she got (the bank information) from did it. She probably knows who it is and can't tell because she's scared."
She said she saw Petterway about 9 p.m. on the night of the murder and that her neighbor was not acting strangely.
"She looked real nice. She was all dressed up. I said, `You look nice, girl,' " Melton said. "She sat with me for a long time then asked if she could hold $10 and I gave it to her. She didn't have any money."
After the murder, Petterway left Garczynski's house wearing clothes she had taken from the dead woman's closet, police said. She also carried $1,000 she had stolen from the home, they said.
Melton said Petterway left the house Wednesday night with an unidentified man.
"That's who they should be investigating," she said.
Gilchrist said police yesterday searched his home on Wednesday.
"They ransacked the house looking for clothing and things with bloodstains," he said. "They wanted to look in the garbage."
Gilchrist, married to Petterway for five years, said he works from 5 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. and usually finds his wife gone when he gets home.
A resident who lived near the couple at their former address on Farragut Avenue said when Gilchrist left for work, Petterway would begin partying.
"She was a bad crack head," said the neighbor, who did not want to identify herself. "Her husband would leave and the traffic started."
Drug dealers from the neighborhood often went to the house to sell drugs and sometimes hide from the police, the neighbor said.
The scenario was very much the same when the couple moved to Adeline Street, Melton said.
Drug dealers often came to Petterway's door, kicking it and demanding money.
"One time, she hid in my house from the drug dealers," Melton said. "She owed everybody money. I warned her. I told her, `You have to stop associating with these people. You associate with too many strange people.' "
The men and women who congregate on South Broad Street near Cass Street, said Petterway hung out with them frequently.
"She was really nice," said Walter Rush. "When I lost my apartment she would let me come over to her house to take a shower. When I heard she was locked up, I thought it was for forging checks, something simple like that, not nothing like murder. I never knew her to be violent."
Petterway's friends and family were all too familiar with her grifter ways, Melton said.
"Her husband is a very, very good person. He works hard and he sticks by her no matter what. She's stolen from him," she said. "She's stolen from me, too. Once, she stole my last unemployment check. But what can you do. I love her like a sister, a little delinquent sister. I chastise her and she tells me she's sorry and won't do it again and she gets me again two or three months later."
According to Mercer County Family Court officials, Gilchrist filed for a restraining order against Petterway in 2001. The court would not release details of circumstances that led to the order.
Family court records show that the state Department of Youth and Family Services has a file on Petterway, however, Virginia Scott, a DYFS manager said those files are confidential.
Superior Court civil records showed that the couple was sued four times in landlord tenant disputes in 1998 and 1999. Those cases were settled, records showed.
In February, Petterway was arrested during a prostitution sweep on South Clinton Avenue.
Melton insisted that Petterway is a good person, despite her drug use and thieving ways.
"She had a hard life. She ran away from home when she was young and she lived on the streets," she said. "It made her hard. But she's a good person. She keeps her house spotless. And she watches my kids as if they were her own. Now would I let a killer watch my kids?"
Gilchrist said he hasn't hired an attorney to represent his wife.
"I can't afford one," he said. "I don't know what to do. My mind is in a cloud right now."
Melton shook her head sadly and said she should have insisted Petterway get help for her drug problem.
"When she gets home, I'm going to force her to sign herself into a rehab," she said.
Edited by - Nathan Natas on 28 September 2002 12:6:55
