‘He snapped’: Lawyers offer differing accounts of fatal stabbing of Bucks woman

The trial of a 25-year-old Bucks County man charged with stabbing his former girlfriend to death in front of a police officer last year began Tuesday with differing accounts from lawyers about what happened on that February day.

Prosecutors say Trevor Christopher Weigel, of Churchville, broke into the Yardley home of 19-year-old Jaden Battista in February 2024 with the goal of stabbing the young woman to death.

The couple had broken up months before, prosecutors said, and Weigel became enraged after learning that Battista had blocked his phone number.

In all, prosecutors say Weigel stabbed Battista 13 times throughout her upper body, leaving her bleeding outside the home just as police arrived.

“If he couldn’t have her, nobody was going to have her — and he made sure of it,” Assistant District Attorney A.J. Garabedian told jurors Tuesday in a Bucks County courtroom.

Garabedian said prosecutors have a variety of evidence showing Weigel broke into the house, where Battista was on a FaceTime call with her friend at the time. The friend called 911, spurring Lower Makefield police to respond while Weigel led Battista to his car, prosecutors said. With the passenger door open, prosecutors said, Weigel began chasing Battista and stabbed her repeatedly.

A police officer captured Battista’s final breaths on a body-worn camera, they said.

Meanwhile, Weigel ran away, and another officer chased him on foot to the nearby Interstate 295 freeway as the young man repeatedly stabbed himself in the neck. Police used a Taser to subdue and apprehend him.

Prosecutors later charged Weigel with first-degree murder, burglary, attempted kidnapping, and related crimes.

Weigel’s defense lawyers, meanwhile, disputed the prosecution contention that the couple had split. Lead defense attorney Brian McBeth told jurors Weigel had not left his house that morning planning to kill Battista. Rather, he said, Weigel had acted in response to the “soul-crushing” realization that the young woman had cheated on him.

McBeth said that did not excuse Weigel’s actions. But he urged jurors to question prosecutors’ suggestion that the crime was premeditated and consider whether Weigel had committed involuntary manslaughter, a lesser crime that does not carry the same penalties as first-degree murder.

In prosecutors’ telling, Weigel had left his job at a Warminster manufacturing plant that afternoon with a clear intent to kill.

They said Battista, still on a video call with her friend when Weigel arrived, became distressed as he banged on the door and demanded to be let inside. The friend told Battista to run and hide, prosecutors said.

Weigel lied to Battista, prosecutors continued, telling her he wanted to come inside to collect belongings he had left there after their two-month relationship ended late in 2023.

Once inside, Weigel forcefully led Battista outside to his red Ford Mustang, prosecutors said. Garabedian told jurors they would hear from a neighbor who described Battista as barefoot and not wearing clothing suited for winter.

“She’s not going willingly,” Garabedian said.

Defense attorneys strongly disputed that account.

McBeth said Weigel and Battista had gotten back together in early February, even going out to dinner together on Valentine’s Day.

Over the following days, however, Battista stopped responding to Weigel’s calls and texts in which he asked whether she was OK, McBeth said.

McBeth said Weigel left work early because he was worried about Battista, who he said had previously struggled with depression and self-harm. The young woman let Weigel inside the home willingly, he said, and an argument began when Weigel noticed hickeys on the girl’s neck.

“She told him she cheated, and he snapped,” McBeth said.

Proceedings are set to continue in the courtroom of Bucks County Judge Charissa J. Liller over the next week.