Trial begins for Perkiomen man who says drugs influenced deadly hammer attack on ex-girlfriend

A Perkiomen man accused of bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend to death with a hammer left her body in his apartment for 10 hours while he tried to cover up the crime, Montgomery County prosecutors said Tuesday at the start of his trial for first-degree murder and related crimes.

William Carey Jr., 47, is accused of striking Jessica Zipkin in the head more than 20 times during a domestic disturbance in his Gravel Pike apartment on the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2024.

Police found Zipkin, 33, dead on the floor near the apartment’s entryway early the next morning after receiving a 911 call about a possible dead woman inside.

Medical examiners ruled the death a homicide, and prosecutors charged Carey with first- and third-degree murder as well as possessing an instrument of crime.

On Tuesday, Carey was led into the courtroom by several uniformed officers and sat silently as assistant District Attorney Christian Garfield Taffe described to the jury how the defendant battered Zipkin’s skull “over and over and over” with the weapon.

Taffe said the trial would showcase deliberate steps Carey took to mask his involvement in the crime, disposing of blood-stained clothing and attempting to buy a pair of new shoes and a cell phone.

“You’re going to see the conscious steps the defendant took to conceal his crime,” the prosecutor said.

Carey’s defense attorneys acknowledged that he killed Zipkin but said he was under the influence of drugs at the time. As a consequence, they said, he did not have deliberate intent to kill, as required for a finding of first-degree murder, which is punishable by a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Carey’s lawyers told the jury he had taken methamphetamine, MDMA, and THC, and was not in a rational state during the attack.

“We know how these drugs can overpower you, how these drugs can overwhelm you, and that leads to a loss of being rational, and a loss of being sensible,” said defense attorney Scott Frame.

Prosecutors told the jury the hammer attack that killed Zipkin was savage. A medical examiner said the blows she sustained were so powerful that they left her brain “partially liquefied,” Taffe said.

As the trial continues this week, prosecutors are expected to present surveillance footage from the Duck Inn Taproom, a restaurant next to Carey’s apartment where he used to work as a handyman and barback. Less than 10 minutes after neighbors recalled hearing a woman’s screams that afternoon, prosecutors said, the footage shows Carey entering the restaurant’s basement and disposing of clothing in a trash can.

A cleaning worker Carey enlisted to help him buy new shoes and a cell phone is expected to testify that when the two arrived at the store, Carey was crying and “spaced out” and refused to get out of the car.

Around 1:30 a.m. the next morning, authorities said, Carey told his building’s owner there was a dead woman in his apartment. He was later arrested and has been held in the county jail ever since.

Carey and Zipkin had been dating since the spring, her family said, though the couple broke up by mid-October. They remembered Zipkin as a kind-hearted person who looked for the best in others.

“[She] will drop everything she’s doing to come to save you, that’s the type of person she is,” Zipkin’s best friend, Alania Perry, told The Inquirer.