In court, Byington admits to killing Porzeinski, says wasn't intentional

Kyle Byington took the stand. He admitted pulling a dog leash tight around Jennifer Porzeinski's neck. He admitted he put a plastic bag over her face and secured it with zip ties to contain the blood that spilled from her mouth after she died. He admitted taking five hours to bury her. And he admitted he lied to the police and Porzeinski's family, who were trying to find her.

Jennifer Porzeinski

What he denied, however, was setting out to kill her, and killing her intentionally.

The second day of Byington's murder trial ended with the dramatic testimony of the defendant Wednesday, Dec. 13, at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson. A jury will decide Thursday, Dec. 14, whether to find Byington guilty of first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse. Byington offered no defense on the corpse abandonment charge, but appeared to be trying to sow doubt about whether the state has met its obligations to prove first-degree murder.

First-degree murder is punishable by either death or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole. Missouri statutes say a person commits first-degree murder if he or she knowingly causes the death of another person after deliberation upon the matter.

The prosecution set up its first-day testimony Tuesday, Dec. 12, around the idea Byington stated multiple times he didn't know where Porzeinski was or what happened to her. The defendant told the police multiple times that on a day in late January, Byington and Porzeinski had a mild verbal argument, and then she made a phone call for someone to come pick her up. He told police she left in a white car at around 2 a.m. and he never saw her again.

The case pivoted in April after a witness reached out to Porzeinski's mother, who told her that Porzeinski's body could be found on Byington's property. Police investigators secured a search warrant for Byington's property, where they found an area inside a thicket that appeared to have been recently dug.

During Wednesday's testimony, state Highway Patrol investigator Jeff Johnson told the jury that officers found the shallow grave at the same time he was interviewing Byington. During the middle of the interview, Johnson received a photo from an officer via text that showed a cross on the makeshift grave where Porzeinski was buried. When Johnson showed Byington the photo, his story changed, and he admitted to having killed the victim.

Byington told the court and police that he and Porzeinski were friends who at one point had a sexual relationship and that she would call from time to time and come stay with him.

He testified Wednesday that he and Porzeinski spent a good part of the day fixing up and cleaning up his mother's property. Byington's mother owns two houses on the same property near Patton, Missouri.

Byington told the jury that he stopped working in the midafternoon and began drinking, as did Porzeinski and Byington's mother. That evening, they built a bonfire and continued drinking through the night, he said.

Byington told the court that he went to bed at some point, and in the middle of the night, Porzeinski began attacking him in his bed. He said he pushed her off the bed and she fell to the floor, smashing her mouth, and causing injuries discussed in prior testimony.

Byington said at different times to officers that Porzeinski was "crazy". He said he didn't know why she attacked him.

"I didn't know," he said. "She started saying weird stuff. She said she was gonna get my daughter and that she's a spoiled brat."

After she fell off the bed, he said he left the house to retrieve some cigarettes from his mother's truck. When he came back, he said, Porzeinski met him halfway up the driveway, and she continued "screaming about something."

They went inside, where they got into a pushing match, where he pushed her to the floor, then began to walk toward the kitchen.

"At that point, she was sitting on the floor with a leash around her neck and saying how she's going to kill herself," Byington said. "We were still arguing. She was taunting me, acting like she was going to do it herself. I snapped and grabbed a hold of her and said, 'Is this what you want?'"

He said he pulled the leash tight, and she didn't resist. He said he didn't know how long he held the leash around her neck but didn't realize she was dying.

"She wasn't struggling or anything," he said. "It was like she wanted me to do it."

He said he then "snapped out of it" and went into another room. "I got up, and went to the living room, and she was lying on the floor and wasn't moving. I checked for her pulse and there was no pulse."

He said he was intoxicated and being threatened and doesn't remember all of the details of what happened. He said he panicked and when he sobered up had to figure out what to do. He did not call for emergency medical help and then set out to cover up Porzeinski's death.

When prosecutor Syd Tippie, appointed by the Missouri attorney general's office to assist with the case, asked Byington, "Why did you tighten the leash?", Byington said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Tippie responded.

Byington, who said he felt regret in the aftermath of the event, said he used a hand truck to move Porzeinski to a shed, where he stored the body until he found a time when his mother was away from her home. When his mother left, he placed the body onto a yellow wagon and pulled her to the thicket at the end of their property, where he buried her.

The prosecution spent most of its day presenting physical evidence, such as DNA that tied Porzeinski's blood to the shed. Several blood stain samples taken from inside the house and on the leashes were not large enough to build a DNA profile.

The prosecution played significant portions of Byington's interview with Johnson where he confessed to his role in Porzeinski's death. The prosecution presented testimony from multiple witnesses who said the amount of time it would take to choke someone beyond a point of self-resuscitation is 90 seconds.

Byington was the only witness called by the defense.

The third day of trial will resume Thursday with jury instructions and closing arguments, where the defense could ask the judge to instruct the jury to consider "charging down" to lesser charges such as second-degree murder, which is killing without premeditation or voluntary manslaughter, which is a homicide committed in an act of passion.

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Byington faces the Class E felony of abandonment of a corpse.