Jury begins deliberating in Robert Pinyerd murder trial

The jury in the murder trial of Robert Pinyerd began deliberating shortly before 1 p.m. Friday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.

Pinyerd, 41, faces charges of aggravated murder and murder, both unclassified felonies, in connection with the death of Cynthia Jo Heath.

Heath, 47, was found dead in her home at 701 W. Bucyrus St., Crestline, the evening of Feb. 24, 2022. Pinyerd, who had been living with Heath and her 9-year-old daughter, was arrested the following day at a laundromat on Glessner Avenue in Mansfield. Heath died of three gunshot wounds to the head, according to testimony during the trial.

Prosecution: Pinyerd a 'jealous and controlling man'

Before jurors began deliberations, they heard closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense.

In the prosecution’s closing argument, Ryan Hoovler, one of the assistant Crawford County prosecutors handling the case, asked jurors to keep Heath in mind as they deliberated.

“She did not deserve to have her future stolen from her by the defendant, Robert Pinyerd, on Feb. 24, 2022,” Hoovler said. “She did not deserve to have her face beaten, to a point where she had defensive wounds that broke a finger in her hand. She didn’t deserve to be shot three times in the head, to make sure that she would not survive.”

Testimony depicted Pinyerd as a “jealous and controlling man,” Hoovler told jurors. He reminded them that on Thursday, witness Joey Ronk said Pinyerd had threatened Heath’s life before she left the house that morning.

Heath’s phone stopped using data at 10:59 a.m. on the day of her death; expert witness testimony stated Pinyerd’s phone did not leave the Crestline home until 11:14 a.m. That proves the defendant was present at the time of Heath’s death, Hoovler argued.

Pinyerd testified he was close with Heath’s 9-year-old daughter, Hoovler said, suggesting that’s why the defendant made sure the house’s screen door was locked when he left the house, so that the child would not be the one to find her mother’s body.

The fact that Heath was shot three times in the head proves Pinyerd intended to kill her, Hoovler argued.

“He wanted her to be dead; that was the result he was trying to achieve,” Hoovler concluded.

Defense: Too many coincidences to ignore

In his closing arguments, defense attorney Thomas Nicholson said there’s no question Heath was killed; the question was who killed her.

The conditions that the prosecution contended led Pinyerd to commit the crime had “been going on for months,” Nicholson said. “Why is Bob Pinyerd enraged now when it’s been going on at least since October?” he asked.

He asked jurors to consider the “overall number of coincidences” surrounding the case.

Heath was in the process of divorcing her husband, who lives in Alaska, and there was a custody battle over their 9-year-old daughter, Nicholson reminded jurors. The ex-wife of Heath’s boyfriend, Michael Brattain of Mount Gilead, was in Crestline that day, clearing out a vehicle that had been parked at Ronk’s Towing for weeks. Joey Ronk, whose father owns that business, was a close friend of the victim. Heath had coffee with Brattain that morning.

“Look at all of the people who were in Crestline right about the time Cindy Heath died,” Nicholson said. But investigators immediately focused on Pinyerd and didn’t look closely enough at the others, he said.

There’s no DNA evidence linking Pinyerd to the crime, and no blood was found on his clothing or in the vehicle he was driving, Nicholson reminded jurors. No useable DNA evidence was recovered from the scene, he said, and the ammunition used was particularly expensive.

“This scene, to us, it doesn’t look like a murder, it looks like a mob hit. … Does this look like a crime of passion?” Nicholson asked jurors.

Pinyerd testifies, denies shooting Heath

Before closing arguments on Friday, Pinyerd testified on his own behalf.

“I never even said one harsh word or even was mean to her in any way,” Pinyerd told the jurors. He said he did not shoot Heath.

Pinyerd said that on the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, he helped Heath’s daughter get ready for school. “She’s a tough bird to get up in the morning,” Pinyerd said. It wasn’t until that morning that Heath told him she was planning to have coffee with Brattain, Pinyerd said.

Pinyerd said he finished up chores around the house and left by 10:30 a.m. because he had “prior obligations” in Mansfield that day. Heath and Brattain had not yet returned, he said.

He headed west on West Mansfield Street, Pinyerd said, driving a burgundy GMC Envoy owned by Heath’s parents. They had loaned the vehicle to her and he had permission to use it, he said.

There was a problem with his primary phone, an iPhone SE.

“There was a glitch of some kind and the phone just quit working,” Pinyerd said, so when he got to Mansfield, he went to a T-Mobile store on Lexington-Springmill Road to see if he could get the iPhone fixed. The woman there told him he would have to take it to an Apple retail outlet, so he instead relied on his backup phone that day.

Pinyerd said he got gasoline, then headed to the home where his brother was living on South Arch Street, on the south side of Mansfield.

He had trouble getting his brother, Eugene “Jimmy” Flinders Jr., to open the door, so he contacted his brother’s girlfriend. She suggested he try knocking on the bedroom window, and that got Flinders to open the door.

The brothers spent the afternoon getting high, Pinyerd said.

He had a job interview scheduled at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Ontario that afternoon because he was hoping to get a second job, but he did not go because he was high, he said.

When Flinders’ girlfriend arrived home, they watched TV, then went to a Greek restaurant in downtown Mansfield for supper. They stopped for snacks, then went back to the house on Arch Street where Flinders was living. After the girlfriend went to bed, the brothers got high again.

In the middle of the night, Pinyerd said, he went out to the Envoy, planning to head home, but decided he was too incapacitated to drive, so he sat in the vehicle.

Pinyerd says he was afraid police would shoot him

He learned from a Facebook post that police were looking for him in connection with Heath’s death, and was considered armed and dangerous, Pinyerd told jurors. He said he was concerned police would shoot him if they found him.

He said he walked around Mansfield for a while, trying to decide what to do, and ended up at the laundromat minutes before police arrived and arrested him.

When asked by Nicholson, Pinyerd said he did not launder or change clothes after leaving Heath’s home in Crestline on Feb. 24. He also denied having had a gun.

After his arrest, Pinyerd said, he was taken to the Mansfield Police Department and questioned by Crestline police Chief Jeffrey Shook, who testified earlier in the trial. Shook has since resigned from that job.

Pinyerd characterized Heath’s relationship with Brattain as being “strictly about money. … She would get money from him all the time.”

During a sometimes heated cross examination, Hoovler challenged Pinyerd’s statement that Feb. 23 was just a normal day. Hoovler referenced a text message the defendant sent to his counselor in which he said he was stressed out. “All bad with the girl. She pulled the same stuff again,” Hoovler read.

Pinyerd said he didn’t remember that exchange. “It was a normal day,” he repeated.

Expert witnesses for the prosecution have said Pinyerd's iPhone was factory reset on Feb. 25. When Hoovler asked him, Pinyerd denied doing that.

Hoovler also pointed out that after his arrest, Pinyerd told Shook he spoke with Heath before he left the Crestline home after 11 a.m. “I was high during that interview,” Pinyerd said.

The trial began Monday with jury selection. Judge Sean Leuthold ruled a Crestline woman who said she heard gunshots that morning and saw Pinyerd near the scene would be allowed to testify. Prosecutors said they were not aware of the witness until about 10 days before the trial began.

On Tuesday, jurors heard from Haylee James, Heath's older daughter, who said she helped break down the door of Heath's home and found her mother dead on the floor inside, her head surrounded by blood.

Several expert witnesses were called by the prosecution on Wednesday, including a representative of the Lucas County Coroner's Office who told the jury about the injuries Heath suffered on the day of her death.

Check back for updates this afternoon.

ggoble@gannett.com

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Jury begins deliberating in Robert Pinyerd murder trial