Opening statements begin in Parker County murder trial

Jul. 12—WEATHERFORD — A prosecutor told jurors in Weatherford Tuesday that Christopher Mark Wall fatally shot two women who were extorting him, hid his gun, and went home to chat with his father before a shower and bed.

Wall's defender then used his opening statement to portray the capital murder defendant as a victim pushed to the brink by fear for himself and threats to find his daughter and traffic her.

"He took a shower, ate a banana, searched some news site and ultimately went to bed," Parker County Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Catania told the five-woman, seven-man jury who had been selected Monday afternoon.

The trial is happening before 43rd District Judge Craig Towson. It began Tuesday with Wall pleading not guilty to three charges — murder of multiple persons, and one murder charge each of Ashley Pohorence and Krista McClellan, both of Arlington.

Catania described the "thinly veiled prostitution" that brought Wall, 38, into the company of 23-year-old Pohorence and McClellan, 21, before their deaths on Nov. 4, 2017. She said Wall answered an ad Pohorence placed in the alternative classified publication, Backpage.

Catania and District Attorney Jeff Swain also said a witness named Sierra McMahan will describe the two fatal shootings that occurred in the parking lot of First Financial Bank around dusk on that Saturday evening. Prosecutors say the women had extorted Wall for nearly $8,000 by threatening to tell law enforcement that he had tried to buy sex from them and that they were underage. Wall had gone to the bank parking lot at their direction.

"The defendant gets out, shoots Krista first, comes around and shoots Ashley second," Swain said.

Defense attorney Andrew Deegan did not dispute his client fatally shot the two women.

But he described a short series of interactions in which the women terrorized Wall from their first encounter at his job in a Fort Worth hospital. After ordering Wall to strip to his underwear inside his locked office, the women rifled through his identifying documents and learned his parents' Weatherford address where and his wife and daughter were staying while a house was being built, the attorney said.

"So they say, 'We are going to kidnap your daughter and we're going to put her in the sex trade,'" Deegan said. "These girls kept coming and coming at Chris. And Chris tried to pay them — but that only made it worse. Chris is a victim, too. This is a tragedy, but this is not a crime."

Deegan said Wall had driven near the women in the parking lot with his hand out his window holding the money, but that the women instead got in his vehicle.

Pohorence then grabbed the keys from the ignition while McClellan took Wall's phone and wallet, Deegan said. The third woman had remained in the Honda the other two had arrived in, possibly with a fourth person, he said.

The women got out of Wall's vehicle, with McClellan opening Wall's door and Pohorence ordering him out.

"And they are attempting to unlawfully remove him from his car," Deegan said. "Krista opens his door, pulls on him, 'Get out. Get out.'"

And the women tried to force Wall into the Honda, he said.

"Chris thinks he sees a fourth person in the back of the Honda," Deegan said. "He thinks if he gets in that car he's not getting back."

Wall kept a loaded handgun below his driver's seat, Deegan said.

"And he points it at (Pohorence) and said, 'I'm not getting in that car,'" the defender said. "And she says, 'That's the last mistake you'll ever make.'"

Deegan said Pohorence then charged at Wall, prompting him to shoot both women.

Early testimony included security footage from Wall's then-employer, John Peter Smith Hospital, and an ambulance crew member who responded to the scene.

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday.