September trial date set for Erie man accused of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend
An Erie man is scheduled to stand trial in September on homicide and other charges in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend in September 2023.
Erie County Judge John J. Trucilla set a Sept. 9 trial date during the formal arraignment Friday morning for 45-year-old Gordon D. Kirkland, who is charged in the death of 48-year-old Autumn Bassham on Sept. 19, 2023. Prosecutors said they are seeking a first-degree murder conviction at trial.
Erie police accuse Kirkland of stabbing Bassham multiple times at her residence in the 1100 block of East 28th Street. Authorities said members of Bassham's family first reported her missing, and her body was later found by a fence at the back of her property.
An Erie police detective testified at Kirkland's preliminary hearing in late December that members of Bassham's family were concerned about her disappearance because of a prior incident between Bassham and her onetime boyfriend, Kirkland. Kirkland was charged in 2021 with forcing Bassham from her residence at gunpoint, and he later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to two years of probation, according to court records.
Investigators said that as police were at Bassham's residence on the morning she was reported missing, Kirkland had gone to a local lawyer's office and said he was a suspect in a stabbing. Police took Kirkland into custody from the lawyer's office and took him to UPMC Hamot for treatment of a cut to his hand.
A detective with the Erie Bureau of Police Identification Unit testified at the December hearing that DNA testing on blood found in areas leading away from Bassham's home was found to be Kirkland's, and that blood found near Bassham's body was a mixture of DNA that could include Kirkland's DNA.
Police also collected fingernail clippings from Bassham, and testing on them found a mixture of DNA that could include Kirkland's DNA, according to the detective's testimony.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: September trial set for Erie PA man charged in ex-girlfriend's killing
