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Defendant confessed to slaying, roommate testifies

They met at a gas station shortly after the 2003 slaying, he says in the trial's third day.

By JOSE CARDENAS, Times Staff Writer
Published October 19, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Timothy Permenter is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend.

The night Karen Pannell was stabbed to death in Oldsmar, Timothy Permenter drove to New Port Richey, met his roommate at a gas station and confessed, the roommate told jurors Thursday.

"Tim came up to me and said he had killed Karen," George Solomon said on the witness stand. He described Permenter that night as "shaky, very shaky."

The testimony came on the third day of trial for Permenter, 40, who could get the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in Pannell's death.

On Oct. 10, 2003, Pannell, a 39-year-old American Airlines employee, was stabbed 16 times in the neck and heart inside her villa on Montego Court.

Permenter told investigators he left her home by 7:30 p.m. the night of the murder.

He said he came back to her house the following morning, opened the front door and found her bloody body in the kitchen.

The word "Roc" was written on a wall in Pannell's blood, though Permenter did not tell prosecutors he saw it.

In the 911 call prosecutors played for jurors Thursday, Permenter cried and sounded distraught.

"Please, please, please, come," he said. "Karen is dead. My girlfriend. ... I just came over here and found her."

Solomon outlined his interactions with Permenter on the day Pannell was murdered.

Solomon said he and Permenter worked at a car dealership on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

Solomon said he moved in with Permenter at an apartment near the dealership while Solomon was separated from his girlfriend in New Port Richey.

The day of the murder, Solomon testified, he and Permenter quit their jobs because they were not happy with their pay.

Permenter left the dealership earlier in the day, Solomon said. Solomon said he left about 4:30 p.m., went home and took a nap.

Solomon said he saw Permenter in their apartment about 7:30 p.m.

About 8 p.m., Solomon said, Solomon went to visit his girlfriend, Vicki Speakman, and their daughters in New Port Richey.

The couple were trying to mend their relationship.

In a taped interview with Pinellas County sheriff's detectives played in court Thursday, Permenter's voice was calm. He offered answers with details.

He seemed firm that he had left Pannell's villa by 7:30 p.m. He said she had called him on his cell phone at 7:47 p.m.

He told investigators Pannell had a rocky relationship with an ex-boyfriend named Roc.

Permenter also told investigators that after he left Pannell's villa, Solomon and his girlfriend invited him to come to New Port Richey for drinks.

But on the witness stand, Solomon it was he who got a call from Permenter about 10:30 p.m. Permenter wanted to come up there and talk about something in person.

Solomon said he met Permenter at the gas station, where the initial confession took place.

"I just tried to keep him as calm as possible, if he needs a place to think he can follow me back to my house," Solomon said.

Permenter said he had killed Pannell, Solomon said. Permenter allegedly said they had argued because he quit his job.

Solomon said Permenter said he used a knife.

"He told me that he used Karen's finger to write the name of Karen's ex-boyfriend on the wall," Solomon testified.

Solomon said that Permenter also admitted the murder to Speakman on their house's enclosed front porch.

When Speakman testified earlier in the day, she said she had not invited Permenter to visit. She barely knew him.

But she also said she had not listened to Solomon and Permenter's conversation the porch, and thus did not hear a confession.

"If Vicki came and said, 'We didn't have any conversation like that...'" said Senior Assistant Public Defender Dudley Clapp.

"She'd be lying," answered Solomon, who is not with Speakman anymore.

Defense attorneys, who noted that Solomon first mentioned Permenter's confession in April, years after the slaying, plan to call Speakman back as a witness.

In earlier testimony, Roc Herbich testified that Pinellas detectives interviewed him at his home near Port Charlotte, photographed the bottoms of his feet and took nail clippings.

He and his girlfriend were separated by investigators, he said.

Both testified the night of the murder they were home while her son had an overnight camp-out with other boys in the back yard.

"Did you murder Karen?" Assistant State Attorney Bill Loughery asked Herbich.

"No sir," said Herbich, who was cleared by investigators as a suspect.

A blood spatter specialist also testified that the large letters with continuous blood strokes make it unlikely that Pannell wrote Roc on the wall with her fingers or hands.

Prosecutors argue she was likely paralyzed by a stab wound and quickly bled to death.

Nothing excludes the use of the hand or fingers? Assistant Public Defender Bob McClure asked blood-spatter expert Toby Wolson.

"In my opinion," said Wolson, it's "highly unlikely hands or fingers were used."

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4224.

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 00:29:00]