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Husband sought in woman's killing
By Violet Law and Mike Wereschagin
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Cassandra and Erika Flewellen were in their second-floor bedroom Saturday morning, listening to the screams and pounding noises coming from the
room where their mother would later be found dead, lying stabbed and partially clothed near a bloody ball-peen hammer.
As Celia Flewellen, 40, lay moaning in the third-floor master bedroom, Richard Flewellen came downstairs and told the couple's children to get dressed,
according to an affidavit. Police say he then drove them to a relative's house. Firefighters found the Homewood Montessori School principal's battered
body just over an hour later, at 7:54 a.m., after a neighbor spotted flames in the dormer window of her Candace Street house.
Police were seeking Richard Flewellen, 38, last night after issuing a warrant for his arrest in his estranged wife's slaying. The couple's daughters, Cassie, 12,
and Erika, 10, were staying at the East End home of Richard Flewellen's mother, where he brought them sometime after 6:30 a.m., police said.
Police believe Richard Flewellen then returned to his wife's home, where city Fire Capt. Francis Deleonibus said five fires were set, one on the third floor,
two on the second and two in the basement.
Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus said Richard Flewellen, a champion bodybuilder standing 6-foot-2 and weighing about 230 pounds, could face arson
charges.
An official ruling on the cause and manner of Flewellen's death will be made after the Allegheny County Coroner's Office conducts an autopsy, scheduled
for today.
Richard Flewellen called his father, Charles Cabiness, yesterday morning, confessing to the killing and saying he planned to set fire to the home and then
kill himself by drinking antifreeze, according to a police affidavit.
Neighbors told police that the Flewellens had not been getting along, Kraus said. There had been "several notable domestic issues," the lieutenant said.
Married for 14 years, the couple had recently separated, said Celia Flewellen's father, Arthur Waller, of Beechview.
Waller said his daughter dropped by his home Friday night to discuss her marital problems, but did not seem to be afraid or distressed.
"She was a very calm person," Waller said.
Waller declined to discuss the reasons for the couple's separation, but said Richard Flewellen, a Port Authority bus driver since May 2000, had never been
abusive.
Their woes "were just like any marital problems," said Waller. "They had their ups and downs."
Flewellen's death shook the Candace Street neighborhood, where some homes are festooned with Halloween trappings, ready for trick-or-treaters.
Sobbing parents and teachers from the Montessori School gathered with neighbors as investigators combed through Flewellen's yellow brick home.
The fires didn't gut the home, and some features like the wooden railing next to the stairs didn't seem to be heavily damaged.
"She was the best person I've worked with," said Peter Moskos, a librarian and teacher at the Montessori School for eight years. "She was able to bring
people together. She was always accessible. She made the program."
Jill Vanlandingham, a close friend and neighbor of Celia Flewellen, collapsed in tears on the sidewalk on nearby Neeld Street after she and another
neighbor locked Waller in an embrace.
"She had such a heart for kids," said Vanlandingham, whose children grew up with the Flewellen daughters.
Flewellen became principal at the Montessori School in July 2002, after serving as administrator of the Morrow School on the North Side. The Montessori
School has 228 students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade.
Flewellen began her career as a student teacher at Brookline Elementary School and was working on her doctorate in education at the Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, her father said.
"She was a phenomenal principal. She was loved by her staff, parents and the students," said Pittsburgh Public Schools school board President Bill Isler.
"She was a very good administrator."
Classes had not been scheduled at Homewood Montessori on Monday because of parent-teacher conferences. School district officials said the parent-teacher
conferences have been canceled, but staff will be present for grief counseling. A crisis team will be at the school to counsel the children Tuesday.
Richard Flewellen was last seen driving a 1993 white Chevrolet van. Anyone knowing his whereabouts is urged to call 911 or contact police headquarters
at (412) 323-7800.
Husband held in death of principal
By Karen Roebuck and Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
October 11, 2004
A Beechview man was charged Sunday in his wife's slaying after he apparently tried to kill himself in the parking
lot of his family's church in Homewood, police said.
Richard Flewellen, 38, called his father shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday and told him he was trying to kill himself
by drinking antifreeze, according to Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus.
His father, Charles Cabiness, found Flewellen lethargic, disoriented and lapsing in and out of consciousness in
his van in the parking lot of the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church on Paulson Avenue.
Cabiness took his son to West Penn Hospital where he was in critical but stable condition yesterday afternoon,
Kraus said. The hospital notified police, who had issued an arrest warrant for Flewellen. Police could not
confirm whether he had taken antifreeze; the hospital reported to detectives that he had overdosed, Kraus said.
Flewellen was arrested at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. and charged with criminal homicide in the death of Celia
Flewellen, 40, his wife of 14 years. He was placed under police guard and undergoing psychiatric treatment, police said.
Firefighters found the Homewood Montessori School principal's battered body about 7:45 a.m. Saturday after a neighbor
spotted flames in the dormer window of her home on Candace Street in Beechview.
A Nissan Altima parked in the driveway of the Flewellens' home was turned into a memorial yesterday. Friends and
well-wishers left bouquets and a white and blue teddy bear with an embroidered patch that read: "God danced the day
you were born."
The bear and one of the bouquets were left by a teacher and teacher's aide, who said they were friends of the slain
principal. They stood quietly near the hood of the car, wiping away tears.
They were there, said the third-grade teacher, "to help understand it, to understand why all this happened."
Celia Flewellen died of blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Allegheny County Coroner's Office.
She had been stabbed at least once and a bloody hammer and a steak knife were found near her body, Kraus said.
Friends and relatives said the couple had marital problems, and police said they had been called to the home more
than once for domestic disturbances. The Flewellens recently separated, said Arthur Waller, Celia Flewellen's father.
The couple's daughters, Cassandra, 12, and Erika, 10, were home at the time of their mother's slaying, and their
father took them to his mother's home, police said.
"He told the children he would return but never did," Kraus said. The daughters, who were not physically hurt, are
now with Waller and his wife, friends said.
The girls told police they were sleeping in their second-floor bedrooms and were awakened between 6 and 6:30 a.m. by
arguing, according to the affidavit. They heard breaking glass, followed by 10 minutes of pounding, then their mother's
moans from her third-floor bedroom, the affidavit said.
Cabiness told police Richard Flewellen called him Saturday morning, confessed to killing Celia and said he planned to
set fire to the home and then kill himself by drinking antifreeze, Kraus said.
A Port Authority bus driver since May 2000, Flewellen competed as a body-builder and was named Mr. Pennsylvania in 1987.
Police did not know Flewellen's whereabouts during the approximately 24 hours between his calls to his father Saturday
and yesterday. He had not contacted friends or relatives and recently had gotten a new cell phone number, which police
were unable to trace, Kraus said.
Richard Flewellen will be arraigned when he recovers, Kraus said. It was not immediately clear if he has an attorney.
"There will be additional charges filed in the case in relation to the fire," Kraus said.
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials canceled parent-teacher conferences that had been scheduled for today at the
Homewood school. Grief counselors will be available at the school for staff today and students on Tuesday, school
officials said.
Counselors also will be at Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts and Brookline Elementary School.
The older daughter attends Rogers; the younger one, Brookline, where her mother worked 10 years as a kindergarten
teacher and vice principal.
"This is such a loss for the school district," said school board President Bill Isler, who realized after speaking
with parents and school staff that "this woman was deeply, deeply loved."
Kathryn Sitter, 38, of North Point Breeze, was among 25 Homewood Montessori families who met at a parent's home in
Point Breeze to grieve and talk about the future of their school. She bought a house in North Point Breeze so that
her two daughters, Kyra and Mia Bingham, could walk to the school.
"We have had a tremendous leader in Celia with great care and compassion for our children and the program," she said.
"Right now, there's a lot of uncertainty and vulnerability as to how the district will proceed. We hope we have a voice
in her successor."
Ken Segel, of Shadyside, echoed those sentiments. His daughter, Isabel, 4, attends the preschool that Celia Flewellen
started.
"Totally apart from the school, it's unbearable when a life is taken so cruelly," he said.
Principal's husband to stand trial for homicide
Victim allegedly told spouse she wanted a divorce the morning she was killed
October 22, 2004
By Milan Simonich
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Celia Flewellen began her last morning by telling her husband, Richard,
that their marriage of 14 years was over.
She would keep their two little girls. He would be forced to leave their
yellow-brick house in Beechview by the end of October.
Richard Flewellen, 38, lay in bed, simmering for a few minutes. Then,
police said, he attacked and killed his 40-year-old wife as she dressed
for an appointment at Homewood Montessori School, where she was the
principal.
The source of the police theory is Flewellen himself. He told homicide
Detective Dennis Logan he "felt used" by his wife, so he grabbed a hammer,
sneaked behind her, and beat her on the head and face. After that,
Flewellen plunged a steak knife into her chest and back.
Flewellen sat impassively in a courtroom yesterday as police and
prosecutors used his own words to build a murder case against him.
Within an hour, Deputy Coroner Tim Uhrich found Logan's testimony
sufficient to hold Flewellen for trial on a homicide charge in his wife's
Oct. 9 death.
Flewellen said nothing during the hearing, but his lawyer, Public Defender
Christopher Patarini, announced that he pleaded not guilty.
In a separate but related ruling, District Justice Richard G. King found
sufficient evidence for Flewellen to be tried on charges of arson,
creating a catastrophic situation in Beechview and abusing his wife's
corpse.
Flewellen is accused of using paint thinner or other flammable liquids to
start at least five fires inside his house after killing his wife.
Twenty-five percent of her body was burned in the fire.
Arson investigators said the fire had the potential to spread throughout
Beechview, where houses are only 5 to 10 feet apart.
Most everyone in the neighborhood had regarded the Flewellens as a
striking and happy couple.
She was a rising star in Pittsburgh's public school system, somebody with
charisma and an easy way with students, staff and parents. He drove a Port
Authority bus and had reigned as a champion bodybuilder. Their 10- and
12-year-old daughters were unfailingly polite and well-behaved.
Next-door neighbor Ed McMullen said everybody liked the Flewellens, whose
lives seemed smooth.
In court, Logan provided a different perspective.
He testified yesterday that Celia Flewellen woke the morning of Oct. 9 and
told her husband she "could not stand him." She said she had felt that way
since 2000.
The couple had had "sexual problems," Logan went on. Mrs. Flewellen said
she could not live with her husband much longer, setting the end of this
month as his deadline for moving out.
Richard Flewellen had spent 18 months remodeling the family's home at 2304
Candace St. He told Logan he considered his wife a user. Flewellen did not
want to be put out of the house he had rebuilt.
So, Logan testified, Flewellen decided to kill her. Then Flewellen would
take his own life.
Logan quoted Flewellen as saying the couple's children would be all right
without a mother or father. They had able grandparents to raise them.
Logan said that, after Flewellen killed his wife, he whisked his daughters
from the home and drove them to his mother's house. Flewellen told the
children their own mother was sick.
Then he returned to Beechview and set fires in the basement and second and
third floors of his home.
As his house burned, Flewellen fled.
Logan interviewed Flewellen in West Penn Hospital about a day later. By
then, Flewellen was on dialysis for poisoning. He had consumed about a cup
of windshield cleaner.
First Assistant District Attorney Ed Borkowski called this "a half-hearted
suicide attempt" by Flewellen.
Logan said Flewellen was not on any medication or painkillers when they
talked at the hospital. Flewellen also volunteered that he had not been
under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs when he killed his wife.
Patarini asked if Flewellen seemed upset and, possibly, was not thinking
clearly during the police interview.
"No, surprisingly he was not distraught," Logan replied.
Patarini also tried to suggest that Flewellen did not plan to kill his
wife.
Patarini pressed Logan on where Flewellen had obtained the weapons he
supposedly used in the killing. Logan said Flewellen told him that he kept
the hammer under his bed for protection. The steak knife, for some
unexplained reason, was on the dresser in the couple's bedroom.
As for the tensions between the Flewellens, Patarini suggested that the
blowup might be traced to the victim.
He asked Logan if Mrs. Flewellen was "a homosexual" and whether she became
angry with her husband that morning.
Logan said there were "questions about her life outside of marriage," but
no angry exchanges occurred between the couple immediately after she said
she wanted a divorce.
Following their talk, Mrs. Flewellen went downstairs and showered, Logan
said. Afterward, she returned to the bedroom to dress.
"Not a single word was spoken between them" at that point, Logan
testified.
But Flewellen, hammer in hand, approached his wife from behind and
attacked, Logan said.
Flewellen, yesterday wearing the red jumpsuit of a prisoner, spoke to
Patarini once during the hearing. Mostly, though, he stared at the defense
table.
He left the courtroom before Mrs. Flewellen's relatives were ushered out.
They declined to talk about the case.
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Husband testifies he can't recall killing his wife
Thursday, November 17, 2005
By Jim McKinnon
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Richard W. Flewellen testified yesterday that he did not remember actually
beating to death his wife with a ball-peen hammer last year.
In his non-jury trial on homicide and related charges, Mr. Flewellen
testified in his own defense that he had visions of himself colored in
blue and heard voices telling him to fight in the days preceding the Oct.
9, 2004, death of his wife, Celia Flewellen.
His testimony came on the last day of his trial. Common Pleas Judge
Jeffrey A. Manning said he will render verdicts in the case at 10:30 a.m.
tomorrow.
In addition to homicide, Mr. Flewellen is charged with arson and risking a
catastrophe. Because the suspect did not deny the killing, Judge Manning
will decide the degree of homicide.
After his wife was slain, Mr. Flewellen said he regained his senses as he
sat on the bed, Mrs. Flewellen's body at his feet.
"I've lost it. I've lost everything," he said he remembered telling
himself.
He drove his two daughters to his parents' East Liberty home. He then
returned home and set fires where he said he intended to die with his
wife.
"The fire, I'm not proud to say, scared me," he testified.
Instead of perishing in the fire, he drove again to the East End and tried
to get help at his church, Mount Ararat Baptist in Larimer. He found the
doors locked, so he sat in his van and drank anti-freeze and windshield
washer until he passed out.
When he awakened, he said he thought he was in heaven. The white light he
saw was the glare of the emergency room at West Penn Hospital.
Under police questioning at the hospital, Mr. Flewellen, a Port Authority
bus driver and an award-winning amateur bodybuilder, said that he had been
asleep for about two hours when his wife woke him up at about 5:30 a.m. to
say that she wanted a divorce.
Celia Flewellen, who was principal at Homewood Montessori School, was
about to get dressed for an appointment, Mr. Flewellen testified, when he
approached her from behind and began beating her with the hammer.
Though she collapsed, she still was moaning. So, he said, he stabbed her,
using two steak knives, one of which broke with the blade lodged in her
body.
The hospital bed confession differs from his testimony, he said, because
in the beginning he did not want his children to be questioned or to have
to testify.
His 13-year-old daughter testified this week that she and her younger
sister heard the commotion in their parents' attic bedroom.
Yesterday, Mr. Flewellen testified that his wife attacked him after he
accused her of having a homosexual lover. She kicked him and punched him
in the eye while he still was in bed.
He grabbed the hammer, which he kept beside the bed, and used it in
self-defense. He testified that he did not remember actually striking her
with the tool.
A psychiatrist, called by Mr. Flewellen's defense attorney, Assistant
Public Defender Christopher A. Patarini, testified Tuesday that the
suspect suffered from depression and psychosis that rendered him incapable
of forming the specific intent to kill his wife.
Proof of such intent is necessary to convict on a charge of first-degree
murder, which calls for a mandatory term of life in prison.
Dr. Bruce Wright, called by Assistant District Attorney Bruce R. Beemer to
refute the defense psychiatrist, agreed that Mr. Flewellen suffered from
depression.
Dr. Wright, however, disagreed with the defense conclusion.
"There's no reliable evidence to suggest that he was unable to formulate
the specific intent to kill," Dr. Wright testified.
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Flewellen guilty of wife's murder
Judge rejects claim suspect was insane
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, November 19, 2005
By Jim McKinnon
Richard W. Flewellen yesterday was found guilty of first-degree murder in
the death last year of his wife of 14 years, Celia Flewellen, in their
Beechview home.
Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, who presided in the nonjury trial,
rejected Mr. Flewellen's claim that his deep depression and psychosis
rendered him incapable of forming the specific intent to kill his wife.
Such intent is necessary to justify a verdict of first-degree murder for
the Oct. 9, 2004, incident.
Mr. Flewellen did not deny having beat his wife's head and face with a
ball-peen hammer and stabbing her with two steak knives, one of which
broke off inside her.
He was seeking a verdict of third-degree murder and a maximum sentence of
20 to 40 years in prison.
Instead, Judge Manning sentenced him to life, the penalty for premeditated
murder.
Mr. Flewellen also was found guilty of two counts of arson and one of
risking a catastrophe.
After killing his wife and driving his two daughters to their
grandparents' home in East Liberty, Mr. Flewellen returned and set fires
in several rooms of his house.
Mrs. Flewellen died of a skull fracture that exposed her brain. She also
suffered second-degree burns over about 25 percent of her body.
He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years, concurrent to the life term, for the
arson convictions. A consecutive term of 3 1/2 to 7 years was added for
risking a catastrophe.
The fire was a hazard to the community because homes in Beechview are
situated close together.
Mr. Flewellen, 39, a Port Authority bus driver and award-winning amateur
bodybuilder, testified this week that, because of his mental state, he did
not remember actually beating to death his wife last year.
He testified that he was traumatized when Celia Flewellen, 40, woke him
before dawn to say their marriage was over and that she wanted a divorce.
Mrs. Flewellen, who was principal at Homewood Montesorri School, had just
gotten out of the shower and was about to get dressed when, according to
her husband's statement to police, he approached her from behind and began
hitting her with the hammer in their attic bedroom.
As she lay on the floor, still barely alive and moaning, he got the knives
from downstairs and returned to stab her.
In court, he testified that he wanted to preserve his family and
questioned his wife about her fidelity. When he questioned her sexual
preference, he said, she attacked him, kicking and punching.
He testified that he remembered picking up the hammer from beside the bed,
but not striking her with it.
He denied having gone to the kitchen for the knives.
He recalled having hallucinations.
His eldest daughter, Cassandra Flewellen, however, testified that she
heard her parents arguing, her mother's yelling, and pounding noises that
Judge Manning said likely came from the hammer striking her as she lay on
the floor.
Cassandra, then 12, also testified that she saw her father twice scurry
past her room, where she was with her younger sister, and return to the
attic before he took the girls from the home.
"I'd like to apologize to the Flewellen family. It was never my intention
to harm Celia," Mr. Flewellen said before he was sentenced.
He testified that, when they were married, he took her name.
"I tried my best to keep the family together," he added.
Judge Manning said that psychiatrists called by the defense and
prosecution canceled each other out. It was, the judge said, the
convincing testimony of 13-year-old Cassandra that was most believable.
"Her testimony was clear, unequivocal and convincing," Judge Manning said.
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