Amish Mother Murder Trial – Day Three: Inmate Says Cranston Confessed To Him In Jail (UPDATED: Testimony Complete; Jury Now Deliberating)

The biggest news of Day Three of the Shawn Cranston trial came from the testimony of a fellow inmate.

An inmate named Joseph Burch claimed that Cranston confessed to killing pregnant Amish mother Rebekah Byler to him while the two were at the Crawford County, PA Correctional Facility.

If you missed them, here are the recaps of Trial Day One and Day Two.

Some of the reported testimony is disturbing, so be forewarned. From the Erie Times-News:

MEADVILLE — Joseph Burch said he first had contact with Shawn C. Cranston inside the Crawford County Correctional Facility in 2024, sometime after Burch was transferred there from state prison and Cranston was jailed on charges in the killing of Amish woman Rebekah A. Byler.

Cranston was speaking with another inmate about legal work, and they asked him a question, said Burch, who said it was known that he reads up on legal issues.

A week or two later, Burch testified during the third day of Cranston’s homicide trial June 11, he said Cranston stopped him and they talked. During that conversation, Cranston told him what happened, how he broke into a house, killed a lady and left a glove, Burch said.

“He was worried about it,” he said, referencing the glove.

Burch then goes on to recount that Cranston told him he had been “shed hopping” – breaking into and stealing valuables from buildings – when he stopped by “a house”.

He slammed his vehicle door as a way of checking if anyone is home, and when no one appeared, he entered the home.

The next bit of his account describes how he surprised the woman inside, attempted to choke her, and then proceeded to kill her.

I will leave out the details as they’ve been covered here before, but see the links in this post for more on that. There is also this detail:

The glove Cranston left behind, Burch added, was the same type of glove Cranston said he had at his home in Corry, the kind he used to pick up dog feces.

As to Burch, the Meadville Tribune has some additional detail:

Prosecutors acknowledged that Burch is currently being held at SCI Albion, awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of defiant trespass and attempted theft of scrap metal. No law enforcement authorities promised him anything in return for his testimony, Burch said.

“Seemed like the right thing to do,” he said when asked why he was testifying.

Testimony about Rebekah Byler’s wounds

There was also testimony about the nature of the wounds, from the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy on Rebekah Byler. Again, this is disturbing. This is also from the Meadville Tribune:

As described in later testimony from Dr. Eric Vey, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsies in the case, the wounds inflicted when Byler was stabbed and shot were gruesome: There were nine knife wounds to Byler’s neck, including two slashing wounds on either side that cut through multiple vital structures. In addition, she was shot through the lower left forehead from a distance of about 6 to 30 inches, Vey testified, causing devastating injuries to her brain.

Both the knife wounds and the gunshot wounds were serious enough to be fatal on their own, Vey said.

The baby girl Byler was carrying died “as a result of the demise — the abrupt demise — of mom Rebekah,” Vey told the court. He estimated the death of the fetus occurred within four to six minutes of Byler’s death. The pregnancy was approximately 21 to 25 weeks along, according to Vey.

Previous evidence has placed the time of death for Byler and the fetus between 10 and 11 a.m.

The Erie Times-News report says the cuts were described by Vey as “massive and deep” and that “Byler would have died within minutes.”

We also learn from the JET 24 video report below that the baby was a girl.

Other Testimony: Prints & Cranston’s Movements

Two other witnesses testified about the shoe and tire prints, and to Shawn Cranston’s whereabouts on the day of the murder.

First, the shoes:

A state police latent print examiner testified that when the lifted shoe impressions were compared to the treads on a pair of red Nike Air Force 1 sneakers investigators found under a bed in a camper on Cranston’s Corry property, some of the impressions corresponded with details, including the tread design and size, of the shoes from Cranston’s home.

She also testified about similarities of the shoes’ features to other shoe prints left in snow outside another Amish home that was burglarized in January.

The tire treads found at the Byler residence were compared to the treads on the Jeep Cranston was driving. Two of the four tires “corresponded” to the tread marks found at the Bylers (we learned in the previous day’s testimony that a neighbor claimed that Cranston took two dry-rotted tires allegedly to use on the Jeep).

As to Cranston’s whereabouts on the day of the murder:

Much of the afternoon testimony and evidence June 11 was provided by a state police lieutenant who created a power point presentation that authorities said showed Cranston’s movements for much of the day on Feb. 26, 2024.

Using cell tower information related to Cranston’s phone and GPS pinpoints from Cranston’s red Jeep, as well as corroborating surveillance video where available, Cranston was tracked leaving Corry and heading south into Crawford County that morning.

Cranston’s vehicle was placed at the Byler home:

At 10:04 a.m., GPS puts Cranston’s Jeep at the Byler home, in its driveway, according to Lt. Matthew Bonin and information from the power point. The GPS showed the vehicle starting to move again at 10:11 a.m., according to information presented in court.

Later that day, surveillance video and location data show Cranston twice visiting a car wash near his home to wash and vacuum his vehicle.

The Meadville Tribune report gives a much more extensive account of the presentation and I recommend reading the whole thing. This is from the section that concerns Cranston’s appearance at the Byler home:

Cranston’s activities that day, as described by Lt. Matthew Bonin, were in many ways seemingly unremarkable. Cranston left home around 8:40 a.m. in a red Jeep Patriot and stopped a few minutes later to pay a utility bill at the city of Corry’s water and sewer office.

The account that follows is drawn from Bonin’s presentation, which the jury of seven women and five men watched intently on a large flatscreen at the front of Courtroom 2. About 50 people attended the trial on Wednesday, including about 35 members of the Amish community.

…

Cranston next drives south, stopping about 1.4 miles from the Byler residence. Around 9:05 a.m., however, his cellphone stops moving. GPS data shows that his vehicle continues on while the cellphone remains stationary for more than an hour.

Cranston next drives about 12 miles south, stopping about 1.4 miles from the Byler residence. Around 9:05 a.m., however, his cell phone stops moving. GPS data and brief security video from the area show that his SUV continues on while the cell phone remains stationary for more than an hour.

“The phone stayed in this area but the vehicle did not stay in this area,” Bonin told the jury.

At 10:04 a.m., GPS data shows Cranston’s red Jeep “right in front of the Byler residence,” Bonin continued. The car remains there until 10:11, when it moved a few hundred yards south on Fish Flats Road. Approximately a minute later, the car was back at the Byler home, where it remained until 10:17, when GPS data showed it just north of the house.

About 35 minutes later, both the phone and the red Jeep are back in the Corry area, where Cranston stopped for gas at a Country Fair convenience store at 10:48. He appears to be wearing the same shoes and clothes as he enters the store and pays at the counter.

Later, Cranston spends hours driving around the Corry area, stopping in “isolated rural areas”, and is later seen back at his home with smoke rising presumably from his burn pit. While at the car wash, Cranston also discards items and vacuums part of his clothing and shoes.

Cranston’s Defense Lawyer Efforts

The Meadville Tribune report also describes the efforts of Cranston’s defense lawyer Louis Emmi. His efforts included drawing attention to the fact that the shoe prints were only a “possible” match.

He also drew attention to Burch’s criminal background during a brief cross-examination.

He also got Bonin to acknowledge that nothing was found when investigators searched the car wash where Cranston discarded items.

Additionally, he cross-examined Vey about the likelihood of someone getting blood on their arm in such an attack, given the presumed massive quantity of blood that would be involved.

There has been no evidence presented of Byler’s blood found on Cranston, nor of the knife or gun used in the attack.

Testimony Continues on Day Four

I’m no legal analyst, but altogether this seems like a day of fairly damning testimony against Cranston.

Testimony continues today at the Crawford County Judicial Center. JET 24 reports that the prosecution has one more witness to call. They note that it is not known if the defense will call witnesses, or if Cranston will testify in his own defense.

UPDATE Day Four: June 12 – 12:18 PM

The jury is now reported to be deliberating after hearing closing arguments on the morning of June 12. The defense called no witnesses and Cranston did not take the stand.

The prosecution had called one more witness on Day Four – the state trooper who led the investigation. The jury was excused at 11:31 AM to begin deliberations.