GUILTY PA - Angela Steigerwalt, 35, strangled, body burned, Allentown, 31 Jan 2014

In his opening statement to the jury Wednesday, Anthony Heath said Angela Steigerwalt's death was an accident, and promised to poke holes in the prosecution's case big enough "to drive a truck through."

Heath, who is representing himself at his Lehigh County Court trial in the killing of Steigerwalt, 35, of Tamaqua, also said he will take the witness stand to explain what happened the night Steigerwalt died...


Police say Heath, 26, of Allentown, strangled Steigerwalt with an electrical cord in his Chew Street apartment on Jan. 31, 2014, then drove her body to Jim Thorpe, where he set it ablaze and rolled it down an embankment.

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State police testified that Heath admitted to strangling Steigerwalt with an electrical cord in his apartment after she appeared to be backing out of a promise to take him to a child custody hearing.

He then bound her body with more of the wire, put it in a plastic tote, slid it over the side of Flagstaff Road in Jim Thorpe, and set it ablaze. Firefighters extinguishing the resulting brush fire discovered her charred remains. The tote lid and a lighter were nearby.

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In the letter, which prosecutors say Anthony Heath sent to Gary Steigerwalt from prison four months after killing his wife, Heath called the 35-year-old Tamaqua woman's death "the worst night of my life."...

"I tried to put the cord down more than once, but my body kept picking it up," the letter stated. "I kept pulling tighter. The demon in me took over … I tried, Mr. Gary."


Heath, who is defending himself at his trial in Lehigh County Court, asked for a recess as Steigerwalt's family members wept. Judge Kelly L. Banach sent the jurors out for lunch...

Luksa also played store surveillance video from the Walmart in Lower Macungie Township, which police say shows Heath arriving at 5:14 a.m. Feb. 1, 2014, and using Angela Steigerwalt's credit card to buy himself jeans, a watch, underwear and other items.

Police say the video shows that Heath made a separate transaction at the same Walmart self-checkout register, using cash to buy a barbecue lighter, lighter fluid and a large plastic tote bin.

Nearly five hours later, police say, Steigerwalt's badly burned body was found on the side of Flagstaff Mountain in Jim Thorpe. Melted parts of the tote and the barbecue lighter that Heath bought were recovered nearby, police say.

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Prosecutors allege that Heath went to the Walmart in Lower Macungie Township after the slaying and bought lighter fluid and other items he used to set her body on fire. Investigators looking at her still-smoldering corpse found a Walmart bag with the receipt for the items stuck to the body, unburned...


He previously turned down an offer to plead guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder and other charges in exchange for 28 to 56 years in a state prison.

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Of all the evidence against Heath, Luksa said the most crucial was a Wal-Mart bag and receipt found with Steigerwalt's burning corpse.

"No one knows how it got on top of that body...the wind blew it in the right direction," Luksa said.

Luksa began his opening statement by mocking Heath's assertion that he loved and respected Steigerwalt.

Slamming a photo of Steigerwalt's burned remains on a projector, Luksa said, "That's what his love and respect got Angie."

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Heath, 26, took the witness stand Monday morning and admitted he lied to police when he previously said he "blacked out" and discovered her dead, saying he was trying to follow Steigerwalt's instructions to never "kiss and tell."...

Heath described Steigerwalt, who was married, as a sexually aggressive woman who became interested in an intimate relationship with him after he asked her what her "safe word" was during a flirtatious Facebook exchange...

Heath spent the first 30 minutes on the stand sighing heavily between sentences and telling the jury how sad he felt about Steigerwalt's death.

"I thought I could prepare myself for this, but it's not easy," he said. "It sucks."...
Heath did not describe the sex act he claimed led to Steigerwalt's death. Luksa pressed him for details during cross-examination, but the story remained vague.

"It's difficult to talk about," he kept saying.

Heath told Luksa that Steigerwalt's safe word was "stop," and he didn't hear her say it during the act that led to her death. A safe word is a word agreed to by both parties during rough sex as a signal to end the activity.

Heath admitted burning her body, but said he acted out of "panic" after realizing she had died during sex.

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Given all the evidence against him, Heath said, "A planned person would not make so many errors...I panicked, that is what the evidence is going to show."...

Luksa said Wednesday that after Heath killed Steigerwalt, he used her mobile phone to send himself a text to make it look like she was alive. The text was about not being able to meet and that Steigerwalt's husband was giving her problems, Luksa said.

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Heath, 26, of Allentown was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder in Steigerwalt's Jan. 31, 2014, death.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for nearly six hours and also found him guilty of abusing Steigerwalt's corpse, stealing her car and credit card, and tampering with evidence.

Heath will be sentenced next month and faces a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole. He frowned slightly but showed no other reaction as the verdict was read...


In his closing statement to the jury Tuesday morning, Heath asked the panel to believe his story, saying he initially lied to police about killing Steigerwalt because he was trying to protect her reputation.

"It's been a long journey," he said, leaning on a podium and slowly shaking his head. "God knows the pain, the sorrow, the regret."...

Heath initially [told police] he blacked out during sex and awoke to find Steigerwalt dead, then changed his story and told a state trooper he strangled her with a speaker wire during an argument.

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In recorded interviews with Pennsylvania State troopers, Heath at first raised the possibility that Steigerwalt's husband killed her. Then it was two men he didn't know that Steigerwalt was meeting in Ohio to deal with her husband, prosecutors said.

Finally, during the drive back to Allentown, Heath told a trooper he strangled Steigerwalt with an electrical cord after after an argument because she backed out of driving him to a custody hearing in Northampton County.

"He can't keep his story straight. Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive," Luksa said in his closing argument. "It's a story concocted."

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Clling him "despicable" and the crime "obscene," Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach on Wednesday sentenced Anthony Heath to life in prison plus eight to 16 years for murdering a Schuylkill County woman and burning her body....

Heath told the judge he plans to appeal.

"I do pray that the truth will prevail one day and the healing process will begin for everyone who was affected by this incident," he said. "I know I'm not a vicious monster. I do have feelings."...

"Angela was taken away by a subhuman creature, a predator who should not have been walking the streets," said her uncle, Donald Serfass. "You are an evil poison. You are a psychopath who needs permanent confinement."

Steigerwalt's mother, Jean Serfass, told the judge she's haunted by gruesome mental images of her daughter's burned body.

"Poor Angie, tossed away like garbage," she said, weeping...

In court Wednesday, First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa revealed Heath plotted to escape from jail after his arrest. Luksa said prison officials found a written plan in Heath's cell.

Luksa said Heath is a pathological liar who believed he could get away with murder.

"He remains lost in his own narcissistic, self-absorbed ideology," he said...

The judge told Heath she was confident his conviction would stand, and called his assertion that he was praying for justice "absolute blasphemy."

"Everything you have said and done has been nothing other than offensive and a slap in the face to this family," she told Heath. "Wish upon a star, file what you want. You're done."

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