Couple faces trial in killing daughter

By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

After hearing testimony that James Gillin killed his mentally retarded daughter in July 1992 and burned her body in a pit, District Justice Robert W. Breakiron ordered the Yukon resident held for trial and sent him back to the Fayette County Prison in Uniontown.

Gillin, 52, who uses a cane, didn't testify at his 90-minute hearing yesterday in Breakiron's courtroom in Connellsville. Gillin is charged with homicide, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy.

Roberta Gillin, 50, who testified against her husband, also is charged with homicide, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy in the death of the daughter they adopted when she was 12.

After Roberta Gillin waived her preliminary hearing, Breakiron ordered her returned to Fayette County Prison, too.

Roberta Gillin testified that she and her biological daughter, Mary Jo, were upstairs at the family's home on Oak Ridge Road in Bear Rocks in Fayette County when she heard her husband shout, "I'm going to kill you."

She said the threat was directed at Helen Gillin, their 25-year-old daughter who functioned at the level of a 5-year-old.

Earlier that day, Helen Gillin had confided to Roberta Gillin that James Gillin had been having sexual relations with her. Roberta Gillin testified that her husband admitted that was true when she confronted him.

After an attempt to poison Helen Gillin with a mixture of liquid laundry detergent and heart medication failed when she vomited the concoction, state police said an enraged James Gillin chased her into the back yard, knocked her to the ground and kicked her to death.

Roberta Gillin, a certified nursing assistant, testified that when she wasn't able to detect a pulse, she told her husband that Helen was dead.

She said her husband then dumped the body into a burn pit, doused it with gasoline and kept the fire going through the night. The couple's biological son, Timothy, who had no knowledge of the killing, buried the remains in a wooded lot across the road.

Mary Jo, now 26, tearfully confirmed her mother's testimony yesterday. She said she and her mother didn't call police because they were afraid of James Gillin. When people asked of Helen Gillin's whereabouts, James Gillin said she had run off with a boyfriend, police said.

Assistant District Attorney Nancy Vernon said state police learned about the killing when Mary Jo told a girlfriend about it in February 1995. The girlfriend told her mother and the mother called police. By that time, the Gillins had moved and couldn't be located.

The investigation languished until April, when Mary Jo was able to recall additional details of the killing and the Gillins, who had been living near Kingwood, W.Va., returned and moved into a home in Yukon.

State police Sgt. Charles Depp testified that James Gillin confessed to the crime when he and Roberta Gillin were arrested in September.

Breakiron said he refused to set bond for the couple "because of the seriousness of the charges."