BUCYRUS—Testimony resumed Thursday in the Crawford County Common Pleas Court during the murder trial of Robert Pinyerd. Pinyerd is accused of murder and aggravated murder in the 2022 shooting death of Cynthia Jo Heath.

Defense attorney Tom Nicholson called Eugene “Jimmy” Flinders Jr. To testify on his brother’s behalf.

Flinders testified he woke up to someone knocking on his bedroom window. He looked out and saw his brother. He answered the door of the Arch Street residence where he was staying.

Flinders told the jury his phone was off. He didn’t see the text messages from his girlfriend. She was trying to let him know Pinyerd was trying to reach him.

“I woke up, come to the door, because I looked out the window and seen it was him. I was kind of angry. I was on drugs at the time. He asked me if I had any drugs because he was sick. That’s what drug addicts do in the morning time. We ended up getting high and pretty much for a little while till I told him, hey, we can’t be sitting here just nodding out high all day because my girlfriend was at work. She was due home from work. She was clean at the time, and she was on Vivitrol,” Flinders said.

Flinders told the jury his girlfriend thought he was clean at the time. She did not know he was under the influence of drugs. They got up because he didn’t want his girlfriend to see them. When Flinders’ girlfriend, Kelzee Harris, got off work, they ate at the Little Athens Greek restaurant.

When they returned home, Harris went to bed. Flinders said Pinyerd was still at his house when he passed out. Flinders said when he woke up around 4:30 am, Pinyerd was gone.

Flinders testified that his brother wasn’t behaving unusually; “Normal Bob. He was seeing if I had drugs.” Flinders told the jury he tried to get video from neighbors to prove the time his brother came to his house. He couldn’t get any video.

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Stanley immediately began to chip away at Flinders’ testimony by asking him to tell the jury about his two felony convictions. He was convicted of possession of drugs and receiving stolen property.

Stanley pressed further and got Flinders to admit he was squatting at the Arch Street house. Flinders said he knew the place was empty because he worked on it before he went to jail. On the morning Pinyerd knocked on his window, Flinders said he went to the Valero gas station in Ontario to get milk. He had no driver’s license then, so he took the highway to avoid being pulled over. “I was a known person to be driving a white Mercedes.” Flinders said.

Since Valero didn’t have his favorite cereal, he drove to Meijers to get it.

“I went back home and ate the worlds biggest bowl of cereal. Then I went to bed and that’s why I was asleep when he knocked on the window.” Flinders said.

Flinders admitted he lied to his girlfriend when he responded to her message saying his brother was trying to reach him.

The jury was shown a text message Flinders sent to his girlfriend At 2:21 pm: “I’m sorry babe. I ended up taking a nap, and I just woke up for some reason. I had the sh$&s.” He admitted he lied to her because she was clean and he was on drugs.

Stanley asked Flinders: “Which one is it? Did you wake up late instead of having the sh”@ts, or is it that you had the sh#%= and woke up late?”

“The whole message was a lie to keep the peace.” Flinders said.

Flinders told the jury he did not remember his statements to the police.

“Do you remember you told the police you were scared of Robert Pinyerd?” Stanley asked.

“I never said I was scared of anybody. And if I did, I was high out of my mind. I told police several times I was high out of my mind.” Flinders said.

When asked about messages deleted from his phone, Flinders said that he often deleted calls to keep the peace and to cover criminal activities. “Did you erase your calls on the device because you didn’t want to get caught doing whatever you did with this man(pointing to Pinyerd) after he killed Cynthia Jo Heath?” Stanley asked. “That’s False. It had to do with drugs if it got erased. Stanley also pointed to a text message asking Flinders for a “zipper of cream,” meaning drugs. Flinders did not reply.

Flinders told the jury he has been to multiple recovery centers and rehab. He said he’s been clean for 13 months since he went to jail.

On a re-direct question, Nicholson had Flinders clarify that he deleted the messages so his girlfriend wouldn’t know he was texting other girlfriends.

Robert Pinyerd will testify at 8:30 am on Friday. The jury will begin deliberations after closing arguments.

Crawford County Now will continue to cover courtroom proceedings.