Daughter to Jury: “I had a gut feeling about him”

BUCYRUS–Haylee James, the daughter of murder victim Cindy Heath, testified Tuesday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
Janes told the jury that she saw her mother and sister often. They talked on the phone almost daily. She would take her younger half-sister to her house for the weekend sometimes.

She told the jury that her mom had been living in Crestline from Alaska. Her Mother rented her house from Haylee’s grandmother Paula McDougal. Haylee testified her mother lived there for over a year.

Cindy told her daughter she met Pinyerd when he lived with his mother next door.

Her Mother saw Pinyerd in passing at first. He would shovel her steps. It was an occasional friendly encounter in the beginning.

James said she saw Pinyerd around the house occasionally. Ayer Pinyerd got out of rehab; her mother gave her the heads up that he would be living with her. James told the jury at First; the two shared a downstairs bedroom.

“I wasn’t a fan. I had a gut feeling from past things. I didn’t believe he was good to be around my little sister.” James said.

James told the jury that Pinyerd moved out of her mother’s bedroom a few weeks before her passing.

James told the jury she met Mike Brattain at her mother’s house in 2020. The next time she saw him was the night they found her mother.

James told the jury that she never knew if he was married or about a fight her mother had with Mike’s ex-wife.

What James did know was that her mother was always home when her little sister got off the school bus around 3:30 in the afternoon. James said her mother was not wanting to go anywhere alone. On the rare occasions, she might not be home when her sister got off the bus, her little sister knew to go to her grandma’s house a few doors down.

And the night she found her mother, she received a call from her grandmother around 8 PM. No one had any contact with her mother since 11 AM. The police have been there, but they wouldn’t forcibly open the door.

“I thought the worst. I already had concerns. My mind went to the worst,” James said.

James told the jury she put on her steel-toe work boots, took a gun, and headed to her mother’s. She told the jury she has a concealed carry permit and rarely goes anywhere without her gun.

“I didn’t know if he was still in the house. I didn’t know if she was being held hostage. I was willing to fight for my mom,” James said.

James said she went straight to her grandmother’s house to get her spare set of keys. They also called the police to tell them that they were going to go into the house regardless. When the police told her she could get charged with breaking and entering for going into the house, she told police she’d take that charge.

James testified that she and her uncle used his knife to pry open the locked screen door. She told the jury her mother’s car was gone.

Mike Brattain and her uncle’s girlfriend were there too.

When they used to code, it opened the heavy metal door.

She saw her mother’s body lying on the floor. Her uncle ran out.

James told the jury that she dropped to the floor on the right side of her Mother. Heath was flat on her back with her head turned to the right.

Mike Brattain dropped at her mother’s head and began sobbing. They called 911 again, and James was told to try CPR. It was at the time her uncle’s girlfriend saw a gunshot wound to her mother’s head.

James can be heard on the 911 call giving her Mother CPR. But she told the jury she could not bring herself to give her mother mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She told the jury her mother’s mouth was covered in dried blood.

James said she called her sister’s father in Alaska to tell him what happened. About half an hour later, he, along with the rest of the family, told her little sister what had happened to her mother.

James told the jury she gathered some things for her sister after the crime scene was cleared. A favorite blanket belonging to her sister was never found.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Tom Nicholson asked James if she knew about a restraining order that had been lifted previously to the murder. He also asked her if she knew Pinyerd had had dinner with her mother and grandmother the night before.

James told the jury that by her choice, she was not informed about her mother’s personal life or the ongoing divorce.

Her main concern was her sister and being able to continue to be a part of her sister’s life. She told the jury she did not know that there was any kind of altercation between her mother and the ex-wife of Mike Brattain.

James told jurors that no one touched anything around her mother’s body.

On re-direct examination, Stanley asked James if her opinion of Pinyerd had changed: “I’m not A fan. They are well known as troublemakers. I didn’t want my sister exposed to that. I didn’t like the way he held himself around my sister. My opinion hasn’t changed. I’ll never forget what happened. It does me no good not to forgive him,” James said.