'I just shot my girlfriend 17 times': Homicide trial opens against Munhall man who police say confessed

A homicide trial against a Munhall man began Monday with a detail the prosecution claimed is undisputed: that Darion Abel told a police officer, “I just shot my girlfriend 17 times.”

During opening remarks that ran 22 minutes, Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Alexa Roberts said it’s not a question of whether Abel killed Miranda Grimm-Gilarski on Nov. 17, 2018, but whether he meant to do so and should be convicted of first-degree murder.

The district attorney’s office said it does.

“He opened fire on Miranda Grimm-Gilarski at close range and did not stop shooting until the gun was empty,” Roberts told jurors Monday morning in a Downtown Pittsburgh courtroom.

“A person does not shoot another individual 17 or 18 times without intending for that person to die.”

Grimm-Gilarski was 19.

Attorney Patrick Thomassey, who represents the 27-year-old defendant, agreed that many facts of the case were not in dispute.

But he asked jurors to consider his client’s state of mind at the time of the shooting.

“This is not a whodunit. I’m not asking you to find him not guilty,” Thomassey said. “I’m asking you to find him guilty but mentally ill.”

Allegheny County Police charged Abel nearly seven years ago with homicide, burglary and carrying a 9 mm pistol without a license after finding Grimm-Gilarski dead in the living room of her house in the 1400 block of Munhall’s Louise Street.

Abel has been held without bail since then. His jury trial has been rescheduled about 20 times since 2019.

Prosecutors said they plan to call multiple witnesses, including Munhall police Officer Jason Poniewaz, who they say Abel confessed to in the police station’s parking lot when Abel drove there to turn himself in.

They also plan to call someone from the county medical examiner’s office and Grimm-Gilarski’s stepsister, who was 11 when the shooting occurred in front of her.

According to a criminal complaint, Abel and Grimm-Gilarski had a rocky, yearlong relationship and had assaulted each other several times. The most recent incident leading up to the shooting occurred on Oct. 30, 2018, when police were dispatched, according to authorities.

A notice ordering Abel to appear in court precipitated an angry phone conversation between the two, the complaint said.

Abel told police he got a pistol while still talking to Grimm-Gilarski and drove to her house.

He kicked in the front door after finding it locked and confronted Grimm-Gilarski in her living room, said the complaint.

Abel said he remembered hearing only a “bang” after she stood and said, “No,” according to the police account.

Police found her around 1:15 p.m. on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds.

Spent bullets found in the basement indicated Abel stood over her and continued shooting after she fell, according to the complaint.

Thomassey said he will present as a witness a psychiatrist, who evaluated Abel in 2022 and again in April. The psychiatrist is expected to describe Abel’s “diminished capacity” during the shooting.

The court order delivered to Abel’s home on the day of the homicide “sent him over the edge,” Thomassey said.