Meghan J. West told state police that a warning shot she fired Sept. 20 didn’t stop her former boyfriend from trying to break down her East Huntingdon bedroom door, so she fired again, according to Trooper Michael Thompson.

The bedroom door had what Thompson described as a crack near the doorknob and 33-year-old Andrew Pristas of Greensburg was shot once in the upper back.

“It appears that he would’ve been turned away from the door when he was shot, which wasn’t consistent with her statement that he was trying to enter the door,” Thompson testified Tuesday.

Homicide charges against West, 24, were held for court during a preliminary hearing in connection with the shooting at her Fieldstone Lane home near Ruffs Dale. She has been held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bail since Sept. 21.

Thompson testified that West invited Pristas over last month. The pair dated for a couple years until April. In July, she moved out of their shared home to Valley High Mobile Home Park in East Huntingdon, he said.

When he arrived, there was an argument over something on West’s phone around 11:30 p.m., Thompson said. Pristas allegedly pushed her and West, who wasn’t hurt, retreated to her bedroom and locked the door, asking him to leave, according to testimony.

West told Thompson “he was standing at the door pushing at the door and trying to shoulder it open,” he testified.

West claimed that Pristas tried to break in for about five to 10 minutes when she warned him that she had a revolver, Thompson said. She told police she fired “what she labeled as a warning shot” but that Pristas continued his effort to break down the door, he said.

The second shot went through the door a few inches above the doorknob and West provided police with inconsistent statements about how much time elapsed between the two shots, Thompson said.

Police recovered both bullets. Damage to the door, which was seized by police, could be consistent with someone trying to break in, Thompson said on cross-examination.

West called 911 and administered CPR to Pristas after opening the door and finding him wounded. He died at the scene. During a 40-minute police interview, she never said she intended to kill Pristas, Thompson said, rather that she wanted to scare him or get him to leave.

Defense attorney Adam Gorzelsky said after the hearing that the situation is a tough one for both sides.

“It seems pretty straight-forward. We learned some things about the fact that there were some stress fractures in the door,” he said. “Essentially, her statement’s been consistent and it seems like everything that we learned today confirms that her statement’s been consistent.”

West waived her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday on a separate case filed about a week after the fatal shooting. Police allege she attacked a different former boyfriend at her home earlier Sept. 20. She is charged with theft, simple assault, criminal mischief and harassment.

Police said a man reported spending the weekend at her home from Sept. 18-20 and West is accused of throwing his cell phone at a wall and in a wooded area outside after reportedly becoming upset with phone calls she found on it. When the man tried to leave, she grabbed his hand and the glasses on his face, causing three cuts, according to court papers.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)