Mt. Pleasant woman describes being left for dead after alleged assault by ex-boyfriend

A Mt. Pleasant Township woman told a jury how she was bloodied, bruised, covered in mud and vegetation and left for dead in the woods in 2020 after she was assaulted by her live-in boyfriend.

But she regained consciousness some 12 hours later and crawled to a road to seek help for her injuries, the 42-year-old woman testified Wednesday in Westmoreland County court.

“I felt betrayed and was lost,” she said during the first day in the attempted homicide trial of Charles Paul Etling.

Etling, 41, of Mt. Pleasant, has denied he tried to kill the woman with whom he had a three-year romantic relationship. He is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation and reckless endangerment.

Prosecutors said Etling brutally beat the woman on June 11, 2020, during an argument as the couple drove home after renting a new home near Morgantown, W.Va..

She said Etling punched her repeatedly in the face, dragged her out of the vehicle by her by the hair and strangled her along the side of the road before he took her motionless body 50 feet into the woods in Mt. Pleasant Township and drove off.

“Over the next 12 hours he called friends and told police he and a friend came back with a tarp to dispose the body,” Assistant District Attorney Christina Gongaware said in her opening statement to the jury.

Prosecutors contend Etling’s mother reported the assault to police. When questioned, Etling refused to cooperate.

“He said she (the victim) didn’t need help,” Gongaware said, noting that investigators claimed Etling seemed surprised when told at the conclusion of the interrogation that they had just received word the woman survived the attack.

Etling’s accuser told jurors the couple had initially had a happy and healthy relationship that turned violent after they started to use methamphetamine and that he came to believe false allegations that she mistreated his young daughter and exposed her to sexual situations.

“(At first) he treated me like a princess and it was great,” she testified.

She told jurors she was beaten several times, including one incident when he wrapped an extension cord around her neck and another when he pressed a gun into her mouth.

She said she never reported Etling’s behavior to police but left home for a short time before returning to her boyfriend.

“I loved him and didn’t want to tell them (police) what happened,” she testified. I know it sounds terrible, how can you love someone who hurts you. I really loved him.”

Defense attorney Tim Dawson said Etling admits to the aggravated assault and reckless endangerment allegations but is challenging the prosecution’s claim that he attempted to kill his girlfriend.

“He had all the means to kill her if he wanted. If he wanted to kill her he could have,” Dawson said. “This is a sad case.”

Dawson refuted the prosecution’s disregard of Etling’s claims that the woman behaved inappropriately around his daughter and said his client, when interviewed by police, truly believed he had killed her.

“Chuck has been waiting 2½ years to tell his side of the story that he is no monster,” Dawson said.

The trial will continue Thursday.