Souderton man was angry at girl, 9, who was later killed

A Souderton man facing the death penalty in the slaying of a 9-year-old neighbor allegedly said days before she turned up dead that he wanted to snap her neck, prosecutors said in court filings this week.

James Lee Troutman, 24, pointed out Skyler Kauffman to his then-fiancée as one of two children who "got [him] in trouble with police" three weeks earlier, the documents state.

Prosecutors - who hope to use Troutman's statements against him at trial - say he was referring to an encounter he had had with the girl that has since become a focus of controversy in the case.

"The defendant expressed his anger toward the victim," prosecutors wrote in their filings. "Upon seeing the victim at the apartment complex, the defendant stated, 'That was one of the girls who got me in trouble.' "

Souderton police found Skyler's body on May 9; she had been strangled, sexually abused, and dumped in a trash bin yards from the apartment she shared with her mother and grandmother. Troutman was a suspect from the start.

Police had been called to the complex on April 18 after Skyler and another girl allegedly told their parents that Troutman had locked them in his apartment.

According to the affidavit used to charge him with murder, Troutman invited the girls into his apartment to use his bathroom. Once inside, he locked the door, exposed them to pictures of naked women on a bathroom wall, and offered to show them his "bird," the document states.

Skyler's mother, Heather Gebhard, questioned why police did not press charges at the time, saying that might have prevented her daughter's death.

But amid increasing criticism, law enforcement officials recast their depiction of the incident in a more innocent light, saying detectives had relied only on the recollections of the Kauffman family in drafting their murder warrant.

They said the initial incident report described a more benign encounter.

According to that version, the girls had knocked on Troutman's door and asked to go inside. The photos were actually images of scantily clad celebrities and models that Troutman's fiancée had put up to inspire her to lose weight. And the "bird" mentioned in the probable-cause affidavit may have been an actual bird. Troutman was an amateur birdhouse builder, they said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman - who is set to try the case herself - has refused to release that initial report, saying it would interfere with the investigation.

Troutman's attorney, William Craig Penglase, could not be reached for comment Friday, but he has filed motions seeking to suppress his client's statements, including those referred to in this week's prosecution motion. He has said that his client suffered from an unspecified mental illness and that he expected to raise the issue at trial.

Since his arrest in May, Troutman has maintained he is not guilty. He remains at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

His trial is set to begin early next year.