Loud objections, tears at trial in killing of doctor

In testimony that undercut the defense theory of an unknown killer, a Philadelphia fire marshal testified Thursday that the fire in the house of physician Melissa Ketunuti would have been set within minutes of the time exterminator Jason Smith was seen on video leaving the area.

Defense attorney J. Michael Farrell, however, angrily objected to Lt. George Werez's testimony, challenging his expertise to estimate the time a fire was set from the amount of smoke in a building.

Werez based his estimate on a hypothetical question posed by Assistant District Attorney Peter Lim, who cited earlier testimony about the amount of smoke in the house by a dog walker who arrived at 12:30 p.m. to exercise Ketunuti's dog and discovered her body burning in the basement.

When Farrell continued arguing with him, Common Pleas Court Judge Sandy L.V. Byrd ordered the attorneys to a closed-door conference. After about eight minutes, the group emerged, Byrd overruled Farrell, and the testimony was allowed.

Farrell has argued that an unknown person could have killed the 35-year-old Children's Hospital of Philadelphia pediatrician during the estimated half-hour Jan. 21, 2013, between the time Smith left Ketunuti's house and when her body was discovered about 12:30 p.m.

Werez estimated that the fire would have been set 20 to 25 minutes before the first alarm was received at 12:23 p.m. A surveillance video camera recorded Smith back at his work truck parked about a block from Ketunuti's house at 11:44 a.m.

Smith is then seen twice driving north on 18th Street and turning right on Naudain Street, passing Ketunuti's house at 1728 Naudain, before disappearing at 11:47 a.m.

Farrell argued that, even if accurate, Werez's estimate still left 13 minutes between Werez's estimated time of the fire's start to when Smith was seen back at his truck.

Smith, 39, of Levittown, was an exterminator assigned to go to Ketunuti's home in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood to get rid of mice.

Smith at first told police "she was alive when I left." Later, he told police that he and Ketunuti argued about the quality of his work and his competence and that he strangled her in a rage and set the body on fire to hide the crime.

Farrell has suggested that an unknown person killed Ketunuti and that Smith gave a false confession, exhausted after more than five hours of questioning by homicide detectives.

Earlier Thursday, police crime scene Officer Jacqueline Davis described the scene where Ketunuti's body was found.

When Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber projected photos depicting Ketunuti's charred and blackened body hog-tied on the floor, the pediatrician's friends and former colleagues turned away or covered their eyes.

Several wept and left the courtroom when Davis identified straps, a saddle girth belt, and other riding equipment used to bind Ketunuti's hands and legs.

Ketunuti was a native of Thailand who came to the United States for college. About a dozen friends from Children's and college have attended the trial.

Selber said Ketunuti's parents remained in Thailand, her father too ill and mother too distraught to attend. The parents are being updated daily, however, by friends in the courtroom.

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