La Plata, MD – When Charles County Assistant States Attorney Constance Kopelman began to describe the injuries Jennifer Weyhenmeyer sustained when her body was found behind a Waldorf Pizza Hut Oct. 12, 2014, the victim’s mother had to leave the room.
The prosecutor pressed onward before Charles County Circuit Court Judge Steven G. Chappelle Thursday, Nov. 10, telling the court that Weyhenmeyer suffered multiple fractures, broken bones in her face and broken ribs, a broken left femur, and a laceration of her lungs, liver and spleen.
“She had an exposed skull and hemorrhage of the brain,” Kopelman said.
Kopelman explained to the visiting judge that the woman’s fatal injuries were the result of her having been run over several times by her husband, Brian Patrick Weyhenmeyer, 34 of Waldorf.
Weyhenmeyer accepted a plea bargain from the state and was informed he faces substantial time in prison for first-degree murder.
The defendant listened and answered quietly, “yes” or “no” when asked by Chappelle if he understood the agreement.
“Your sentence will be life, with all suspended but a period of at least 30 years, not to exceed 45 years,” the judge stated.
He warned the defendant that upon his release he would face a period of supervised probation with dire consequences if he violated the conditions of his probation.
“If you violate any part of those conditions, the rest of that life sentence could be re-imposed,” Chappelle said.
Kopelman said the original 911 call came in about 7:20 p.m. Oct. 12, 2014 from Jennifer Weyhenmeyer, stating that they were in the family’s Ford Edge, southbound on Route 301. She told the dispatcher that she and her husband were having an argument and that her husband wouldn’t let her out of the vehicle.
As she was trying to talk to the 911 communications center, Kopelman said Brian Weyhenmeyer kept blasting loud music on the car stereo so that she couldn’t hear.
The call abruptly ended when the defendant grabbed the phone from his wife and threw it out of the window.
That phone was later recovered by investigators on the median strip of Route 301.
At 7:45 p.m., 911 dispatchers received a call that a body was lying face down in the street behind the Pizza Hut in Waldorf.
“She had been run over multiple times,” Kopelman stated.
Blood and pieces of fabric consistent with what the victim was wearing were recovered from the undercarriage of the Ford Edge when they arrested Weyhenmeyer at his residence at Peirce Place in Waldorf.
When he was arrested, the prosecutor said investigators found evidence that the defendant had tried to slit his wrists.
Kopelman said experts would have testified the DNA found in the blood under the vehicle would have matched Jennifer Weyhenmeyer’s.
Charles County Deputy District Public Defender Edie Fortuna Cimino told the court that the defendant was “profoundly remorseful and has expressed deep sadness over what happened.
“He is aware of the acute pain he has caused her family,” she said.
Weyhenmeyer will be officially sentenced March 22 by Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com