Chicago, IL: Witness: Girlfriend's body was blocking door

September 22, 2010
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter
He was bringing a pizza for dinner over to girlfriend Pamela Howat's Hanover Park home, but even though Antwoine Mitchelle had a key, he still couldn't open her door.

"I couldn't really get in. Something was blocking the door," Mitchelle said Wednesday, adding he finally shoved the door open only to see it was the body of his 51-year-old girlfriend that had prevented him from getting inside.

"I saw Pam laying there," Mitchelle said softly, his voice quavering. "I called her name and I tried to shake her." Mitchelle was among the first witnesses to testify Wednesday as the murder trial opened for Howat's alleged killer, 47-year-old Ronald O'Rourke, a former co-worker whom Howat had dated previously.

O'Rourke used a hidden key to sneak into Howat's house on June 6, 2009 to steal money to buy crack cocaine, but was caught inside by Howat when she returned home, DuPage County prosecutors told jurors.

During the confrontation that followed, O'Rourke stabbed Howat at least 10 times in the neck and face as she tried to defend herself, then left her dead on the floor of her home, prosecutor Ann Celine O'Hallaren said.

"She struggled and fought for her life," O'Hallaren said. "Pam Howat lost her life in a burst of unspeakable violence." O'Rourke after his arrest gave a videotaped statement to police implicating himself in her death, though he allegedly insisted that she first attacked him with garden clippers and was cut as they struggled over the tool.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Michael Mara offered a different version of events, saying O'Rourke went to her house to borrow money and discovered her already slain.

"Ron freaked out," said Mara. "He left. He didn't do anything to help Pam." Instead, O'Rourke returned home, obtained more crack cocaine and got high, Mara said.