By: Claire Osborn
AUSTIN, TX – For several hours after prosecutors say Jessika Kalaher was strangled twice, raped and left for dead in her car overnight in a Cedar Park shopping center, the assault left her so severely brain damaged that she was unable to seek help or answer her phone.
A former restaurant worker testified Tuesday that after she arrived at work on the morning of Sept. 7, 2009, she saw the 27-year-old woman crawling naked inside her Kia car and trying to put on a swimsuit coverup. The worker, Kristina Wilson, said she later saw Kalaher in her coverup sitting outside her car playing with her hair, then sitting in her car again talking to herself, and later using her finger to trace figure eights on the steering wheel.
Kalaher, who was assaulted in the early morning hours, eventually died of heat stroke that afternoon in her car with the windows rolled up, prosecutors told the jury Tuesday in the first day of the capital murder retrial for Crispin Harmel.
For a complete recap of the first day of the trial, including opening statements and the first witnesses, visit MyStatesman.com.
Article Source: Witness Said She Saw Murder Victim Struggling But Never Helped