Detective: Accused firebomb killer’s hands scarred by burns

A detective said Tormu Prall’s hands were clearly scarred by burns when he was arrested after 13 months on the run from charges he torched the family home on Wayne Avenue, killing his brother.
Lt. Edgar Rios, the detective, said he ordered pictures taken of Prall hands as soon as he saw them on Oct. 21, 2008, more than a year after the fugitive’s alleged arson-murder on Sept. 25, 2007. Jurors were shown the pictures Thursday.

Tormu Prall

Tormu Prall


By the time of his arrest under a false name in Connecticut, which led to his return to Trenton, investigators had put out a wanted poster on Prall and, as Rios testified, had heard from four witnesses who linked the suspect to the fiery murder of his brother, John Prall, and serious burning of his bedmate Kim Meadows.

Meadows, the mother of John Prall’s children, Tormu Prall’s girlfriend, and Paul Bethea, an acquaintance of them all, have testified that they heard the suspect repeatedly threaten to kill the brother after they argued about household finances.
Defense lawyer Michael Dawson has raised questions about the testimony of them all, and during a recess Thursday, Prall turned to the audience and told The Trentonian to “stop printing lies about me.’’
One of the four plainclothes New Jersey Corrections officers guarding him approached and quietly told him to settle down. Prall loudly accused Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson of trying to railroad him at a hearing earlier this month, but has behaved during the trial.

blog comments powered by Disqus