Testimony: Kimmel penned letters pleading family to corroborate alibi

POTTSVILLE – The trial of a man accused of ambushing and stabbing his ex-girlfriend on South Catherine Street a few years ago entered its third day today.

Nathaniel Kimmel, 25, is on trial for criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and burglary, among other charges.

He is accused of ambushing his ex-girlfriend, April Mahmod, at her South Catherine Street home when she returned from work, stabbing her 61 times before fleeing in the early morning hours of August 30, 2020.

Kimmel is being tried via a bench trial, in which presiding Judge James P. Goodman will decide his fate, not a jury. He is being represented by Robert J. Kirwan II, of Reading.

Thursday’s proceedings began with a lengthy video of an interview conducted by State Police with Kimmel.

In that interview, Kimmel said that he and Mahmod argued, as he said every couple does, but “it never got physical or anything like that.”

Troopers noted that he was showing no remorse for the death of Mahmod, who he had described as his first true love.

“I’m not big on tears,” Kimmel told troopers in that interview. “Bad news is bad news.” He said he’d lost or nearly lost several family members over the years and said he just has to “roll with the punches.”

He said he drank a lot in the days following the breakup, but said he didn’t kill Mahmod.

Instead, he said he was hunting in Centralia in the early morning hours

Though, Centralia and much of southern Conyngham Township is off-limits to hunters because of the mine fire.

Kimmel told troopers he drove to Centralia via Big Mine Run Road, continued towards Mount Carmel and turned right into the last road on the right and walked off into the woods to hunt coyotes.

The prosecution said that, in several letters to his mother, Kimmel asked his mother and relatives to corroborate that story and take several actions to help cover-up the incident.

Trooper Shawn Tray, lead investigator on the case and a member of the Criminal Investigation Unit at the Frackville barracks, read the letters, which were obtained from the Kimmel family home on North Richard Street in Girardville via a search warrant.

Kimmel wrote home asking for prayer and love and asked for several clothing items to be found and disposed of, and asked relatives to say certain things, like having a relative corroborate that they saw his truck in Centralia at the time of the murder or that the pants he was said to be wearing had a stain on them.

“My life depends on it,” Kimmel wrote in a Sept. 15, 2020 letter.

“If the family ain’t going to do this and I get death row, I won’t make it to death row,” Kimmel wrote. “If you don’t do this, you don’t love me and that’s that.”

He also asked that if anyone in the family had a more convincing story to provide it.

The prosecution called two of Kimmel’s cellmates — Nathan Smithmyer and Glen Ashton — who both witnessed or assisted in his letter-writing campaigns.

Smithmyer said he was cellmates with Kimmel for about a week and was told that Kimmel “was set up.” Kimmel asked for Smithmyer’s help to learn cursive, and, when shown the cursive alphabet, practiced “vigorously.”

A dispute broke out between the two at the end of the week, leading to their separation. Guards mistakenly gave two of Kimmel’s letters to Smithmyer, who, when he skimmed their contents, gave them to State Police upon his release.

Ashton met Kimmel in the restricted housing unit at the prison and were cellmates for about six to eight weeks, he said.

Kimmel sought help writing letters to groups and dignitaries he thought could help prove his innocence, and Ashton described Kimmel’s handwriting as “chickenscratch,” saying Kimmel would write a letter, and Ashton would rewrite it legibly.

The two would become friends, Ashton testified, and Kimmel eventually confided in him about the morning of the murder.

Ashton testified that Kimmel said the “cops are so stupid” thinking he broke into the house, saying he had a key and hid waiting for her, shutting off a power box to lure Mahmod farther inside to investigate.

“She plead for her life, she asked him for mercy and he just kept stabbing,” a visibly emotional Ashton testified. He said that Kimmel “got excited like a kid in a candy store” during the attack.

Kimmel’s “biggest disappointment is that he didn’t get to hear her last breath,” Ashton testified, eliciting an emotional outburst from Mahmod’s relatives directed at Kimmel.

Regarding the testimony, Ashton said it “isn’t about me.”

“I just want all this to be over,” Ashton said. “This happened because she broke up with him. That’s all. That’s as simple as it is.”

Ashton, who was out on federal parole and was in Schuylkill County Prison facing a criminal trespass charge, was accused of having a vested interest in the testimony by the defense attorney.

Kirwan said Ashton requested those charges be dropped in exchange, and that Ashton had a reputation for being a prison lawyer, knowing that he could take advantage of someone facing serious charges.

“You made it all up,” Kirwan accused Ashton, citing the power claim, which, he said, no evidence supports. “You’re looking for a free ride here.”

Kirwan asked Ashton if he was proud of himself after getting the family worked up.

The prosecution also alleged that Kimmel drafted two other letters with the intent to frame an inmate in the next-door cell for the homicide.

Two corrections officers — Angelo Rodriguez and Fernando Oliver — from the Schuylkill County Prison testified that, during a search of Kimmel’s cell, he fumbled around with a bible trying to hide the letters, which were taken to supervisors’ and then to the State Police.

Tray read the letter, in which a Bill “Steaver” admitted to killing Mahmod and said he “set up her ex boyfriend,” and took Kimmel’s grandfather’s truck, Kimmel’s pants, and keys in the process, drove to Shenandoah, committed the homicide, and hacked Kimmel’s phone to make it appear that he was in Shenandoah no matter what.

“Whoever it was [that wrote it] spelled my name wrong,” Kimmel’s actual cellblock neighbor, Bill Stever, testified via Zoom.

Kimmel’s defense attorney objected to the letter, saying that they had not proven that it was Kimmel who wrote it. Goodman overruled the objection, saying the letter was found in Kimmel’s possession.

District Attorney Mike O’Pake questioned Tray on what information on the case was released to the public, when, and when the Steaver letter was discovered.

The letter was discovered weeks after the stabbing but before Kimmel’s preliminary hearing in late Sept. 2020.

Tray was asked to read the press release for the incident, which Kirwan objected to, citing relevance. O’Pake explained that he was laying a foundation that the Steaver letter contained case details that were not released to the public at the time it was discovered. Though, the criminal complaint was public record the day after the incident and obtained by local news sources, with its details — more extensive than the press release — being published.

The trial is moving on to its fourth day Friday morning at 9am.

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