Tyler Aho, former roommate of slain MSU student Andrew Singler, demonstrates to the jury how alleged murderer Connor McCowan approached the door on the night Singler was killed last February. The trial began Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 with opening statements and witness testimony. Danyelle Morrow/The State News
A series of offensive text messages exchanged between Okemos resident Connor McCowan and MSU stabbing victim Andrew Singler kicked off McCowan’s murder trial Tuesday morning.
“I have no problem finding you just to whoop your ass,” Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor John Dewane read, quoting a text McCowan sent to Singler the evening of Feb. 23. “Then you wouldn’t have a problem if I showed up at your apartment then, huh?”
In an opening statement Tuesday in Ingham County Circuit Court, Dewane said Singler and his girlfriend, McCowan’s sister Shay McCowan, argued often throughout their relationship and needed Connor McCowan to mediate.
On the night of Feb. 23, Dewane said one such argument went too far.
According to previous court testimony, Shay McCowan texted her brother that night saying Singler had broken her back and called her names, causing Connor McCowan to become upset. Connor McCowan and Singler then began arguing over texts, with McCowan saying he would show up at Singler’s apartment and Singler saying, “I can’t wait for you to get here.”
Chris Bergstrom, Connor McCowan’s attorney, said the argument between Singler and Connor McCowan was by no means one-sided. In text messages provided to the court, Singler told McCowan he was “overdramatic, just like his sister,” and called him several offensive names.
Dewane claimed Connor McCowan showed up at Singler’s home at Castle Point Apartments in Meridian Township just past 4 a.m. looking for a fight.
“Rather than simply diffusing the situation and ignoring the texts Andrew was sending him, he makes a conscious and intentional decision to escalate the situation,” Dewane said.
Singler’s former roommate, MSU alumnus Tyler Aho, took the stand first and said during court testimony there had never been tension between the two prior to Singler and Shay McCowan’s disagreement.
When Connor McCowan arrived, Aho said he was calm but “just didn’t look right.” He said Singler lunged after him, hitting McCowan once over his left eye in what Aho previously called a “haymaker” punch. A fight then ensued, ending with McCowan fatally stabbing Andrew Singler between two and five times in the chest, Aho said.
After he was stabbed, Aho said Singler screamed, “Oh God,” and fell into the wall and then onto the ground, bleeding out of his chest. He said McCowan “shrugged his shoulders” at him and ran toward the complex’s parking lot.
After a failed emergency operation, Singler was pronounced dead at 5:15 a.m.
Although Aho testified saying Connor McCowan had a knife in his right hand before he entered the apartment, Bergstrom claimed Aho said the opposite in an initial interview with Meridian Township police.
McCowan is being charged with open murder
State News reporter Celeste Bott contributed to this report.
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