Mitzy Cordova thought for sure she was going to die at the hands of her boyfriend in a Greensburg apartment in early 2021.
“I was terrified, and I thought this was it and I wasn’t going to make it,” Cordova testified Tuesday in the first day in the aggravated assault trial of Glenn Whittier.
Prosecutors claim Whittier, 52, of Greensburg assaulted and strangled Cordova as she attempted to break off their romantic relationship. Whittier is charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, simple assault and terroristic threats.
The incident occurred while Whittier was on parole for a conviction related to an incident with another woman in Latrobe, who claimed she was held captive for four days, hit repeatedly with a hammer and had bleach poured into her eyes, according to court records.
Cordova, 63, of Washington Township told jurors she and Whittier met through social media and began dating in late 2020 but said she grew concerned about his anger issues and wanted to break off the relationship when she visited him at his apartment Jan. 23, 2021.
She testified Whittier became enraged, knocked her to the ground, grabbed her by the throat and repeatedly pushed her head into couch pillows.
A neighbor came to the door after hearing the fight from his downstairs apartment, according to the prosecution. Cordova said she told the neighbor to call police before Whittier slammed the apartment door shut.
“That’s when it got worse, and I thought I was going to die,” she testified.
Cordova told jurors she eventually was able calm Whittier and fled the apartment when he went to the bathroom. She testified she suffered bruises to her face, neck and shoulders.
Assistant District Attorney Judi Petrush in her opening statement to the jury said the alleged assault was a culmination of a brief relationship that was marked by Whittier’s violent temper.
“This case is about this defendant’s rage and his efforts to assert control,” Petrush said.
Whittier has denied the allegations. Defense attorney Brian Aston did not discuss details of the case during his opening statement to the jury, only asking for a fair trial. In his questioning of Cordova and three Greensburg police officers who investigated the case, Aston suggested her story was inaccurate and that the allegations were not properly investigated by law enforcement.
Aston pointed to testimony Cordova gave during a preliminary hearing in 2021 in which she claimed Whittier told her to leave the apartment as evidence that her allegations were not to be believed.
The case is expected to go to the jury Wednesday. Whittier is not expected to testify on his own behalf after a pretrial ruling made by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani said prosecutors could not introduce evidence from the 2015 case.
According to court records, Whittier pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to 2½ to five years in prison after his former girlfriend reported she was attacked in Latrobe. According to court records, Whittier was paroled from prison in January 2019.
