Tataseo trial day 3: Testimony focuses on inconsistencies

May 19, 2023

LISBON — Much of the testimony Thursday in the aggravated murder case against Nathan Tataseo focused on inconsistencies.

The evidence didn't match up with what Nathan told police.

That's according to multiple law enforcement witnesses who testified in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court to what they discovered about the days leading up to finding 76-year-old James E. Tataseo dead in his recliner on June 30, 2022.

Nathan Tataseo, 47, is accused of killing his father the night of June 28, 2022 at the family home at 230 S. Elm St., Columbiana, charged with aggravated murder, murder, theft and theft from a person in a protected class. According to the indictment, the theft charges involve a stolen bank card and personal belongings of the victim, who was identified as an elderly person.

Columbiana Police Detective Richard Whitfield, under questioning by county Assistant Prosecutor Alec Beech, talked about what Nathan said during his interview after being taken into custody and what he didn't say. He reviewed video footage from four different locations, including a downtown camera showing South Main Street, a camera from Columbiana Buick Olds, a camera showing the ATM at PNC Bank and a camera from the lobby at the police station. He also revealed the contents of the cell phone records for the victim's cell phone, listing calls and texts.

Whitfield said the estimated date of death for James E. Tataseo was the night of Tuesday, June 28, 2022 for several reasons. The only days empty in the pill organizers were Monday and Tuesday, only the days up through Monday, June 27, 2022 were crossed off the calendar, the morning newspaper from Tuesday, June 28, 2022 was folded up and had blood spots while newspapers from Wednesday, June 29, 2022 and Thursday, June 30, 2022 remained in their plastic wrappers seemingly untouched, stacked on top of the Tuesday newspaper and had no blood on them.

Plus, there was a video of James E. Tataseo at the police station on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 in the lobby for followup on a complaint he had filed. His car can be seen parked outside. Whitfield noted that when he was found dead on Thursday, June 30, 2022, he was wearing the same clothes that he wore in the video from two days earlier.

According to Whitfield, Nathan had told police multiple times that he didn't have any keys to get in the house, that he had moved out of the house at 11 a.m. Monday, June 27, 2022 after his dad left to visit his mom at the nursing home and left his key to the back door inside the house. He said he had been sleeping under a tree in the woods and that he laid in the woods all day on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 and Wednesday, June 29, 2022. On Thursday, June 30, 2022, he said he laid around in the woods, and was walking around and was stopped at Col-Pump and offered a job and then went to Save-A-Lot to buy a bottle of pop. He also claimed he left the house with just the clothes on his back.

"It was determined to be untrue," Whitfield said.

The keys to open all the doors at the house, the garage and both of vehicles owned by James E. Tataseo were found in a bag in a tree house structure in the woods, with investigators determining that was where Nathan was coming and going and where they found some of his belongings, including the bag. They found ramen noodles beef flavored and cans of beans and found bulk packaging for the same ramen noodles at the Tataseo house on South Elm Street.

They found a green T-shirt with the word Lucky on it and found blood on it and the defendant's DNA. Nathan was seen wearing that shirt in one of the videos. He was also seen in the videos wearing a black zippered hoodie that police found at Col-Pump in his work area that also tested positive for his DNA, a sweatshirt he claimed he didn't wear.

When confronted with the keys being found in his bag at the campsite, where he had actually come while investigators were there and was told to leave, Whitfield testified that Nathan "said his father must have put them in there when he was helping him pack. He hides things."

He told Whitfield that his dad helped him pack on Sunday, June 26, 2022.

"Was that consistent with anything?" Beech asked, then when told no, he asked "Why not?"

Whitfield said there was evidence that James E. Tataseo had visited his wife at the nursing home everyday up through Tuesday, June 28, 2022 and even took her to a wound care center appointment that day, with both confirmed. His car was seen in the video of him at the police station that day, too. If he had put the keys in Nathan's bag, he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere.

"That conflicted with everything," Whitfield said.

The video footage conflicted with what Nathan said, too, showing him going to PNC Bank and using the ATM not once but twice on June 29, 2022 wearing jeans, a gray shirt, the black hoodie and an orange hat, the same outfit he had on when investigators first approached him at Col-Pump on July 1, 2022.

The transaction history for the bank showed that $60 was taken out of his father's account via the PNC Bank ATM on June 29, 2022 and that multiple attempts were made to get more money from the account that same day in larger amounts that were declined.

"Did he ever tell anybody he want to the bank? Did he ever say that he used his father's debit card?" Beech asked, with Whitfield replying "no" both times.

Regarding the cell phone records, which covered from Jan. 1, 2022 up to July 3, 2022, Whitfield noted exchanges with mostly the victim's other two sons, Jim and John, with the investigator from Adult Protective Services and a text exchange the night of June 28, 2022 with a neighbor across the street about fishing. He had sent her the picture of him and his grandson from the fishing trip the weekend before.

There was a lull in the activity from 9:15 p.m. until 10 p.m. June 28, 2022 when there was an influx of outgoing calls, with Whitfield determining that those numbers belonged to known drug dealers in the Youngstown area. Some of those phone numbers matched the phone numbers in a notebook log found in Nathan's room in the house.

The cell phone and the debit card were never found, but he did testify that the phone pinged in the area of Fairfield Avenue.

During his testimony, Whitfield also opened up the evidence bags and showed the T-shirt, sweatshirt, a mask or gater found in the pocket and the portable heater. He noted the distance between the fins on the top of the heater was 4 centimeters, the same distance between the three unique parallel wounds on the victim's head. The DNA came back to the victim, who was hit from behind.

Other testimony Thursday came from Troy Walker, chief criminal investigator with the prosecutor's office, Dan Haueter, a member of the Major Crimes Task Force and detective with the East Palestine Police Department and chief of the New Waterford Police Department, Columbiana Police Patrolman Richard Burbick and two forensic scientists with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The trial is expected to continue today, with Beech, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Weikart and Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Weeda representing the state and defense attorneys Charley Kidder and Paul Conn representing the defendant.

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