Witnesses testify in Pocatello murder case - East Idaho News
Pocatello

Witnesses testify in Pocatello murder case

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POCATELLO — The preliminary hearing for Timothy Blaney, the man charged in connection with the beating death of 22-year- old Skylar Huffield in May, started Tuesday with testimony from witnesses at the scene.

Blaney, 21, is charged with first degree murder. He was arrested without incident shortly after Pocatello police responded to a disturbance with an injury at 3842 Hawthorne Road.

Forensic Pathologist Charles O. Garrison, an expert witness for the state, testified by video during the preliminary hearing Tuesday. Garrison said an autopsy conducted on Huffield on May 31 determined Huffield died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Garrison said the victim also sustained sinus fractures in the attack.

Diana Shaeffer, 18, Blaney’s estranged wife, said she and Huffield were sleeping in a bedroom at the house in the early morning hours of May 24. She woke up to see Blaney standing in the room and then awoke a second time to see him striking Huffield with a 3 feet-long two-by-four.

Shaeffer, 18, said she and Blaney were together for three years and had been married for one year. The couple have a son together.

Joshua Martin, testified Tuesday that he, along with Shaeffer, Huffield and Shaeffer’s parents, Ronald Shaeffer and Marcella Knapp, smoked methamphetamine earlier that evening.

Martin said following the attack, Blaney told him, “I caught my wife in bed with another guy, he woke up and I knocked him back out.”

He said he heard Blaney tell Diana Shaeffer to not give the police his name and to let him take care of Huffield and to let him fix it.

Ron Shaeffer and Knapp said they fled the scene before police arrived because Ron Shaeffer had an outstanding arrest warrant from another county. Both Ron Shaeffer and Knapp denied using drug that evening.

Diana Shaeffer, Ron Shaeffer and Knapp are all incarcerated in Bannock County on unrelated charges, they said no deal was struck with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony Tuesday.

Pocatello police Sgt. Scott Matson said Blaney was located in the area of West Quinn Road using a cell tower. He was taken into custody without incident at a convenience store on Hiline Road. He remains incarcerated at the Bannock County jail with a $1 million bond was set in the case.

The preliminary hearing continues Wednesday and is expected to wrap up by noon.

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