

ELIZABETH — Matthew Ballister says he and his girlfriend often used drugs, that he tried to electrocute his girlfriend when he was high, and that he ran over her with his Hummer and then dismembered her body and put the parts in the trash so no one would find her.

But he says he didn't mean to kill April Wyckoff. It was an accident. He actually loved her and planned to marry her.

Ballister said he put Wyckoff in the back seat of the Hummer in the driveway of his Union Township home in October 2013, and unbeknownst to him, she had gotten out and was hiding under the vehicle when he backed out, and drove over her.

"It's an accident," a shackled Ballister said in an exclusive interview in the Union County jail where he is being held on charges he murdered the 43-year-old woman, a divorced mother of two.

"It's the truth. It was an accident. I hear her death rattle every day," Ballister said.

Ballister, who was charged in her death, is due in Union County Superior Court Monday for a status conference.

His mother, Eleanor Schofield, 70, of Springfield is facing charges of hindering apprehension for allegedly interfering in the investigation.

In the hours after Wyckoff died, Ballister said he spoke with his mother, and then decided to get rid of Wyckoff's body. He pulled her body into his garage, dismembered her, then placed the body parts in plastic bags, and drove to Essex County to dispose of them.

Since his arrest, Ballister, now 45, has switched lawyers four times for various reasons, he says, such as one had poor health, another went on vacation after taking the case, and still another refused to seek evidence that he claims police are hiding.

He is now represented by a public defender and wants to change attorneys yet again.

Ballister keeps a stack of papers a foot-and-half high about his case, and he has carried the papers with him when he appears in court. In one recent hearing, he pleaded for Superior Court Judge Robert Mega to hear his complaints about his lawyers. Assistant Public Defender Brian McCormack advised Ballister not to say anything, and Mega refused to hear from the defendant.

"I'm not going to prejudice the case," Mega said in court last May.

Authorities say they never recovered all of Wyckoff's body parts. Ballister contends that animals got into the plastic bags before the parts were found.

Wyckoff's son, James Wyckoff, 24, who was appointed administrator of his mother's estate, has filed suit against Ballister, seeking damages for the woman's death.

"James Wyckoff was devastated by his mother's death," said Rosemarie Arnold, the Fort Lee attorney representing the son.

"He was very close to his mother. He misses his mother everyday," Arnold said.

She said the family still has not been told how April Wykoff died. James Wyckoff's sister, Ashley, now 16, is also a plaintiff in the suit, and Ballister's mother is also named as a defendant.

During an interview in the Union County Jail last week, Ballister's hands remained cuffed and shackled tightly to a chain around his waist. He still managed to flip quickly through his extensive files.

He spoke quickly, too, trying to give details about his background in electronics and how he met Wyckoff on an internet site. The couple shared a love of pets, including Ballister's four Huskies. Wyckoff moved into Ballister's home on Mercer Avenue, a house first purchased by his grandparents.

However, Ballister claims Wyckoff had plotted to get his house and money. On May 2013, she called police and filed a domestic violence complaint against him after an argument. He was arrested, but the charges were later dismissed, one of his prior lawyers said during a court hearing.

Wyckoff moved into her own apartment and, Ballister claims, Wyckoff had an affair with a Union Township police officer. Ballister and Wyckoff later reconciled and the couple became heavily involved in drugs, he said.

In the days before Wyckoff died, Ballister said, the two of them were using cocaine. On Oct. 22, 2013, the two of them were using drugs again, and Wyckoff started an argument, Ballister said. In the drug-induced state, Ballister said, he stripped wires from a lamp, intending to lightly shock Wyckoff, but instead was received a shock himself.

He said he decided they both should go to a hospital following the confrontation. He said he put Wyckoff in the backseat of his Hummer, went back into his house to retrieve something, then returned to Hummer, getting behind the wheel, unaware that Wyckoff had gotten out and was hiding under the vehicle.

As he backed out of the driveway, he said, a front tire ran over Wyckoff. He saw the injured woman and hopped out of the Hummer. He was so upset, he said, that he then used Wyckoff's car to drive away and get more drugs. When he returned, he moved the woman's body into the garage, went in the house and called his mother, who came from her home in Springfield.

After the two talked, Ballister concluded that he had to dispose of the body. He said calling the police was not an option, because they had previously arrested him for domestic violence and Wyckoff had been involved with one of the officers. He used tools he owns to cut up the body, put the parts in plastic bags and drove to Newark to dispose of them, he said.

Officers from several agencies searched parts of Union, Essex and Hudson counties, and found some of the body parts along the edge of the Passaic River in Newark on Oct. 27, five days after she was killed, authorities have said.

Ballister's mother denies she went to the house and spoke to her son after Wyckoff was run over in the driveway.

"Absolutely not. I knew nothing about that," said Schofeld.

MORE UNION COUNTY NEWS

Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.