Washington County jurors reconvened Tuesday, Nov. 5, in the trial of Paul Sanelle, the 36-year-old Bethany man charged with fatally beating one of his girlfriends.

Sanelle is charged with one count of murder in the April 2012 death of 26-year-old Julianne Herinckx. The trial before Circuit Judge Jim Fun began last week.

Jurors on Tuesday listened to jail phone calls between Sanelle and his other girlfriend, Terlin Patrick. At the time of Herinckx's death, Sanelle shared a Bethany apartment with both women. Investigators have testified that Patrick listed Sanelle in her cellphone contacts under the name "Night."

Jurors previously heard detectives' recorded interview with Sanelle the night of Herinckx's death. On Tuesday, they viewed a subsequent video-recorded interview, which detectives conducted at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Sanelle had stopped by the sheriff's office, Detective Murray Rau testified, to pick up some items seized from his home when deputies executed a search warrant.

Rau said Sanelle showed up wearing an outfit deputies had come to recognize as typical for him: a blue bathrobe, shorts or sweatpants and dark sunglasses. Sometimes he wore shoes, Rau said. Sometimes he was barefoot.

In the later interview with detectives, Sanelle expanded on his lifestyle. He explained that light sources in the home were covered to cut down on "light spectrum," and breakers were shut off to save on electricity.

Paul Sanelle

Detectives questioned Sanelle about the pieces of tape covering the small light emitted from smoke detectors and other electronics in the apartment. Sanelle said the tape was used to block the extremely sensitive smoke detectors, which could be set off by candles and shower steam. In case of fire, he said, the alarms would still work because the tape would melt off.

Sanelle again asserted that Herinckx's injuries were caused by multiple falls on different days and by "sparring," which was part of the defensive training regimen he taught his girlfriends.

In both interviews, Sanelle initially said the workouts were a series of choreographed blocking moves, and later described them as hands-on combat with no protective gear. At times, he characterized the workouts as harmless and said hurting each other was not the objective. Still, he attributed some of the the women's dark bruises, bloody noses and other injuries to the training sessions.

In the later interview jurors heard Tuesday, Rau began to press Sanelle for more answers. Herinckx's injuries, he said, were not consistent with slipping in the shower.

"So, how about her lips, how did they get all split open like that?" Rau asked, showing Sanelle a photo.

Muttering, Sanelle replied, "Oh, she bit her lip." Herinckx had a bad habit of biting her lip, Sanelle said.

"The whole bottom of her lip," Rau said, "that's hamburger, Paul. I've never seen that in my whole police career. My teeth have never done that to me."

Sanelle reiterated his explanations for Herinckx's various injuries. He asked to make a phone call. The interview began again.

"Something happened that caused Julie to have bruising on her brain, the laceration of her spleen, broken ribs on both sides of her body," Rau said.

"No way," Sanelle said in a whisper.

"I'm not making this up," Rau said.

"Seriously? Broken ribs on the side?" Sanelle asked.

"On both sides," Rau replied.

"There's no way there was enough pressure to do that," Sanelle said. "Seriously?"

"That's what the forensic pathologist found," Rau said.

"OK, then she was not recovered," Sanelle said, from the last sparring session. "She should not have had any broken ribs."

"Well, none of us should have any broken ribs," Rau said.

"All I can think is she wasn't fully healed," Sanelle said.

"What about a lacerated spleen?" Rau asked.

"What's a lacerated spleen?" Sanelle responded.

"That's where your spleen is split open," Rau said. "From a blow."

Sanelle replied, "We don't hit in the gut. How?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Rau said.

The extent of Herinckx's injuries, Sanelle said, was news to him. He said he was concerned by all the damage he was hearing about.

Soon after, Sanelle began again explaining his training method and philosophy in detail.

-- Emily E. Smith