Jurors in the murder trial of an Odessa man accused of stabbing another man to death two years ago heard from two men Wednesday who said they witnessed the incident.
Joseph Richard Grondahl Jr., 33, is charged with murder in the Dec. 13, 2020 death of Austin Pasillas, 25. His defense attorneys have suggested he acted in self-defense.
Felipe Limon Jr. told jurors he was living in a downstairs apartment at the Carriage House Apartments on Dixie Boulevard with his son and granddaughter in December 2020.
On the night of the incident, the family was watching the Vampire Diaries and eating pickles and popcorn when they heard a lot of cussing from the apartment directly upstairs, Limon said.
He didn’t know the name of the two women and man living in the apartment, but thought the two women were sisters, Limon said.
His son asked their neighbors to calm down and they apologized, but started up again five to 10 minutes later, Limon said.
At that point, Limon said he opened his door and saw a young man he later came to know was Pasillas standing outside his apartment getting ready to leave. The man Pasillas had been arguing with said something that prompted Pasillas to throw up his arms, Limon said.
Seconds later, the man jumped over the stairs’ railing and ended up standing in front of Pasillas, Limon said. Pasillas pushed the man away and the man reacted by throwing what he thought was a punch at Pasillas.
To his surprise, Pasillas responded by saying “You stabbed me” and falling to his knees and then onto his face, Limon said.
At that point, Limon said his son instructed him to grab a towel so he could put pressure on Pasillas’ wounds as the younger of the two sisters from upstairs told Pasillas an ambulance was on the way.
His son also gave Pasillas chest compressions, but it was too late.
Limon testified he’d seen Pasillas at the apartment visiting both sisters on a few occasions.
Limon also told jurors he was never interviewed by the police following the incident. The first time he told his story to the authorities was last week when he spoke with an investigator with the Ector County District Attorney’s Office.
Christopher Penn told jurors he was playing Xbox at a buddy’s upstairs apartment late on the evening of Dec. 12, 2020 when he decided to take a smoke break outside. While doing so, he chatted with the next-door neighbor, a woman, and a man, whom prosecutors have identified as Natalee Lassiter and Grondahl.
A short time later, Penn said a man (whom prosecutors have said was Pasillas) climbed the stairs to the apartment and begged the woman to rekindle her romance with him.
The woman refused and as time went on the man became more frustrated and agitated, at one point grabbing the woman’s face and demanding she look at him, Penn said.
The man began to pace and kept getting louder and then he began to make threats about her family, Penn said.
Eventually, the man pulled a knife, prompting the man he’d been chatting with to pull a knife as well and to chase the other man down the stairs, Penn said.
Not wanting to get involved, Penn said he stayed where he was, but he heard the rejected lover getting stabbed and him saying “You got me. You stabbed me.”
Penn testified he saw the man he’d been chatting with jump into a vehicle and take off down Dixie after the woman told him, “The cops are going to be here, hurry up and get out of here.”
Penn testified he later picked Grondahl out of a photo lineup as the man he’d been chatting with and the man who stabbed the victim.
Jurors also heard from one of the two sisters who lived in the upstairs apartment.
Deborah “Renee” Caldwell testified she and her sister, Natalee Lassiter, lived in Building 8, Apartment 2F of the Carriage House Apartments in December 2020. At the time of the murder, Caldwell said she was being treated at the hospital after having been attacked by some stray dogs while taking out the trash.
Caldwell testified she only allowed her sister to have friends she approved of over to visit and Grondahl was one of them.
Despite what Limon testified, Caldwell said Pasillas was not allowed at the apartment and she’d never seen Pasillas with her sister or anywhere near the apartment.
“I didn’t like Austin from the get-go, I could tell he was on drugs,” Caldwell said.
Assistant Ector County District Attorney Elizabeth Howard told jurors during opening statements the evidence will show that after fleeing the scene Grondahl sent messages to Lassiter asking her to clean up the crime scene and to delete their conversations.
On Wednesday, Caldwell said she couldn’t recall allowing her sister to use her cell phone or Facebook account in the hours after the murder.
Lassiter has been charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution in connection with the case. Outside the presence of the jury and prior to opening statements Tuesday, she told 244th Ector County District Court Judge James Rush she intends to testify on behalf of the state against the advice of her attorney. She told the judge she “just wants to do the right thing.”
Deputy Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr. Tasha Greenberg testified Wednesday Pasillas died after being stabbed in the heart. He also suffered two other stab wounds to the chest and a slash to his upper left arm.
