DALTON, Ga. — After Paul Edward Guerrant was hit in the head repeatedly with what the prosecutor said was a ball-peen hammer, doctors could do little to help him, according to testimony on Tuesday in Aaron Jerome Howell’s trial for murder.

Dr. Steven Paynter, who was working in the emergency room at Hamilton Medical Center the night of Dec. 22, 2014, testified in Whitfield County Superior Court as the state continued to build its case in the second day of the trial. Howell is also charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery.

Paynter said by the time Guerrant arrived at Hamilton at around 10 p.m. — less than 30 minutes after he was discovered facedown in a pool of his blood on Dozier Street — he was already in a coma. Paynter said on the Glasgow Coma Scale tests given to Guerrant, he was scored a three, the lowest score on the test, indicating a severe coma.

“His blood pressure was reasonably stable,” Paynter said. “All of his injuries appeared to be isolated to the head and face area. … His prognosis was poor for survival based on his head injury. (He was) not moving, eyes not opening, not responding to any pain.”

During his opening statement on Monday, District Attorney Bert Poston said Guerrant was struck more than two dozen times with a ball-peen hammer, causing his death. Paynter said he couldn’t determine what caused the injuries, but there were no injuries to the chest, abdomen or legs.

Because of the nature of the injuries and because Hamilton Medical Center didn’t have a neurosurgeon on call that night, the decision was made to send Guerrant to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, Paynter said. Guerrant died shortly after arriving there.

The state also called Tiffany Lock, who lives in Kentucky. Lock and Guerrant had a previous romantic relationship, and she said the two were trying to reconcile and become a family with her two children. Lock confirmed phone records that showed Guerrant called her shortly after 9 p.m. that night, and then again for 14 minutes at 9:14. The 911 call about the finding of Guerrant’s body was at 9:36.

“He was walking home from his (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting going home,” Lock said. “We were joking about rain puddles. It didn’t seem like anyone was with him or following him or nothing. It was just like a normal phone call. It was just like any other day. He seemed very calm and like any other phone call we had ever had.“

She said both she and Guerrant were looking for a fresh start.

“He had some problems here and he basically wanted to start over with me,” she said. “He knew I was having problems and wanted to protect me again.”

Guerrant was staying on Dozier Street with the family of Tracey Heatherly, now Tracey Heatherly Caldwell, who testified she and Guerrant “were like sister and brother.” She said when Guerrant was late returning from his meeting, she figured he was talking with friends or otherwise detained. Even when she saw police and emergency responders down the road on Dozier Street, she didn’t think it had anything to do with Guerrant.

“I assumed it was a drug bust,” she said. “You could see all the SWAT out there. It wasn’t until 11:30 p.m. when the cops called me and I found out.”

Under cross-examination by Howell’s public defender, Cat Pyne, Caldwell was asked about any problems Guerrant may have been having and about some social media posts he made. One was negative about an individual. Caldwell said she did not know why it was made.

Pyne asked if Caldwell was shown a post by Guerrant on his Facebook page that told everyone to “(expletive) off.”

“Yes,” Caldwell answered.

Nothing else was offered by Pyne concerning the posts or what they may mean.

Also Tuesday, Tommy Pinson, the manager of the Mack Gaston Community Center, testified that Howell was a regular there. The center is not far from where the attack happened.

 

“He frequented the community center on numerous occasions, usually using the computer center,” Pinson said. “At one point, he was coming almost every day, at least three or four times a week.”

In his opening statement, Poston showed video footage of Howell leaving the community center around the same time as Guerrant was leaving his meeting at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.

The trial is expected to resume Wednesday at 9 a.m. before Judge Cindy Morris. Poston indicated to the court on Tuesday that he expects to wrap up the state’s case on Friday.