Defense Attorney Wants Accused Murderer's Confession Suppressed

The trial of James Lee Troutman, the 25 year-old Souderton man on May 9 of last year, is underway and according to several media sources, Kaufman's defense attorney is trying to have certain evidence suppressed.

According to an Associated Press report, Montgomery County Detective Christopher Kuklentz testified on Monday that Troutman cried as he confessed to the crimes.

“He repeatedly said, ‘I’m a monster,’" Kuklentz told the court. "He continued to ask us to shoot him so he would not go to jail.”

Troutman's lawyer, William Craig Penglase, is trying to have any alleged confession suppressed, saying Troutman was interrogated for over 13 hours.

According to The Times Herald, Penglase filed papers with the court saying that any of Troutman’s statements were “tainted by the circumstances surrounding the interrogation, especially the duration of the interrogation and the defendant’s physical and psychological state during the multiple interrogation sessions.”

According to the AP story, Kuklentz testified the defendant was "very talkative" and was never threatened or coerced.

According to The Herald, Penglase is also asking the judge to forbid prosecutors from using any of the documents seized by authorities in a as evidence in the trial.

According to Penglase, those documents were notes written by Troutman for Penglase as part of the trial preperation and are protected under attorney-client privilege.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick told the court that much of what was in Troutman’s notes had been revealed to third parties by Troutman and shouldn’t be considered part of the attorney-client privilege.

There has been no report of a ruling on either the alleged confession or the documents recovered in the Oct. 31 search. Both the prosecutiona and the defense are prohibited from talking to reporters about the case under a gag order by Judge William R. Carpenter.

Troutman faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment and abuse of a corpse. Prosecuters

You can read more about the alleged confession and the search of Troutman's jail cell on 's website.

Read more about the and here on Norristown Patch.