Detective: Bucks exterminator cried confessing to doctor’s death

A Bucks County exterminator has been held for trial on murder charges in the January strangulation of Philadelphia pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti.

Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni ordered Jason Smith, 37, of Levittown, to stand trial on a general count of murder, arson and related charges in the Jan. 21 death of Ketunuti, a pediatrician and researcher at Philadelphia's Children's Hospital.

The body of Ketunuti, 35, was found on fire in the basement of her Graduate Hospital-area rowhouse by a dog walker who arrived to walk Ketunuti's dog.

Philadelphia Police Homicide Det. Henry Glenn testified that Ketunuti was wearing riding boots and her hands had been bound behind her with a leather strap from horse gear. Her ankles were tied with a riding stirrup.

Smith, an independent exterminator on assignment by a Newtown, Bucks County, company to deal with a mice problem in Ketunuti's basement, was arrested after police saw him on surveillance video entering and leaving the house around the time of the killing.

Det. Edward Tolliver read Smith's confession into the record where Smith said he lost his temper after getting into an argument with Ketunuti over the work he did.

Smith cried throughout the interview and said he was sorry, Tolliver said.

Smith's defense attorneys, James A. Funt and Marc Bookman, did not argue against the murder counts but did try to get Deni to dismiss the arson count. Funt argued that Smith's did not intend to set fire to destroy the building.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber said the basement where Ketunuti's body was set ablaze was loaded with paint cans and paper: "The fact that the house and the whole block didn't catch fire was nothing more than good luck."