A North Huntingdon woman testified Wednesday that for four months after she ended a relationship with a boyfriend last year, he harassed and threatened her with repeated telephone and text messages and showed up at her home at all hours.

The victim told District Judge Wayne Gongaware at a preliminary hearing that “within 12 minutes” of county sheriff’s deputies serving the former boyfriend, Joshuwa S. Petrill, 38, of Penn Township, with a protection from abuse order, he violated the new court order by contacting her via text message wanting to meet.

Based on the testimony of the woman and North Huntingdon Detective Thomas Harris, Gongaware ruled there was sufficient evidence for Petrill to stand trial on three counts of harassment and two counts each of retaliation against a witness and stalking.

Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Allen Powanda, the victim said that due to the continuing and repeated incidents since she ended her relationship with Petrill in July, she feared for her life.

“I felt intimidated. I felt threatened. I was worried about the welfare of my children and my own well-being. I couldn’t sleep,” the victim said.

The victim claimed that, on one occasion, she went to a relative’s home in Delmont to celebrate the birth of a child and “he somehow knew I was in Delmont… asking who I was seeing there.”

On Sept. 26, the woman said she went to a boyfriend’s home in New Kensington and Petrill kept telephoning and texting her “until 4 a.m.”

New Kensington police filed separate retaliation and stalking charges in connection with threats they say Petrill made against the boyfriend and damage done to the man’s pickup truck in October. In a separate hearing on that case, District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. ruled there was sufficient evidence for Petrill to stand trial.

The case culminated in January when Penn Township police filed another retaliation complaint against Petrill after the victim’s mechanic discovered a GPS tracking device hidden inside her glove compartment. Harris testified at the hearing detectives received receipts from the victim that Petrill purchased the tracking device in late September.

Petrill’s attorney, Jennifer DeFlitch, of the public defender’s office, pleaded not guilty on behalf of her client.

Gongaware denied a request from DeFlitch to reduce Petrill’s bond noting, “(Petrill’s) repeated criminal acts in this case.”

Petrill declined to comment on the case as he was led into Gongaware’s office for the hearing by a sheriff’s deputy.

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