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Murder Defendant Testifies That Calling His Ex-Girlfriend 49 Times on Day of Killing Was Not ‘Obsessive Behavior’

Alberto LuperonMay 5th, 2021, 6:01 pm
 

Joshua Aide, the Wisconsin man on trial for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Borkowski and her family friend John Miller, as well as murdering her father James Gruettner, denied on the stand Wednesday that calling her 49 times on the day of the incident was obsessive.

The defense is trying to show that the victims ambushed Aide, 40, and he fired back in self-defense. They maintained that this happened after the defendant displeased Borkowski by refusing to sell his late father’s house in 2019.

Prosecutors said it was Aide who did the ambushing while the victims were trying to fix a vehicle.

The only thing both sides really agree on is that the shooting happened after Borkowski, 33, ended a 5-year relationship with Aide. The former couple co-owned a Tahoe that had radiator trouble. Borkowski said she was going to have it fixed. Miller, a 57-year-old friend of her family, came over to help that day on August 4, 2020. The defendant, however, did not want them working on the vehicle.

Aide asserted on the stand that Gruettner, 59, began shoving and punching him, and he fired to protect himself. He claimed to fire at Miller after the man tried to hit him in the back with something. Finally, he said he shot Borkowski, who raised a weapon toward him.

Naturally, this is a 180 from the story presented by the survivors, who said Aide showed up and opened fire.

The only “conspiracy” the victims were part of was giving Joshua’s property back to him to get him out of Rebecca’s life, the state says. From the prosecution’s case on Monday:

The prosecution pressed Aide on Wednesday regarding the dozens of phone calls he admittedly made to Borkowski on the day of the shooting. He asserted that he had T-Mobile as a service, and did not know if the calls went through. The state brought up that Rebecca only called him three times that day, with the last call with him being at 5:30 p.m. When driving to the site of the shooting in Oshkosh, from 6:36 p.m. to 8:04 p.m., Aide tried to reach her 31 times. The prosecution suggested he was angry she was not answering her phone. Aide maintained that this was normal behavior for her.

In discussing the prior relationship, the defendant insisted that he did not ask to get back together with her, but just wanted to understand why she left him.

According to testimony and evidence, Aide noted that another man interacted with her on Facebook. Borkowski, obviously annoyed, said that it seemed like the defendant was “stalking” her.

After Miller got involved with the Tahoe repair, Aide asserted that the older man was romantically with Borkowski.

“You have issues,” she wrote in reply. The defendant wanted the car fixed by a professional mechanic. Borkowski said no, stating that everyone was booked and that she wanted the vehicle gone by the weekend.

During her testimony, Borkowski detailed a relationship filled with physical abuse by Aide.

[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]

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