CLEARFIELD – Thursday, on the third day of the Chase Anderson murder trial, the ex-girlfriend of one of the men accused of kidnapping and killing the Curwensville teen testified against him.
Denny S. Bailey, 41, and Kenja K. Tew, 26, allegedly lured Anderson into a wooded area in Pike Township and stabbed him to death before allegedly attempting to burn his body.
Bailey is now standing trial on charges of criminal homicide, conspiracy-criminal homicide, aggravated assault, conspiracy-aggravated assault, kidnapping and conspiracy-kidnapping.
Additionally, he’s charged with simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, tampering with evidence and abuse of corpse.
Chantell Demi, 30, testified that she started dating Bailey in June of 2017, their relationship moved rather quickly and she moved into his trailer in Woodland towards the end of the month.
She said they hung out with Anderson and Tew and the group regularly did various drugs together, and Anderson also drove Bailey to medical appointments and drug deals.
She said Anderson was kicked out of his mother’s house in Curwensville, and had been staying with a relative but it wasn’t working out.
So, Demi mentioned her mother’s old apartment on Pine Street in Clearfield was still vacant and that Anderson could go there to shower. She said Anderson, however, moved in with Tew.
When he got caught there Aug. 12, 2017, she said Anderson told Clearfield Borough police that she’d given him permission to be at the apartment.
This, she said, angered Bailey because Anderson brought her name into it, and if Anderson would “snitch” over something as stupid as the apartment, he’d “snitch” over driving Bailey to drug deals.
Demi said Bailey also felt “disrespected” by the teen whom they saw (on a home surveillance video) peeking into their bedroom while they were being intimate.
When asked what her relationship with Bailey was like, she said he could be “prince charming” but in the flip of a dime turn into a “narcissistic control freak.”
And though she didn’t have any prior run-ins with the law, Demi said she fell under Bailey’s spell and the two became like a real “Bonnie and Clyde.”
On Aug. 14, 2017, she said Bailey and Tew used a drug package to lure Anderson to a somewhat secluded area in Pike Township where they planned to tie him up, beat him and leave him.
“(They wanted) to scare him,” Demi testified, admitting she gave Bailey directions to the spot, which she knew was not so far off the beaten path that Anderson wouldn’t find his way out.
She said Bailey and Tew took Anderson to the area but couldn’t find the access road, so they came back to Woodland and she used Bailey’s iPad to show him where it was on Google maps.
Then, they left and when they came back the second time between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., Anderson wasn’t with them, Demi said, and both Bailey and Tew were so bloody she could smell it.
“I knew Chase was dead,” she tearfully told jurors, and when she eventually asked, Bailey threatened that her daughter wouldn’t have a mommy anymore if she asked more questions.
She said Bailey directed her to spray Tew down with bleach in the shower, and Bailey shoved all their clothes into a garbage bag and burned them outside.
When Bailey came back in from the fire pit, Demi said he stripped down again. She put those clothes in a garbage bag to burn and she sprayed him down with bleach, as well.
She said they removed any evidence from the bathroom and sprayed the bathroom down with bleach. Their cleanup and burning efforts lasted into the morning hours.
On Demi’s birthday Aug. 24, 2017, she asked Bailey if Anderson suffered. “He said: ‘yes, I left your baby on the hill.’” Previously, she testified to looking after Anderson and calling him “my baby.”
Demi also said she and Joseph Ralston were directed by Bailey to more or less burn the bloodied Ford Explorer that Bailey and Tew used on the night in question.
Under cross-examination, Demi admitted she had signed a plea agreement that was offered by the previous district attorney a couple years ago.
Earlier this month, she said her motion to withdraw that plea was granted and she signed a new plea deal Thursday, which wouldn’t include conspiracy to commit murder, if certain terms were met.
Instead of serving a sentence of 20-40 years in state prison, Demi said the new plea agreement would lessen her sentence to a minimum of 15 years to a maximum of 30 years.
She admitted the plea required her full cooperation with the prosecution by providing truthful testimony, and she did even though she’d previously lied every time she spoke to state police.
The trial is being prosecuted by District Attorney Ryan Sayers and First Assistant District Attorney Leanne Nedza. Bailey is represented by defense attorney Joseph Ryan of Reynoldsville.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Friday in Clearfield County Court before President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman, and is scheduled to run through Nov. 5.
