What witnesses did prosecutors call at the Travis Collins trial and what did they testify to?
Executive summary
Prosecutors in the Dauphin County trial of Travis Collins called a mix of crime‑scene and police witnesses who tied Collins to the Aug. 4, 2023, death of Ashley Sarazen, using photographs, physical evidence and officers’ observations and interviews to describe the scene and Collins’ post‑arrest remarks [1] [2]. Defense did not call witnesses before the case went to the jury, leaving the prosecution’s eyewitness, forensic and police testimony largely uncontested in court [3].
1. Crime‑scene photography and the “sex‑themed” coin: the forensics investigator who documented room 528
Dauphin County prosecutors presented Brandon Shetterly, a forensics investigator with Harrisburg police, to identify and describe dozens of crime‑scene photographs taken in Hilton room 528, and to point out a sex‑themed coin that prosecutors say belonged to Collins and was visible in those photos — an exhibit introduced to place Collins’ property at the scene and to support the prosecution’s timeline and linkage to the victim [1].
2. Officers who found Collins and described the scene: blood, injuries and Collins’ remarks
Harrisburg police officers who responded and processed the scene testified that they found Collins at or near the scene with blood on his hands and that the victim had been beaten and strangled, testimony prosecutors used to establish the severity and violent nature of the encounter [4] [5]. Those witnesses also relayed statements Collins allegedly made to police and others in the hours after the incident — including a reported remark, “You think I give a [expletive] about that dead girl?” — which the prosecution used to portray Collins’ state of mind and callousness after the killing [2].
3. Prosecutors’ narrative: opening statements and the charges anchored to witness testimony
Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Zawisky framed the testimony for jurors, describing Sarazen’s injuries as so severe her face was “nearly unrecognizable,” and explained that the prosecution’s witnesses — crime scene investigators and arresting officers — would show Collins beat, rape and strangle the victim, supporting first‑degree murder and related sexual‑assault counts that carry life without parole if convicted [2] [1].
4. What other witnesses were reported and what they testified to (and what was not reported)
Local outlets repeatedly highlight the same core categories of prosecution witnesses — crime‑scene forensics and arresting officers — and their testimony about photographs, physical evidence, injuries and Collins’ comments, but available reporting does not publish a full roster of each witness called nor provide verbatim transcripts of all witness testimony, so the public record in these stories is limited to the evidence singled out by reporters and prosecutors in court [1] [2] [4].
5. Defense response at trial and the evidentiary posture going to the jury
Several reports note that Collins’ defense did not present witnesses before the case concluded and the trial moved to closing and deliberations, meaning jurors received the prosecution’s compilation of crime‑scene photographs, officer observations and Collins’ alleged statements without countervailing live testimony from defense witnesses in the courtroom [3].
6. Limits and competing perspectives in the reporting
The news coverage emphasizes prosecutorial and police witnesses and the physical exhibits they introduced, which advances a clear prosecution narrative; these accounts openly reflect that the defense strategy included not calling witnesses and contesting the interpretation of evidence, but the published pieces do not include the full defense theory or cross‑examination transcripts that might nuance or rebut the witnesses’ testimony, so public summaries rely on what prosecutors chose to highlight in court and what reporters were able to observe [3] [2] [1].