He can’t keep his hands off his lovers’ necks.
Jason Bohn, the Ivy League educated lawyer on trial for strangling his girlfriend, was arrested for attempting to throttle a woman he dated 14 years ago, prosecutors revealed Friday.
“Did you know that Jason [Bohn] was arrested because he tried to choke and assault his girlfriend Jennesy?” prosecutor Patrick O’Conner asked the defendant’s best friend of 17 years, Michael Seligman.
“I know he was arrested, but I didn’t know the details,” responded Seligman, 35, of Jacksonville, Fla. who was the defense’s first witness.
Bohn, 35, is facing life in prison without parole for allegedly strangling and beating his girlfriend, Danielle Thomas, 27, to death on June 24, 2012 inside their Astoria apartment.
Seligman’s long-distance friendship with Bohn was filled with incidents where the accused murderer “blew up” because text messages weren’t answered quickly or for putting shoes on his kitchen table.
“He had episodes, outburst[s], not like the person I knew,” said Seligman who visited and talked on the phone with the Columbia University graduate at Riker’s Island since his arrest.
“I told him to seek counseling after Danielle said he hit her,” said Seligman referring to a vacation to Epcot Center’s Drink Around the World where Thomas claimed Bohn hit her after the day-long event.
Bohn allegedly tried to get help in early June 2012 for his anger issues from Dr. Helen Solomon, a retired psychotherapist with the Jewish Child Care Association where he was a resident.
“Next time I heard from him he told me he may have killed his girlfriend and to contact his attorney,” said Dr. Solomon who was shocked to learn that his trial lawyer, Todd Greenberg, was hired by Bohn’s mother, Maureen O’Connell.
“I said, ‘His mother? I didn’t even know he was in contact with his mother,’” she testified on cross-examination.
The defense intends to prove that the contract attorney suffers from “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” brought on by childhood trauma from his absent mother.
“I knew his mom was a sore subject, he would turn into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation,” said Dr. John Piacenti, Bohn’s housemate while he lived in Virginia Beach, Va. and was working as a disc jockey and dating Jennesy Agricola.
Agricola did not testify for the prosecution’s case.
“[Jennesy] lived in the house for two weeks and vanished. I didn’t see anything happen with them,” said Dr. Piacenti who helped then-19-year-old Bohn focus on school “to better himself.”
The defense’s case continues on Tuesday.