Cathedral City Man Accused of Murdering Landlady to Stand Trial

INDIO, CA – A Cathedral City man accused of killing his landlady -- who had filed a restraining order against him less than a week before her death -- must stand trial for murder, a judge ruled Friday.

Scott Edmund Pettigrew, 50, also faces charges of elder abuse and a violation of a protective order in the alleged June 14, 2016 killing of 65-year- old Mimie Anita Cowen, who was found facedown in her backyard swimming pool with multiple blunt force injuries.

Cowen had bruising and cuts to her face, upper back and shoulders, as well as "huge chunks" of hair torn out in spots from the back of her head, according to testimony Friday from a Cathedral City homicide detective.

Officers found Pettigrew lying in his bedroom nude, with a wet shirt and jeans piled at the foot of his bed. He had scratches and cuts to his face and hands, police said.

The discovery of Cowen's body was the second visit police made that night to the house at 69442 Heritage Court, according to preliminary hearing testimony from Cathedral City police officers.

At around 7:30 p.m., Cathedral City officer Daniel Anes testified that Cowen said her tenant, Pettigrew, had somehow disabled her garage, preventing her from entering. Cowen told Anes that she'd recently gone through the court system to try and have Pettigrew evicted.

Anes entered the garage through a side window and found that the garage door opener was unplugged. He plugged the opener in and left soon after.

About four hours later, police were called to check up on Cowen, after her son heard her and Pettigrew screaming at each other over the phone. Her son, Steve Stirt, testified Friday that he told his mother to record the argument, which was played in court Friday.

"Stay away from me. Stay the (expletive) away from me," Cowen can be heard yelling on the recording.

"Get out of here! Get out of here! Get off me!" she says before the minute-long recording cuts off.

Anes said the house appeared relatively normal on his first visit. After returning, he and other officers found broken glass and flowerpots, along with "pieces of hair" strewn about the floor of the home. Two dogs belonging to Pettigrew ran wild through the inside of the residence when officers arrived.

Cowen had sought to have Pettigrew evicted and ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from her, after stating in court documents that she had multiple altercations with him since he moved in with her in February 2016 with his two dogs.

Cowen wrote that living conditions deteriorated at the home after Pettigrew moved in, and described several incidents in her request in which Pettigrew antagonized her, though no acts of violence were included in her comments.

In one altercation, Cowen wrote that Pettigrew angrily and falsely accused her of letting his dogs out.

"I do believe he created this incident to further unnerve me," she wrote, saying he was "screaming like a banshee, the whole neighborhood could hear him."

Cowen wrote that Pettigrew never paid her rent past his first month living there and left their home a mess. She accused him of letting his dogs urinate inside, vomiting in the bathroom without cleaning it up, pouring water onto her computer and cutting the batteries out of her home phones.

"I am being terrorized daily in my own home," she wrote. "Scott is initiating this to keep me in constant fear of him and what he will do next time. I don't want a next time."

Riverside County Superior Court Judge James A. Cox partially granted her request, stating that her complaints did not indicate any threat of assault.

Four days before she died, Cowen was provided with a five-yard temporary restraining order on Pettigrew and an order that he had to move his dogs out of the home.

Pettigrew, who's being held on $1 million bail, will return to court May 26 for a post-preliminary hearing arraignment.

– By JASON KUROSU, City News Service / Image via Shutterstock