The man told the young Columbia couple that he was cold, had been in a bar fight and didn't think he could drive.

They let him inside their home, gave him clean pants to wear and food to eat.

They let him use the bathroom and their telephone.

But the man — Kenneth Brown Jr. — was reluctant to leave, Jennifer Keller testified in court Monday. She became concerned and called police.

Later that day, Nov. 9, 2008, police arrested Brown outside Mountville and charged him with killing his girlfriend, Tonya Fetrow of Lancaster.

Keller's testimony, along with that of several city policemen, was heard Monday in a pretrial hearing in Lancaster County Court.

Defense attorneys Patricia Spotts and David Blanck are questioning a number of issues, including whether police acted properly in arresting Brown and charging him with criminal homicide.

Assistant District Attorney Todd Brown is arguing that all procedures were followed properly.

Judge Dennis Reinaker will decide the issues before Brown's case goes to trial in February.

Police said Brown, 30, of Philadelphia, killed the 28-year-old Fetrow because she was trying to end their relationship. Fetrow was the mother of two small children, including Brown's then-1-year-old daughter.

On the night Fetrow was killed, a witness told police she saw Brown choke, beat and repeatedly kick the woman on the sidewalk of Fairview Avenue and St. Joseph Street, a few blocks from her Cabbage Hill home.

Police said the witness told them she tried to intervene but could not stop the assault. She called 911, police said, telling officials Brown put Fetrow back in the car and drove away.

Fetrow's body was found hours later dumped along a rural road north of Columbia.

During the pretrial hearing Monday, Keller testified that she and her boyfriend awoke on the morning of Nov. 9, 2008, to discover a white Buick parked behind their car.

A man was sleeping inside the Buick, Keller said, and her boyfriend went outside to tell him to move his car.

He did move the car, Keller said, but a short time later, around 7:30 a.m., Brown was knocking at the door, saying he was "cold, tired and his cell phone was dying."

Keller said they let him inside, allowed him to use their bathroom and phone and gave him a pair of clean blue jeans and something to eat.

After he changed his pants, Keller said Brown wadded up his own belongings and put them in a plastic grocery bag that she had given him.

Hours later, she said, Brown was still in their home, spending long periods of time in the bathroom.

"He was stalling a lot," Keller said. "He would not leave … and at the end we were irate saying, 'You really have to go.' "

At some point, Keller said, all three of them noticed a number of police officers behind their home, some of whom were heavily armed.

"He was extremely reluctant to leave then," Keller testified. "We said, 'We don't care how you get out, we just want you to go.' "

Keller said she went outside, intending to talk to the policemen about Brown, but an officer told her to go back inside her house.

Brown finally did leave their home around noon, Keller said, leaving the bag of his belongings under a chair in the foyer of their home.

Keller called the police.

Officers arrived within minutes, Keller said, first from Columbia and then Lancaster city.

She testified that she signed a consent form, allowing police to take the bag of belongings, and picked Brown's picture out at the police station, identifying him as the man who had been in their house that morning.

City police Detective Matthew Blake said he went to Columbia after dispatchers reported a possible location for the homicide suspect.

Blake said he saw the white Buick with blood on the driver's side but didn't enter the vehicle.

City police Detective Steve Owens testified he was able to track Brown's general location by the cell phone calls Brown had made that morning.

He had narrowed the search to Columbia, Owens said, when Fetrow's body was discovered in East Donegal Township.

Brown was located later that afternoon walking along Columbia Avenue near Mountville, police said, and taken into custody without incident.

Incarcerated without bail, Brown will remain in county prison pending the outcome of trial.

jkelley@lnpnews.com