Jessica Royall took the stand Thursday, the third day of her homicide trial in the death of her boyfriend.

Against the advice of her lawyer, William Difenderfer, Royall opened herself to cross-examination from prosecutor Laura Pitchford by testifying.

Royall, 29, of Cranberry Township, explained how she met boyfriend Ryan Minett, 27, through a dating platform known as Plenty of Fish.

Royall's testimony followed the appearance of Minett's ex-girlfriend, Sonia Hodge, 29, who claimed Minett raped and abused her during their relationship about 10 years ago.

Royall is charged with homicide, homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and other charges in Minett's death.

Witnesses on Tuesday and Wednesday testified they heard the screeching tires of a Buick SUV traveling at high speeds down Cross Creek Drive with Minett clinging to the top of the vehicle before he fell off it and suffered fatal injuries.

Royall didn't dispute this testimony Thursday, explaining that an argument between the two had escalated and she was scared for her life.She said the day started normally, with Minett, 27, driving her to her job at Dunkin' Donuts and picking her up in the afternoon after her shift. The two smoked crack cocaine for an hour and a half, she said, before they got into an argument, she said.Royall testified that she told Minett, “You're not the person I thought you were” after she discovered that he emptied her bank account and stole her prescription of Vicodin she had for oral surgery.“I knew things were about to get ugly,” she told the jury.She retreated to her mother's Buick, she said, hoping to get away from Minett.“Ryan came barreling out the door. No shirt. No shoes. No jacket,” Royall said. “He started pounding on the windows and shaking the car. I thought the windows would break.”She testified that Minett told her, “I'll make you regret this.”

“I thought, 'If I don't get away now, I may never get away,'” she said. “So, I put the car in reverse.”As she pulled out of the driveway of her mother's house on Boardwalk Drive, where the couple had been living, Minett jumped onto the vehicle, Royall testified.“I just wanted away from him. Who would jump on a moving vehicle?” Royall said, adding that she had no intent to hurt him.“I was in a state of panic,” she testified, adding that both she and Minett were high on crack.During her testimony, she admitted to swerving back and forth to get Minett off the vehicle.Still responding to questions from her lawyer, she said she didn't know how far Minett rolled off her vehicle when he let go at the corner of Cross Creek Drive and Little Pine Road, hitting a steel light post.“I had no idea how hurt he was. I saw him for a few seconds to get my phone and he seemed fine,” Royall testified. “People pushed me and told me to leave, so I did.”She returned home, drank some rum and called police, she said.

When Cranberry police took her to the station to question her, she said she thought she was there to talk about her missing money and pills.“I wish I could take it all back, every day,” she testified, reaching for napkins to wipe the tears in her eyes.“It all happened so fast. I don't even remember most of it,” she said.Pitchford's questions during cross-examination focused on Royall's admission to being high on crack and the inconsistencies between what she said Thursday and her earlier statements to police.Her questions included: “Didn't you tell officers that you stopped at every stop sign?” and “You originally told police that you didn't go back for the phone.”Pitchford also asked how she was able to hear Minett's threats when she first got in the vehicle, but couldn't hear his reported pleas for her to stop.Pitchford pointed out that Royall lived near the police station but didn't drive there.“You were trying to get him off your car, right?” Pitchford asked.“I was trying to get away from him,” Royall said.“You didn't think you would injure him?” Pitchford asked.“I didn't think it would critically injure him,” Royall said.Pitchford pushed back against the defense's argument that nobody forced Minett to grab on to the car.“It's possible he had no choice but to hold on once you peeled out,” Pitchford said.“I wouldn't say so,” Royall said.“You wouldn't remember because you were high, right?” Pitchford said.“Right,” Royall said.Butler County Court of Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer, presiding over the case, said the jury might hear from one more witness Friday before the two sides present closing arguments and turn the case over to jurors.

On Thursday, Difenderfer called Hodge, Minett's ex-girlfriend, to the stand.Hodge testified she reached out to Difenderfer and volunteered to tell her story in court. She dated Minett for eight or nine months during 2008 and 2009, she said. During that time, she said he transformed from a normal boyfriend to raping and beating her three months into their relationship.Hodge said she became pregnant after being raped by Minett, and they met at a mall in Beaver County to discuss the pregnancy.“He proceeded to hit me in my stomach in front in the mall,” Hodge said. At the time, she was four months pregnant.“There were so many incidents (of abuse),” she testified. “I can't count, hundreds. Mostly, he would hit my legs because he knew I didn't wear skirts or anything that would show my legs.”She said he would also put his fist on her lower jaw and lean all of his weight onto it.“It would hurt, but it usually wouldn't make any bruises,” she said.She said he was treated for schizophrenia at one point.“He would tell me there were voices in his head telling him to be violent,” she testified.Pitchford stressed that Minett never was found guilty of any charges and that people can change over time.

Minett's history was also considered when Difenderfer called Royall's mother, Marianne Royall, to testify.For the previous two days, Marianne Royall sat in the front row of the courtroom, listening intently and often gesturing her agreement or disagreement with the various witnesses who testified.Now, it was her turn to speak.She told the jury that leading up to Minett's death on March 23, 2018, the Royall family was trying to return to normalcy.Royall moved in with her mother in the summer of 2017 after undergoing two inpatient drug rehabilitation programs. She went to a similar program after moving in with her mother.In July 2017, Royall got into a severe accident, a hit and run. Her license was taken away and her Buick Rendezvous was damaged.Her mother kept the keys from Royall and every Friday, she said, she would pick up Royall's two children from their father's house and drive them home on Sunday night. Then, in January, Royall met Minett and soon the two were living with her mother.But Marianne Royall was suspicious of Minett, who promised he would keep Royall off drugs. She looked Minett's name up online and found stories about him being charged with domestic abuse.Difenderfer presented to the court a pill bottle of antipsychotic medication that Minett was prescribed in January 2018.“She was doing well,” Marianne Royall said of her daughter. “I didn't suspect they were doing drugs. (Minett) promised me he would keep her sober.”