By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times

Police said Gregory A. Twyman, 44, fatally shot Jamica M. Woods, 37, at the home they shared in East Fallowfield Township on May 21.

An East Fallowfield Township man accused of fatally shooting his longtime girlfriend on May 21 was held for trial Friday on all charges, including first-degree murder and illegal firearms possession, at his preliminary hearing.

Magisterial District Judge Nancy A. Gill found sufficient evidence to advance the case against Gregory A. Twyman, 44, to county court. Police said Twyman called 9-1-1 after killing Jamica M. Woods, 37, the mother of their 18-year-old daughter, telling the dispatcher: “I need the police: I just shot my girlfriend.”

Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei, who presented two law-enforcement witnesses, said when East Fallowfield officers arrived to take Twyman into custody, he was on the porch of the couple’s residence on Rokeby Road smoking a cigarette. Twyman told police that he and Woods “had been fighting for days and that he had bought the shotgun shells last week at Walmart,” the criminal complaint said.

The day before the murder, Twyman changed his Facebook profile picture to a shotgun shell, with a shotgun as the background.  In response to a comment from a friend who threatened to contact “ATF,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Twyman stated that it was “gon be too late” if law enforcement tried to intervene, and “Once i handle my business, i don’t give a [expletive]!”

Twyman, who has an extensive criminal history, was awaiting trial next month on drug charges, court records said. Records also show that Woods sought a Protection-from-Abuse  (PFA) petition three times, most recently in December; however, no PFA was active on Tuesday.

In the Dec. 20 petition, which was filed temporarily in district court and never finalized in county court, Woods cited a “long history of court proceedings” involving the two of them.  She wrote that he had called about 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 and learned that she had sought a PFA and that  “he would go to jail” if he approached her. “He said if I go to jail, wait to see where you go,” the petition said, adding that she believed he would “cause physical harm or even kill” her.

Woods, who was studying computer information systems at Harrisburg Community College, graduated with honors from Coatesville Area Senior High in 1994, according to her obituary. She was a member of Strong Faith Family Church in Wagontown, which is collecting donations for her family’s funeral expenses. For more information, visit www.strongfaithchurch.org.

Gill set a formal arraignment date of June 20, and Twyman, who is being represented by Assistant Public Defender James A. McMullen, was returned to Chester County Prison.