Witness to killing balks at trial
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: June 24, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – One of the key prosecution witnesses in David Boglioli's murder trial refused to verify the truthfulness of his pretrial deposition Tuesday.
Ken Willis' refusal eventually prompted the judge to send him out of the courtroom, telling him to read and sign the document.
Willis, 73, of Wilmington, who was a close friend of murder victim George Riccitelli and Boglioli's landlord, told the judge that when he first received the transcript of his sworn deposition, he put it down and didn't understand it.
Willis was one of three friends of Riccitelli who, while they didn't see the shooting, were close by and rushed to his side.
Boglioli, 60, who is on disability, shot Riccitelli in the chest after the two had a confrontation on the morning of Aug. 15, 2008. He was arrested at the scene and turned over his weapon to police immediately.
"Mr. Willis … he's not a reader, he's not a speller. He's not going to read the transcript and he's declined to read it further and I can't make him read it," Windham County Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein at one point told the judge out of the earshot of the jury.
Willis said that when he "had a lot of time," and if he had someone else read it to him, maybe then he would review it and sign it.
Boglioli's attorney, Matthew Harnett, wanted to use Willis' earlier statements to point out inconsistencies in his testimony on Tuesday, but it never got that far.
Harnett has all but accused Willis and the other two friends of hiding an ax handle. Boglioli told police immediately after his arrest that Riccitelli had threatened him with the weapon and that's why he shot him.
The handle was found a short distance away – in a garbage receptacle, on top of Boglioli's bag of trash.
After Willis refused to finish reading the deposition, review it, point out any mistakes and sign it, the judge ordered him to meet with the victim's advocate in the case, go over the deposition and sign it.
Windham County Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein called another witness to the stand while Willis worked with Victim's Advocate Martha Momaney for about two hours. He eventually signed the document.
That other witness, state police Detective Lt. Warren Whitney, the assistant director of the forensic laboratory, detailed the process of collecting evidence and searching the murder scene for clues.
Whitney, who coordinated the state police search and collection of evidence, videotaped the murder scene, a small group of homes on Greenwich Road, a small cul de sac off Higley Hill Road.
The jury got the "you-were-there" treatment from Whitney's video, including seeing Riccitelli's body still in the roadway where he had fallen after being shot by Boglioli and a close-up of the apparent bullet wound in the chest.
Whitney said that once the police moved Riccitelli, they found a spent casing under his body.
Jurors got to the see the murder weapon on the video, as it lay on the kitchen counter of Boglioli's small, tidy home. The barrel of the gun was wrapped with folded paper towels, held on by a hair elastic. Boglioli wears his gray hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Willis is expected to take the stand again on Wednesday.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com