Opinion ID: 1494221
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Summary of Facts: The State's Case

Text: There were many witness presented by the State in its case-in-chief. The key witnesses included two of Capano's brothers, Gerry and Louis; Deborah MacIntyre; and psychotherapists and friends of Fahey. The State constructed a circumstantial theory of the case, which rested on three broad categories of evidence: (a) motive, (b) plan, and (c) consciousness of guilt. The State's motive evidence consisted of statements Fahey recorded in her diary and those allegedly made to her family, friends and psychotherapists. Fahey began dating Capano in March 1994. She kept this relationship, or at least its intimate nature, hidden from most of her friends and her family, and even from the psychotherapist she was seeing at the time. Her personal diaries detailed her on-again-off-again relationship with Capano. Importantly, these diaries, as read into evidence by her sister, emails between Capano and Fahey, and the testimony of Kim Lynch-Horstmann were admitted into evidence by stipulation. In September 1995, Fahey met Michael Scanlon while she was still involved in the relationship with Capano. After a rocky beginning in her relationship with Scanlon, she fell in love with him. Fahey suffered from a serious eating disorder. Although Capano knew about Fahey's illness, and was actively trying to get her help, Fahey hid her disorder from Scanlon. She also was afraid that Scanlon would learn of her relationship with Capano, a married man, and kept this a secret from him as well. After Fahey began dating Scanlon, she tried to break off her relationship with Capano, who became very upset and pursued her relentlessly. In a diary entry by Fahey dated April 7, 1996, she wrote that I have finally brought closure to Tom Capano ... what a controlling, manipulative, insecure jealous maniac. Also, one of Fahey's psychotherapists, who was treating Fahey in connection with her eating disorder (and whose bills were being paid, at least in part, by Capano) testified that, in the period between February and early April, 1996 Fahey spoke to her often about how she felt controlled by Capano. As her relationship with Capano became strained, her eating disorder became aggravated. By April 1996, however, Fahey had come to believe that she and Capano had established a friendship that she could manage while continuing to become more involved with Scanlon. The State's theory was, and circumstantial evidence was offered to show, that Capano had already begun to plan Fahey's death. In February 1996, Capano told two of his brothers, Gerry and Joseph, a story about being threatened by one or more unidentified extortionists. Capano borrowed $8,000 from Gerry, which he paid back a few days later. This loan was supposedly in connection with the extortion. Some time after borrowing the money, Gerry provided Capano with a handgun that was returned to Gerry by May of that year. Some time between February and May 1996, Capano asked Gerry if he could borrow his boat if he needed to dispose of a body. In April 1996 Capano purchased a 162-quart marine cooler eventually used to dispose of Fahey's body. In May 1996 Capano had his mistress of seventeen years, Deborah MacIntyre, purchase a gun for him. At trial, MacIntyre testified that on May 13, 1996, Capano drove her to Miller's Gun Center where, at his request, she purchased a handgun while he waited in the car outside. She returned to the car and gave him the gun and some ammunition. MacIntyre said she never saw the gun again. [3] On Thursday, June 27, 1996, Fahey left work at about 4:30 p.m. and went to an appointment with her psychiatrist. Afterward, Capano picked Fahey up at her Wilmington apartment and drove to a restaurant in Philadelphia for dinner. Their server at the restaurant testified that they didn't speak to each other at all and that Fahey looked haggard and gaunt, and had a somber demeanor. Fahey was not thereafter seen alive. On Friday morning, June 28, 1996, Thomas drove to his brother Gerry's house at about 5:30-5:45 a.m. Thomas asked to borrow Gerry's boat. Gerry testified that he asked Thomas, Did you do it? and Thomas replied that he had. Gerry and Thomas agreed to meet later at Thomas' house and Thomas went home. Thomas took his wife's Suburban, a larger vehicle than his Jeep Cherokee, back to his house to await Gerry. By the time Gerry arrived at about 8:30 a.m., Capano had put a chain and lock on the cooler. Gerry told Thomas to remove the lock and chain, and the two placed the cooler into the back of the Suburban. They drove together in the Suburban to Gerry's house in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. They carried the cooler onto Gerry's boat, and after purchasing gasoline, they took the boat approximately sixty miles out to sea and dumped the cooler over the side. The cooler did not sink, however. In an unsuccessful effort to sink the cooler, Gerry shot a hole in the cooler with a shotgun used to kill sharks. Finally, Gerry pulled the boat alongside the cooler and, after providing Thomas with two anchors, turned away while Thomas wrapped the body with the chain and weighed it down with the anchors. Gerry turned in time to see part of a human leg sink down into the ocean. Gerry rinsed out the cooler and removed the lid before tossing both back into the water and returning to Stone Harbor. They drove back to Thomas' house in Wilmington. They carried the blood-stained love seat and rug from Thomas' great room to the garage where Gerry tried to cut up the love seat. Having no luck in dismantling the love seat, they placed it in a dumpster at a nearby construction site operated by their brother Louis, a developer. At this point, Gerry went home. On Saturday afternoon, June 29, 1996, Thomas bought a new rug for his great room. The Wilmington Police conducted an initial interview with Thomas that Saturday night. They returned on Sunday afternoon to search Thomas' home, conducting an escorted walk through with his consent. Later that Sunday, Thomas spoke with his brother Louis and told him that Fahey had slit her wrists at his home, staining the love seat, but that she was okay. Thomas asked Louis to make sure that the dumpsters at his construction site were emptied the next day (Monday) because he had disposed of the love seat and some of Fahey's personal belongings in the dumpster. Louis ordered the dumpsters emptied on Monday even though they were not all full. In a later search on July 31, 1996, federal investigators discovered small spots of blood on a wall in Capano's great room. The spots were compared with a sample of Fahey's blood from a blood bank through DNA testing and found to be a likely match. The remaining relevant details of the State's case are discussed in connection with Capano's various arguments on appeal. Evidence presented in Capano's defense follows.