Evidence error in double-murder trial

DOVER — Attorneys for Farmington double-homicide suspect Timothy Verrill will ask Friday that a judge dismiss the case mid-trial because police never disclosed several interview recordings and emails in which witnesses claimed another man coordinated the 2017 killings.

The defense will present its argument for a dismissal or mistrial Friday morning. That presentation will come one day after the revelation about the mishandled evidence canceled all of Thursday’s testimony.

Instead of testimony Thursday, Strafford County Superior Court held a two-hour hearing in which the defense, without jurors present, questioned the two New Hampshire state police investigators allegedly responsible.

Lt. Brian Strong, the case’s lead investigator, and Trooper Stephen McAulay both admitted during the hearing they made mistakes when they inadvertently didn’t provide all of their evidence to prosecutors during the discovery process.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” McAulay said, describing how he felt Wednesday after he was notified that missing evidence had come to light, which happened because at least one witness involved contacted the defense. “Oh, I felt awful.”

Strong and McAulay testified Thursday they inadvertently didn’t provide recordings for five of the 14 interviews McAulay conducted with potential witnesses. They testified they also didn’t provide various emails and text messages that investigators exchanged with several potential witnesses in 2017 and 2018, despite the state expressly asking investigators to provide all such emails in 2018.

In these mishandled recordings, emails and texts, each of the witnesses relayed to investigators they had reason to believe Dean Smoronk solicited another man to execute the murders, or were told that he did.

Strong and McAulay testified Thursday their mistakes weren’t intentional attempts to withhold evidence or help the state gain a tactical advantage over the defense.

That last point is relevant because Smoronk is the man whom defense attorneys Julia Nye and Meredith Lugo have been using to build an alternative suspect theory since the start of Verrill’s trial.

Smoronk is the owner of the 979 Meaderboro Road home where the murders of Christine Sullivan, 48, and Jenna Pellegrini, 32, occurred on Jan. 27, 2017. Smoronk was also dating Sullivan at the time and was involved in a drug trafficking business at the home with Sullivan, Verrill and other people, according to testimony heard thus far in the first two weeks of Verrill’s trial. 

The defense has claimed Smoronk solicited another man to carry out the murders to cut Sullivan out of the business, then covered up his involvement by making it look like he was out of state at the time they occurred.

The state has heavily refuted those claims, using witnesses, text messages and Florida airport surveillance footage of Smoronk in the process. The state has also used witnesses, video surveillance from 979 Meaderboro Road, texts and other evidence in an attempt to demonstrate Verrill was the only man in the home at the time of the murders, and that Verrill was the only who acted guilty after the killings occurred.

Responding to questions from Lugo, McAulay testified Thursday that the claims about Smoronk contained within the mishandled evidence didn’t sway their investigation because they represented “maybe the 10th or 12th time” police had heard Smoronk’s name.

According to McAulay, that’s why investigators didn’t follow up on all of the claims contained within the mishandled evidence.

One claim they did investigate, though, was one that alleged Smoronk was actually in New Hampshire when the murders occurred. That tip claimed Smoronk used an alias, “Clarence Thompson,” to secretly fly back from Florida, arrive in New Jersey and drive to the Granite State.

McAulay testified he proved the claim to be false using a Secret Service database of airport and travel records, which he said showed no New Jersey results for Smoronk or a “Clarence Thompson.”

McAulay also testified he mishandled some of the evidence because of the way he manages his case files in Microsoft Office.

He said he stores his case files in two different computer folders, "Incomplete" and “Complete,” moving files from one to the other when cases are closed out. Describing himself as not being "computer savvy,” McAulay said on the stand Thursday he “prematurely” moved the Farmington case over to "Complete" in 2018. He said the interview recordings in question were within the files he moved there, and that he thought Strong, his supervising officer, had all of the files when authorities provided discovery to the state.

Strong said his mistakes involved errors in his oversight of the case. He testified he didn’t directly check with every person on the case whether they had provided all of the emails and messages prosecutors requested. He also testified State Police don’t have a formal filing system for tracking every interview conducted in any given case.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Pete Hinckley said in court Thursday a police error is also an error on the state, in the process admitting the mishandled evidence does negatively impact the state’s case.

As such, Hinckley said appropriate remedies and sanctions should be levied against the prosecution. However, Hinckley said the state took thorough steps to prepare all evidence for the defense’s review and that the state had no idea the recordings and messages were missing. He said the state didn’t know they were missing because they weren’t on the list of evidence provided by the state.

Judge Steven Houran told the attorneys Thursday he might not be able to issue a ruling immediately after the defense makes its argument Friday morning, which the defense will do without the jury present.

If Houran needs additional time, he said, he’ll tell the jury not to report until Monday afternoon.

Houran said in court the state has informed him it plans to call four more witnesses before resting its case. The state had previously estimated it would rest its case Friday, after which the defense was expected to start calling witnesses Monday.

Smoronk has yet to testify as part of the trial, but the state and defense have both listed him as a potential witness.