Cellmate says Zachary Pinette wanted to help friend

Tristan Wolusky is escorted from the courtroom by YCSO sheriffs deputies. (Lebanon Voice photo)

DOVER - The third day of hearings to determine whether a Rochester man convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a Madbury teenager should get a new trial is scheduled to continue today in Strafford County Superior Court.

Aaron Wilkinson, 18, of Madbury, died during a June 2014 botched robbery by Tristan Wolusky of Rochester, Zachary Pinette of Springvale and Michael Tatum of Barrington aimed at stealing drugs and money. He was stabbed and struck with a machete more than 20 times, according to a coroner's report.

Wolusky was charged as the ringleader and last year given a life sentence without parole after a jury trial, while Pinette and Tatum got 30 years with the possibility of parole.

However, in August defense lawyers put forward that both Tatum and Pinette sought to recant their testimony, pressing the court for a new trial.

It is a continuation of that effort that is playing out this week.

Last November as the hearing began Tatum told the court they had lied in those new statements seeking to aid Wolusky.

On Tuesday Pinette's testimony sought to undermine the state's case, claiming that the lead prosecutor fed him his lines for the Wolusky trial during an unrecorded pretrial meeting.

On Wednesday, however, an inmate at the prison who was housed in a cell next to Pinette's, James Perry, told the court Pinette told him he planned to recant his trial testimony to help Wolusky, saying Wolusky was a close friend of his and he shouldn't do life.

The evidentiary hearing continues today after which Judge Steven M. Houran will render his decision on whether to grant a new trial for Wolusky.