Friend decries how his buddy was so cruelly killed

Zachary D.J. Pinette sits with his defense attorney during Thursday's arraignment inside Dover District Court. (Harrison Thorp photo)

DOVER, N.H. - The three defendants charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Madbury teenager showed little or no emotion Thursday as one by one, their charges were made official in a Dover court, in stark contrast to an emotional Chris Cote of Dover, who stood outside the courtroom afterward and said their cowardly act of premeditated murder of a good friend came from their jealousy of his success. (See obituary in Obituary section.)

“Jealousy, jealousy, that’s all I can think of. I mean he had lots of friends, and a good-looking girlfriend,” said Cote, who was a longtime friend of Aaron Wilkinson, 18, of Madbury, who was stabbed repeatedly with knives and a machete sometime around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 21, somewhere outside his home but on the property at 36 Evans Road.

Arraigned inside a stuffy courtroom brimming with media from all over Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were Tristan Wolusky, 18, of 46 Lowell St., Rochester; Zachary D.J. Pinette, 18, of 58 Rankin St., Springvale, Maine; and Michael Tatum, 21, of 236 Young Road, Barrington, N.H.

The arrest affidavits are sealed in the case, but according to a brief complaint filing, it is alleged that Pinette planned the crime with the other two and drove them from Maine to Madbury to Wilkinson’s home, where Pinette held “a machete as Tatum and/or Wolusky stabbed Aaron Wilkinson with knives and the machete Pinette had been holding.”

Zachary D.J. Pinette

Reports indicate that when law officials first responded to Wilkinson’s home after his father reported him missing Saturday morning they found evidence of foul play, the nature of which has not been released.

Later, where his body was found about five feet into the brush alongside Long Swamp Road in Lebanon, fresh blood stains mark where the three are thought to have dumped the body about three tenths of a mile south of Lord Road.

A shrine created by Cote marks the spot where the body of his skateboarding buddy and friend was dumped.

Cote said he visits the shrine nearly every day and cries. He said the way the trio are alleged to have murdered his friend makes him angry.

“I don’t like how it happened,” Cote said. “It’s very personal. Stabbing is personal. They wanted him to suffer slowly, and they succeeded.”

Michael Tatum

Cote said he had met the three suspects, but was not close friends with them like he was with Wilkinson.

In a short press briefing after the arraignment Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin said the victim and the suspects knew each other and that this was not a random act of violence. He said leads were developed by looking into the victim’s circle of acquaintances in a concerted investigative effort – many little steps he described as “bunts and singles” - that included New Hampshire and Maine lawmen that led to the arrests, which all occurred at various locations during the overnight Wednesday.

Strelzin did not say why Pinette was arraigned in person, while Tatum and Wolusky were arraigned by videotape.

While the complaint states Pinette aided in planning the murder, it never states he actually delivered any of the knife or machete blows.

All three suspects are being held without bail at the Strafford County House of Correction and are facing life in prison without parole.

Tristan Wolusky

Their next court date is tentatively scheduled for July 14 at 11 a.m.

There are two celebrations of Wilkinson’s short life today, including a Memorial Walk at Dover High School at 5 p.m. and a candlelight vigil Friday night from 8-10 p.m. at Swayze Park in Exeter, where he attended the Great Bay Charter School.

Cote, meanwhile, said he’d probably be back at the shrine today.

He said Wilkinson was a very special individual who loved life and people.

“He was always forgetting where he’d put something,” he said tearfully.

Then he smiled. “I’d help him find it and whenever I did, he’d always give me a box of chocolate.”

Longtime friend of Wilkinson Chris Cote speaks to reporters outside Dover courtroom. (Harrison Thorp photo)