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Nineteen-year-old Tristan Wolusky of Rochester, who will most likely spend the rest of his life in a New Hampshire prison, has only one person to blame for the results of his recent first-degree murder trial: himself.
His stony indifference to jurors regarding his relative guilt was on full display during his two days of testimony where he once said almost defiantly, "You can believe whatever you want, but I didn't kill him."
When you're on trial for murder you don't talk to the jury defiantly.
So there was no contrition, no hand wringing while espousing his version of events of June 21, 2014: that Aaron Wilkinson, one of his best friends, was brutally stabbed to death during a robbery gone awry in the driveway of his Madbury home by Michael Tatum and Zachary "D.J." Pinette while Wolusky stood back in horror watching the 22 wounds inflicted on his former pal.
No. Just a "I didn't stab him so I'm not guilty" attitude.
Yeah, he admitted to orchestrating the robbery, and initially throwing Wilkinson to the ground, but that's it.
By all three accounts, Tatum could easily have inflicted the first serious death blows when he stabbed Wilkinson in the back.
Can anyone say for sure that if Wolusky had been crying his eyes out as he recounted that awful night there might have been a different verdict?
Many trial watchers, including men and women in blue, even with his wooden demeanor, foresaw a second-degree murder conviction, which the jury could have implemented had they seen fit.
But forget all that, all the days and weeks of testimony, all the horror of that night, not to mention the two other trials the Wilkinson family had to suffer through.
In the end, it was Wolusky's coolness on the stand that left the jury disconnected and unconvinced, so much so it only took six hours to find him guilty of first-degree murder.
Defense lawyer Mark Sisti says he'll appeal.
What? His own client's apparent lack of remorse?
- HT
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