DOVER - Jurors on Monday got their first look at crime scene photos showing where the bodies of Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pellegrini were found under outdoor stairs in the back of the house at 979 Meaderboro Road in Farmington. They had been tossed beneath a debris pile of clothes, blankets, tarps and furniture.
As the man accused in their brutal murders watched just a few feet from a large projections screen, a victims' advocate rushed from the back of the courtroom with tissues to family members openly weeping at the sight.
New Hampshire State Police Trooper Tara Elsemiller explained dozens of items tagged and chronicled under questioning from Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley, including bits of blue tarp found among the bodies, as well as in the teeth of a vacuum cleaner prosecutors say was used to clean up where Pellegrini's body was found in an upstairs side bedroom. Pieces of blue tarp were also found in the garage, outside the garage and other areas of the house.
Timothy Verrill, 37, of Dover, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of both Sullivan, 48, of Farmington, and Pellegrini, 32, of Barrington, who were both slain in the morning hours of Jan. 27, 2017, at the Meaderboro Road house.
Verrill is facing life in prison without parole if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
Elsemiller also pointed out a white hat found amid the debris, a white hat that she said was sent to an outside lab for scientific testing.
Testimony thus far in the trial has alleged that Sullivan, her longtime boyfriend, Dean Smoronk and Verrill were all part of a drug enterprise that reached from New Hampshire to Southwest Florida to California dealing in cocaine, meth and other drugs.
Prosecutors say Verrill, paranoid and increasingly compromised by his use of drugs, believed Pellegrini was an informant and went to the Meaderboro Road the morning of Jan. 27, 2017, and bludgeoned and stabbed to death the two women.
Defense lawyers have argued that Verrill's DNA was not at the scene and that a host of bad actors surrounding the Farmington drug operation may have had a hand in their deaths.
Murder suspect Timothy Verrill and his defense team view an image of a garden shovel found to have had blood stains on Monday at Strafford County Superior Court. |
Other items chronicled in testimony by Elsemiller included green spray paint prosecutors say Verrill used to obscure the inside of a detached garage on the property and ice melt allegedly used to clean blood from the murder scene.
Elsemiller also pointed out several blood stains on a refrigerator in the kitchen of the house and on a garden shovel found in a second-floor three-season porch.
The trial, which is expected to last another three weeks, resumes on Wednesday.