Jury convicts Boglioli of voluntary manslaughter -- Updated 3 p.m.
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David Boglioli waits for the jury to come to a verdict in his trial on Wednesday. Today, jurors returned a guilty verdict on the charge of voluntary manslaughter. VYTO STARINSKAS / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: July 2, 2009
BRATTLEBORO — A Windham County jury ended three days of deliberations today and convicted David Boglioli of Wilmington of voluntary manslaughter in the Aug. 15 death of George Riccitelli, 51, also of Wilmington.
The verdict was delivered at 2 p.m., and the individual jurors said they agreed with the guilty verdict.
Boglioli, 60, claimed self-defense during his trial on second-degree murder. He now faces a sentence of one to 15 years in prison.
The verdict follows full-day deliberations Wednesday when the jurors gave mixed signals on whether they would be able to reach a unanimous verdict.
The jurors had asked for clarification of the key elements of self-defense late Wednesday afternoon as it continued deliberations in the trial.
Boglioli said he was taking his trash to the neighborhood's trash bin when Riccitelli accosted him. Boglioli said Riccitelli was armed with an ax handle. Friends of Riccitelli, who didn't see the confrontation but ran to his aid, said they didn't find an ax handle. An ax handle was later found in the nearby trash bin.
The two men had been friends and neighbors, but 10 years ago their friendship soured. Testimony during the trial revealed that Riccitelli harassed and feuded with the older man regularly, and others in the Wilmington-Dover community said Riccitelli had a reputation for violence and was unstable.
The fatal confrontation, Boglioli told the jury on Monday when he took the stand, came the morning after he threw several potted marijuana plants into the road after someone put them on his porch. Boglioli said he believed Riccitelli did it to annoy him.
District Judge Karen R. Carroll on Wednesday re-read a portion of her charge to the jury clarifying the legal elements of self-defense, and noted that the state only had to disprove one of three facts — whether Boglioli believed that he was in imminent danger or he had a reasonable belief of imminent danger, or that the use of force was "necessary and proportionate."
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com