UTICA, N.Y. — Jurors on Thursday noticed homicide defendant, Jason D’Avolio, stroll via the Rome Worth Chopper parking zone, via the shop to the cleansing aisle, the place he purchased Clorox and Febreeze merchandise. A couple of of Worth Chopper’s 120 safety cameras captured the video, which was performed on a courtroom monitor, Thursday.
It was about 3:30 a.m., July 29 of final yr. D’Avolio, later that day, would inform police he had no thought the place his spouse was, then inexplicably change his story to say he found her physique of their Belmont Avenue residence, in Rome, after she’d shot herself, utilizing a protracted gun he’d purchased earlier within the yr. He’s charged along with her homicide. D’Avolio paid money for the cleansing merchandise. Solely the truth that he used a bonus low cost card tied him to the acquisition.
Late Thursday morning, essentially the most tough and tragic testimony, as a Rome Police investigator lead jurors on a journey from the Belmont Avenue home, to the dumpster the place D’Avolio mentioned he put his estranged spouse’s physique, to an Oneida/Herkimer Stable Waste switch station, and, in the end, to the Ava Landfill.
“The director from the Oneida Herkimer Waste mentioned that the data he had discovered might have indicated that the trailer which the physique might have been positioned in throughout processing that day might have already gone as much as the Ava Landfill,” mentioned Sgt. Sypniewski, from the witness stand.
Subsequent, the investigator described how officers, some already on obligation, some referred to as again in and others who’d stayed previous their shift, sifted via trailers of rubbish, within the late-July warmth, on the Ava Landfill. Trailers have been chosen primarily based on their routes and what dumpsters’ contents they’d collected. The primary trailer they searched: nothing. The second revealed the heartbreaking topic of their search, nearly instantly.
“We started offloading the contents of the second trailer. And I’d say inside the first 5 minutes, a physique got here out of the trailer,” mentioned Sypniewski. “This physique had a pink…what appared to be a pink mattress sheet wrapped round a portion of the physique.” Sypniewski remembers the time: 10:12 a.m., July 30, 2019.
Kerrilee D’Avolio’s mother and father left the courtroom. The choose warned jurors about what the have been about to see.
“You a lot discover a few of these images or photos graphic and ugly. Whenever you view these photos, please do your finest to take action calmly and with out emotion,” mentioned the Hon. Michael L. Dwyer.
Officers have been capable of determine the stays as these of Kerrilee D’Avolio via a definite wrist tattoo. They noticed that she’d suffered extreme trauma to her head. They referred to as the Onondaga County Medical Examiner, ready an hour and a half for them to reach and protect the physique for post-mortem.
The health worker’s testimony is but to come back. Extra prosecution witnesses will take the stand beginning at 9:30 a.m., Friday morning. The trial might take as much as three weeks.
