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“You lie under oath, don’t you”? the defense attorney asked.
“Yes,” the star witness responded. Under oath.
At that moment, some of the air went out of the courtroom Thursday at day two of a sensational double-murder trial.
The testimony took place in cozy courtroom 5B of Connecticut Superior Court on Church Street on Thursday, the second day in the double-murder trial of Markease Hill.
Hill, who’s 35, is charged with murdering Ensley Myrick and Joseph Reed outside the Catwalk strip club on June 11, 2008. He faces life in prison.
For the second day in a row, his trial centered on a complicated witness with an extensive criminal record who proved to be an easy target for the defense. Click here to read about day one of the trial before Judge Joan Alexander.
Thaddeus, who’s 37, was the focus of Thursday’s activity in court. He said he’s known Hill for 20 years. They grew up together in the same New Haven housing projects. On the stand, Thaddeus sat hunched over, wearing a white polo shirt with silver graphics. Like Wednesday’s witness, he told a tale of a few buddies who went out drinking and ended up on East Street, near the Catwalk club.
Thaddeus’ strength as a witness was that he named Hill as the man who fatally shot two men. His vulnerability lay in a deal he made with the state, and in a lie he told cops involving chicken grease.
Defense attorney Tom Farver (pictured at the top of the story) feasted on those two points. By the end of his cross-examination, he got Thaddeus to say that he has “no problem” lying under oath when he’s angry.
Here’s what Thaddeus had to say:
On Tuesday night, June 10, 2008, the murder victims started out their night drinking at the Fireside bar near East Haven. Hill started his night drinking, too. He met up with Thaddeus and a third friend, Jaime, at Fair Haven’s Tee Off Café, according to Thaddeus.
From there, Jaime drove the three friends to East Street and parked across the street from the Catwalk club. Thaddeus said he and Jaime remained in the car, while Hill got out. Thaddeus said he saw Hill pull out a gun, fire the gun at the victims, then run and get back in the car. Hill’s buddies dropped him off on Dover Street and then went home, Thaddeus said.
Thaddeus’ testimony was important because he was the first to peg Hill as the shooter. The first eyewitness Wednesday couldn’t ID the man he said he saw gun down his friends. Myrick and Reed would both die from gunshot wounds they sustained in the parking lot. Thaddeus said he saw only one man in the parking lot with a gun, and only one man fire a gun — “Mr. Hill.”
Changing Story
That wasn’t the story Thaddeus told to police after the Catwalk killings. Far from it.
Soon after the Catwalk incident, Thaddeus told police he wasn’t at the murder scene at all. His helpful testimony came only later — when Thaddeus was looking for a way out of trouble, Farver pointed out. Later that year, cops charged Thaddeus in five narcotics cases, leaving him staring at 11 felony charges and a maximum 150 years in prison. The new charges fell on top of an extensive criminal record, with eight felony convictions.
After the arrest, Thaddeus started cooperating with authorities.
Thaddeus made an agreement with the state. He pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to two counts of conspiracy to sell drugs. He agreed to tell the truth about what he saw on the night Myrick and Reed were killed. In return, state prosecutors would agree to toss out remaining narcotics charges, as well as three charges on a domestic violence arrest.
Why did he choose to come forward? “Because you got arrested and were facing narcotics charges?” prosecutor Kevin Dole asked.
Thaddeus contended the answer was no.
“I guess I got a conscience,” he said. “That was too heavy for me. The murders. It was more than I could take. I had anxiety attacks,” he said.
Thaddeus told Doyle that he originally lied to police about what he saw “because I didn’t want to tell.” He said he feared “repercussions.”
Farver didn’t appear to buy the conscience confession. He painted the witness as someone who changed his story because he had something to gain.
Doyle tried to dismiss that portrayal. “Would you falsely accuse a friend you’ve known for 20 years to limit your expose on a drug case?”
No, replied Thaddeus.
Chicken Grease
To the dismay of some members of the audience, who appeared to be rooting for a conviction, the plea deal was only the beginning of Thaddeus’ problems as a witness.
Another problem involved chicken grease, and a made-up story about a cigar. The story proved to be ample fodder for the defense.
In September of 2009, Thaddeus wrote a letter to police with what turned out to be false allegations of police misconduct. In a signed letter, he claimed that a New Haven detective had burned his hand with a cigar. Thaddeus upheld that story through a four-hour taped interview with state police who were investigating his claim.
Thaddeus later recanted that story, admitting the burn came from hot chicken grease — chicken grease that had nothing to do with a cop.
Farver grilled Thaddeus on how he came to lie to the state police.
“You lied to their face?”
“Yes,” said Thaddeus flatly. He said he told the lie because he was mad at a cop.
“If you get angry with someone, you lie under oath, don’t you?” Farver asked.
“Yes,” Thaddeus replied.
At that confession, one of the victims’ supporters let out a whisper of dismay.
“Oh boy,” he remarked. For anyone rooting for a conviction, the conversation did not get better.
“You have no qualms about lying under oath?” Farver asked.
“No,” Thaddeus replied.
Farver noted that Thaddeus only confessed to the chicken grease lie after he was confronted by a police officer.
“You admitted it was a lie after you were caught in a lie,” Farver charged.
To further cut down Thaddeus’ testimony, Farver asked him why he split town shortly after the killings. Thaddeus said he went to Virginia because his mom had a hysterectomy.
A Suspect Switcheroo?
Farver didn’t stop at casting doubt over Thaddeus’ credibility. He went so far as to paint Thaddeus as a possible suspect in the crime. He didn’t make that allegation directly. He used visuals to set it up. First he asked Thaddeus to stand up, so the jury could see his full size: 5 foot 11 inches, 230 – 250 pounds. Then he asked Hill to stand, in the other corner of the room. Hill stands at 5 foot 10 inches, and 230 – 240 pounds.
Judge Alexander spelled out what he was trying to say: The two men are the same size.
And Thaddeus, by his own admission, said he was at the scene of the murder.
Asked after court if he intends to argue that Thaddeus may have committed the murders, Farver said “that is one argument” he may pursue.
In a last effort to improve his client’s credibility in jurors’ eyes, prosecutor Doyle highlighted one term of Thaddeus’ plea deal: Thaddeus has to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, or he’ll answer to another judge on his pending felony charges.
Doyle ended the examination by spelling out what Farver had been alluding to the whole time.
“Are you lying today?” Doyle asked Thaddeus.
“No, sir,” Thaddeus said.
Then he left court with his lawyer and got into a car.