Medical examiner testifies about Connie Dabate's wounds during husband's trial

Apr. 21—VERNON — A medical examiner testified Wednesday morning in the trial of Richard Dabate about how he examined Connie Dabate's wounds and determined her cause of death as homicide.

Associate Medical Examiner Frank Evangelista testified that he completed the examination on Dec. 24, 2015, the day after Connie was killed.

He said the wound to Connie's abdomen began at the front of her body, in a path heading right to left, and in a downward path. The wound to her head entered in the back, in a path heading right to left, and in a slight upward trajectory, Evangelista said. Both bullets remained in her body.

Prosecutor Matthew Gedansky asked why the abdominal wound didn't appear to have bled much. Evangelista said there wasn't any way for him to tell. He said the bullet that entered Connie Dabate's head struck her basal ganglia, which textbooks say causes instant death. If that gunshot happened first, it could have limited the bleeding, he said.

Under cross-examination by Dabate's lawyer, Trent LaLima, Evangelista acknowledged there were other aspects of Connie's death he couldn't draw conclusions about.

Evangelista said he couldn't tell which of the injuries happened first or how far apart in time they happened. They could have been seconds apart or could have been separated by 10 minutes, he said.

Proceedings began Wednesday, the 11th day of the trial, with former state police Detective Jeffrey Payette on the witness stand, continuing his testimony from Tuesday. Defense lawyer Michael Fitzpatrick spent time questioning him about a laser trajectory test conducted at the scene to determine the path of a bullet.

The bullet was found lodged in a floor joist in the basement. Using a laser, detectives were able to determine from which direction the bullet traveled and that the shooter was likely holding the gun in their right hand.

Payette testified Tuesday that he and the other detectives determined the bullet was likely fired from a height of 4 1/2 feet or 5 1/2 feet, based on the path of the laser. It would be unlikely for someone to have fired the gun from 2 feet off the floor, he said.

However, Fitzpatrick said, that assumed the person firing the gun was standing in an upright position. What if they were lying on the floor? Hypothetically, what if the shooter was struggling with another person at the time the gun was fired?

Payette said in that situation some other heights became more likely, but that scenario didn't fit with Dabate's description of what happened. He added that the area didn't show any signs of a struggle.

Fitzpatrick also challenged the idea that the gun was necessarily held in the shooters right hand. In response, Payette said that idea was based on a couple of factors. First, the bullet traveled from right to left, in what was a corridor of about 6 feet wide. It was made even narrower by objects and shelves along the walls, he said.

He demonstrated while sitting at the witness stand how someone firing with their left hand would've had to turn their body to the right, facing the wall, and fire with their left arm extended at a 180 degree angle, while a right-handed shooter could have used a more standard stance.

He couldn't say which hand was used with absolute certainty, but a right hand shooter was more likely, Payette said. However, he said the closer the shooter was to where the bullet ended up, the more comfortable it would have been for a left handed shooter.

In the afternoon, a few former and current employees of the state forensic lab testified about their part in processing evidence. Forensic biologists Tara Burnette and Christine Roy told the jury how they collected samples from various objects, including Dabate's clothing, the gun found in the basement, and the chair Dabate was tied to.

Angela Przech began testifying just before the end of the day about how she processed those samples, and was to return to court Thursday morning.

Dabate, 45, was charged in April 2017 with murder, tampering with physical evidence, and making a false statement in connection with the death of his wife, Connie, on Dec. 23, 2015.

Dabate told state police the day of the murder that a masked intruder killed Connie and also attacked him and tied him up.

State police and the prosecutor have said Dabate staged his wife's murder as a home invasion to avoid the fallout of a divorce, as he was expecting a baby with one of his mistresses.

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