Daughter's death may have begun downward spiral

Thomas Minichiello (Eagle Tribune photo)

DOVER, N.H. - The Superior Court judge who will sentence a prominent Massachusetts businessman and Lebanon summer resident found guilty Monday in a bizarre kidnapping of a young Rochester woman will have to parse volumes of data of a troubled man before pronouncing judgment.

As part of presentencing Judge Brian Tucker said he'd get a detailed report on Thomas Minichiello's employment, personal and criminal records before making a decision on how much of the up-to-seven years in prison he'll serve after his felony conviction.

Miniciello, 63, of 285 Main St., Groveland, Mass., who turned 63 the day his trial started exactly a week ago, was once the epitome of success, a pillar of his community and a happily married man with a wonderful daughter he loved more than anything in the world.

Now after his conviction of kidnapping for holding a Rochester woman against her will in a Dover hotel room in September 2013; and his arrest in 2008 on similar charges involving another woman at a Massachusetts motel, he's likely to be labeled forever a serial sexual predator who preyed on the most vulnerable women to gratify some perverse sexual or psychological need.

Testimony during his four-day trial proved that Minichiello had threatened the Rochester woman with physical harm if she didn't submit to a battery of bizarre physical tests in which he measured her heart rate and blood pressure while touching her breasts and vagina, purportedly as part of a job interview with his supposed fitness company that was soon to open in Rochester.

But on the final day of testimony on Monday at Strafford County Superior Court, a recorded interview with a Dover Police detective revealed another tragic layer of narrative that may have played a role in Minichiello's fall from grace.

In the recorded interview the Dover detective pressed Minichiello on what appeared to be bizarre behaviors by the former insurance agency owner, who revealed much of his current life's malaise resulted from the death of his daughter 11 years ago in a tragic car accident.

"She was my everything," he said in the interview. "My life ended... my wife blamed me and I blamed her; soon after my marriage fell apart."

"Are you meeting these girls to fill a void?" Kilbreth then asks. "Is that fair to say?"

"Yes," Minichiello replies quietly.

"So maybe this will get you the help you need," the detective adds.

Minichiello owns a home in Groveland, an affluent suburb north of Boston, valued at almost $600,000 by Zillow.com; and a summer home in Lebanon. He owned a successful insurance agency in the Bradford section of Haverhill, Mass., which he recently sold; and was a longtime president of the local Chamber of Commerce.

He was also on the finance board in his hometown of Groveland.

Minichiello said in the recorded interview he's struggled with his problems for years and even sought out a Rochester priest to try to get some help.

He was convicted on Monday after a jury deliberated just a little over an hour before coming back with a guilty plea on kidnapping with the intent to commit sexual assault, assault or criminal threatening.

Minichiello is free today on $10,000 cash bail, but conditions require he wear a GPS monitor so law officials can track his whereabouts. He also had to sign a waiver of extradition.

Beverly Downing, a witness for the prosecution whose testimony supported the young woman's version of events, said on Tuesday she was relieved the verdict came back guilty.

"I'm grateful, not happy, but grateful and relieved," Downing said, adding it was a "confusing" trial for everyone.

Downing, who was a friend and mentor to the young woman for a couple of years prior to the kidnap incident and a few months afterward, said she didn't know if their friendship would now be reignited.

"Only time will tell if we are close again," she said. "I believe I'll be a part of it, but I do not know. It will be her choice.

"She never talked to me after the verdict."

Minichiello was arrested in a similar incident in April 2008, in Marlborough, Mass.

According to court records in that case, a woman said Minichiello lured her to the Courtyard Marriott on the pretense of getting a job with his fitness company. Court papers said the woman and Minichiello met on the Internet and arranged the meeting over the phone.

Minichiello was alleged to have touched the woman inappropriately several times and beat and dragged her back to his hotel room after she tried to flee. The second time she fled the room, the woman escaped, running naked to the front desk to seek help, police said.

In June 2008 prosecutors apparently dropped the case and he was later called in on just misdemeanor charges, which were later continued without a finding.