Judge nixes motion to dismiss prosecutor in Wolusky case

Defense attorney Mark Sisti questions Zachary Pinette during testimony at Strafford County Superior Court on Tuesday. (Lebanon Voice photos).

COPYRIGHT2017© DOVER - Convicted murderer Tristan Wolusky's appeal for a new trial continued on Tuesday with remarkable new claims that state's attorney Peter Hinckley fed star defense witness Zachary Pinette his testimony for Wolusky's trial during an unrecorded interview.

Defense attorney Mark Sisti put a heavily bearded Pinette on the stand and alluded to a pretrial unrecorded conference at which he was alleged to have been told by Hinckley that Pinette would be taking the rap for machete wounds on murder victim Aaron Wilkinson's neck.

"There's no marks from the machete on Aaron's face so the marks on his neck are what you're taking the blame for," Pinette said referring to Hinckley's alleged remark at the meeting.

"He told you that?" Sisti said.

"Words to that effect," the 20-year-old Springvale man replied.

Convicted murderer Tristan Wolusky is led from a Strafford County courtroom by Sheriff's deputies on Tuesday.

Wilkinson, 18, of Madbury, died during a June 2014 botched robbery by Wolusky, of Rochester, Pinette and Michael Tatum, 22, of Barrington, aimed at stealing drugs and money. He was stabbed and struck with a machete more than 20 times, according to a coroner's report.

Prior to the day's testimony Sisti had requested that Strafford County Superior Court Judge Steven Houran disqualify Hinckley from the case based, in part, on the perjury claims between Pinette and Hinckley, but the judge denied the motion.

Hinckley, meanwhile, produced a note - in prison parlance, a "kite" - passed from Pinette to Wolusky that buttressed a claim brought out at the start of the hearing for a new trial last December that the two along with Michael Tatum, 22, of Barrington were concocting a scheme along with Wolusky to try to help the murder mastermind get a lesser sentence.

"Whatever you're cooking up don't use it or talk to your attorneys until me and you have talked about it," Pinette says in the note.

He also asks "T," which mean Tristan, he said, "to stop writing in cursive" because he can't read it and sums up the note with, "No matter what I do it won't change what I done."

Prior to questioning Pinette regarding the note, Hinckley introduced the topic by asking the witness if he knew "kites" were prohibited in the prison.

"I did not know that," Pinette said.

"How couldn't you know that?" Hinckley fired back.

"I guess I didn't get the handbook," Pinette replied.

What has become a protracted appeal for a new trial for Wolusky, who is serving life without parole, began in December.

Pinette and Tatum are both 30-year sentence for their involvement in the killing of Wilkinson.

They received the lighter sentences for turning state's evidence against Wolusky, the purported ringleader.

When Wolusky was convicted in the fall of 2015 for first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, it appeared the case was finally over and done, but in August 2016 defense lawyers put forward that both Tatum and Pinette sought to recant their testimony, pressing the court for a new trial.

But at those August hearings seeking to recant their testimony and give exculpatory testimony for the benefit of Wolusky, Tatum told the court they had lied in those new statements seeking to aid Wolusky.

In fact, on Aug. 15, saying he thought no one should do life in prison and lured by the promise of money and protection, Tatum admitted he and Pinette agreed in prison to a scheme hatched by Wolusky to help him get a new trial.

The hearing for a new trial for Wolusky is expected to wrap up today after which the judge will render his ruling.