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Murder victim's dad recalls final conversation

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Tristan Wolusky

DOVER, N.H. - In an emotional and gut-wrenching exchange, the father of slain Madbury teen Aaron Wilkinson retold to prosecutors the events of the night his son was killed and the last words he heard the young man say during testimony at Strafford County Superior Court on Thursday.

Paul Carroll, Wilkinson's dad, said he awoke around 1:15 a.m. early the morning of June 21, 2014, to a light shining in his bedroom window. He said he began to head downstairs and at the bottom of the stairway saw his son who told him Tristan Wolusky, the alleged murder plot ringleader, was outside, was having car trouble and needed to borrow a flashlight.

Carroll said he then went back to bed and heard nothing more. He said the man outside was tall and athletic looking and appeared to be Wolusky though he never saw his face.

Moments later prosecutors say Wolusky, 19, of 46 Lowell St., Rochester; Zachary "D.J." Pinette, 19, of Springvale, Maine; and Michael Tatum, 22, of Barrington, N.H., fell upon Wilkinson and stabbed him with three knives and a machete until he died.

Aaron Wilkinson

Carroll testified that after waking up and walking outside his home the following day he saw that his son's skateboard ramp had been knocked into the middle of the driveway and when he went to inspect it saw "purplish" color on the dirt driveway and realized immediately it was blood.

He said he also saw drag marks on the driveway.

Prosecutors alleged the trio dumped Wilkinson's body in Pinette's car and drove it to Lebanon where his body was dumped on the side of Long Swamp Road.

Prosecutors also called as a witness a criminologist with the state Department of Safety who had analyzed the contents of Wolusk's cellphone.

Matthew Pickering presented a video taken on Wolusky's phone at 1:15 a.m., just moments before the victim was killed. The video shows two people talking, one of whom Carroll said was his son. As the video ends an unidentified person says, "I'm going to raid that car."

Prosecutors on Tuesday in their opening statements said that Wolusky was trying to convince Wilkinson to rob Pinette's car to distract him while Tatum and Pinette were getting ready to attack him.

Lastly on the third day of the trial criminalist Emily Rice told the jury only Pinette's prints were found on any of the murder weapons that being a small skeleton knife. No prints of either Wolusky or Tatum were found. Prosecutors all along have claimed the trio used superglue to hide their fingerprints.

Wolusky faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder, while Pinette and Tatum have already agreed to life sentences on second-degree murder charges.

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