WITNESSES COME FORWARD AS TRIAL STARTS FOR DEVIL HORNED SUSPECT ACCUSED OF TRIPLE HOMICIDE

CAIUS VEIOVIS

The trial of the last of three defendants charged with killing three Pittsfield men in 2011 has started.


The Berkshire Eagle reports that jury selection in the murder trial of 34-year-old Caius Veiovis got under way Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court. He has pleaded not guilty in the slayings in August 2011 of David Glasser, Edward Frampton and Robert Chadwell.

The victims’ remains were found buried on private property in Becket days later.
The two other men charged in the killings have already been convicted.

Authorities say one of those co-defendants wanted Glasser dead so he couldn’t testify against him in another case. The others were killed to eliminate witnesses.

Veiovis was known as Roy Gutfinski Jr. until he legally changed his name while in a Maine prison in 2008.

A trip to Home Depot by Caius Veiovis in August 2011 was either an innocent shopping experience or a sinister excursion to look at tools to dispose of three bodies. 
 
William Gregory took the stand for the prosecution in Hampden Superior Court on Tuesday and described how Caius Veiovis, 34, of Pittsfield, and another man, Eric Fox, came into the Home Depot in Pittsfield where he worked on Aug. 24, 2011.

Although the store was somewhat chaotic due to the approach of Tropical Storm Irene, he was immediately struck by Veiovis' facial features -- his horn-like implants and tattoos. "It was nothing I'd seen before," he said.

He told the jury Veiovis asked him where the saws were kept and he told the defendant and Fox where to find them.  The two men went over to where the wrenches were kept before stopping by the area with hatchets, hammers and handsaws, he said.  Gregory testified Fox picked up a hatchet and made a chopping motion. He then asked Gregory if they had other saws. Gregory told them where to look, but the men instead left the store after buying a Starfold tool.  According to police and prosecutors, a week later, Veiovis, Adam Lee Hall and David Chalue kidnapped and killed three city men and then dismembered their bodies using tools similar to a machete. Fox was not charged with any crimes in connection with the case.  Veiovis' attorney, James Gavin Reardon, says his client was there to simply buy a tool for his Jeep that he had recently purchased.   Under cross-examination, Gregory conceded many people stop in to buy one item and then browse for others.   "It's not unusual, is it?" asked the attorney. "No," Gregory responded. Gregory appeared somewhat flustered under cross-examination by Reardon.  The attorney pointed out at an earlier court appearance Gregory had testified he did not see either one of them pick up a hatchet.

The witness responded that he saw Fox pick up the hatchet on security tape that had been shown in court.  Gregory acknowledged the two men had done nothing illegal.  In his statement to police, Gregory said he believed he had spent as long as 20 minutes speaking with the men, but according to the video surveillance the defendant and Fox were only in the store for seven or eight minutes and their interaction with Gregory was brief.  Gregory explained to the jury that in the police interview he was speaking about the length of time he believed the men had been in the store and not just the time he spent with them.  In the afternoon on Tuesday, Katelyn Carmin, an ex-girlfriend of Hall's from Albany, N.Y., took the stand for the prosecution. Under direct examination by Capeless she told the jury that on the Friday before the storm in late August 2011, Hall, Veiovis and Chalue picked her up from a Pittsfield bar and took her bar-hopping and then to the Hells Angels clubhouse in Lee.  During the ride, Hall began to complain about David Glasser, who he said ruined his life because he planned to testify against him at trial. Hall said he wanted to "kill that [expletive]" and didn't care what happened afterward. Carmin testified that Veiovis and Chalue tried to comfort Hall, telling him they would get Glasser. She said Veiovis and Hall seemed close -- "buddy, buddy."  Carmin conceded under cross-examination by Reardon that Hall always spoke about killing people and she hadn't taken him seriously. While riding four-wheelers at the clubhouse with Chalue and Veiovis, Hall took Carmin aside, she said, and told her not to drive so aggressively because he didn't want them to get hurt because he needed for a job.  Hall was being rude, upset and snippy to her that day, she told the jury.  "Something was wrong. Something was different. I thought something bad was going to happen to me," she said. She got a ride back to New York not long after, she said.  Carmin said she drove all over with the three men including stopping at Sayers' auto wrecking on Potter Mountain Road in Lanesborough and a campsite. The car that police believe was later used to store the victims' remains before they were buried, a tan Buick, was later crushed at the auto wrecker, police said.  The witness seemed unclear about whether all the events were on the same day since she drove around with the men in two different cars, the tan Buick and a purple Hyundai Elantra. Under cross-examination by Reardon she admitted that she had been drinking and smoking marijuana "heavily" at the time.  She also described the close relationship Hall had with David Casey, the fourth defendant in the case who has said he was coerced into helping bury the bodies. Carmin said Casey spent nearly every day with Hall in the time leading up to the storm.  There was also testimony Tuesday by Nancy Amuso, of Pittsfield, who said she saw Hall and Veiovis together on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, but couldn't hear what they were talking about. That night or early the next morning the three victims disappeared from a Linden Street apartment in Pittsfield.  Under cross-examination, Amuso said she had seen Veiovis around and that he was friendly, but that she was afraid of Hall, who she knew from her work in the probation department.  Two members of the Springfield police also testified about seeing Hall, Veiovis and Chalue together that Saturday between 1 and 6:30 p.m. at a Hells Angels party in Springfield.  The investigators were gathering intelligence on the event, they said. They conceded there was nothing illegal about being at a Hells Angels party or about the three suspects being on the street together.