Court releases Toolan trial motions
Attorney seeks change of venue, suppression of evidence
BY MARY LANCASTER
Just over two years to the day of Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld's murder, on Monday the Nantucket Superior Court released several trial motions filed by Brockton attorney Kevin Reddington, the lawyer for accused assailant Thomas Toolan.

Toolan, 39, was indicted in the slaying in January 2005. He has been held without bail in the Barnstable House of Correction since he waived rendition and was arraigned on Nantucket shortly after his arrest.

Within the weighty documents are reports from a variety of law enforcement sources connected with the case, including a statement that when island doctor Timothy Lepore examined Ms. Lochtefeld's body, found face down in her Hawthorne Lane liv- ing room on Oct. 25, 2004, he discovered that she had been stabbed four times in the back and twice in the chest, once over her heart. The report also states that a sexually explicit item was left on her back, though there was no indication in the report that she had been sexually assaulted.

The motions were filed on Sept. 14, six days past the deadline given Reddington by Superior Court Judge Richard Connon, who is assigned to the case. A motions hearing scheduled for yesterday in Barnstable has been postponed to Dec. 4 because the judge was injured in an accident last month. Once Connon rules on the motions a trial date will be set. If found guilty of first degree, premeditated murder, Toolan potentially faces life in prison without parole.

Reddington's primary motion is for a change of trial venue from Nantucket, where the murder occurred, to Suffolk or Essex county with his last choice being Barnstable county. Reddington argues that due to intense and on-going media scrutiny since the murder the case "has occasionally coupled with the unusual nature of an island community" which will compromise Toolan's rights to due process of law and a fair trial. He also cites the fact that Ms. Lochtefeld has many island relatives with deep roots in the community as a factor that could influence a jury. Further, he names a novel called "Safe Harbor - A Murder in Nantucket" which was published last year and sold on Nantucket and in Barnstable.

Reddington wrote that allegations about Toolan, who dated Ms. Lochtefeld for a brief period and was rebuffed in a marriage proposal to her just days before the murder, "have been portrayed in a fashion in the media so as to guarantee extensive, exploitive, prejudicial publicity."

The motions to suppress include all statements made by Toolan when he was arrested and interrogated. He was pulled over in Rhode Island the afternoon of Oct. 25, 2004 when authorities recognized the gray Chevy Impala he had rented at Barnstable airport described in a police alert distributed after the murder was discovered.

Initially, Toolan was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, but was charged on Oct. 26 with being a fugitive from justice. According to the motion, Toolan did not make a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of his rights to remain silent and to have counsel when in custody in Hope Valley, R.I.

A second motion seeks to suppress cell phone records, electronic records and long-distance phone call records, because according to Reddington, the law does not authorize the district attorney to subpoena such records absent a belief that a phone was used for an unlawful purpose.

There is another motion to suppress the contents of a UPS package addressed to Toolan's Manhattan apartment which was left at Parcel Plus by Ms. Lochtefeld the morning of her murder. The box was seized and opened by Nantucket police, which Reddington termed an unreasonable violation of Toolan's constitutional rights. According to a statement in a report, a relative of Ms. Lochtefeld told police that the package contained belongings and memorabilia related to the relationship between her and Toolan.

In an affidavit supporting the package search, Massachusetts state trooper Patrick White said articles believed to be connected to Toolan were found in trash at Nantucket airport where he had rented a red Ford Escape when he arrived from New York City the morning of the murder, and returned around 1 p.m. before he flew to Hyannis.

Some of the items found included a luggage band bearing his name, which was next to paper towels matching those in the airport's men's room that held red and brownish stains. Other alleged evidence in the trash included photo slides similar to slides found in Ms. Lochtefeld's cottage.

Another motion to suppress is for a search of Toolan's New York apartment when a computer was seized. The motion maintains that a search of the computer's contents exceeded the search warrant's authority which was to look for mail to or from "target premises."

According to a statement from a trooper involved in the apartment search, the computer was found on and at a travel site showing U.S. Air flights between New York City and Nantucket. The statement also lists finding many empty vodka bottles. In another report, island police officer Angus MacVicar related speaking to Ms. Lochtefeld at the police station on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004 when she inquired about but did not obtain a restraining order.

MacVicar said she told him Toolan had asked her to marry him in New York but that she declined because they had not known each other long. She said she wanted to return to Nantucket on Friday, Oct. 22 but Toolan had taken the day off from work and she stayed there to avoid conflict until she was able to leave early Saturday morning without his knowledge.

A motion to suppress was also filed concerning searches of and any evidence seized by police from Toolan's two rental cars. Reddington argued that there was no probable cause to justify warrants for those searches. In another report, however, Hawthorne Lane neighbors of Ms. Lochtefeld stated that they saw a man fitting Toolan's description on the day of the murder. He was witnessed walking from her cottage and getting into a Ford Escape with the same description as the car he had rented that morning.

The last motion seeks to suppress trace evidence and clothing seized at the time of Toolan's arrest. The evidence involves swabs, fingernail scrapings, photographs and other, if any, items taken. According to the motion's affidavit, the taking of fingernail clippings violated Toolan's person under state laws and his federal and state constitutional rights.

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