Barnstable judge hears Toolan trial motions on evidence
Defers considering change of venue
BY MARY LANCASTER
After approximately eight hours of hearings on defense motions filed in the case against former New Yorker and alleged murderer Thomas Toolan, Judge Richard Connon, sitting in Barnstable Monday and Tuesday, took matters relating to suppression of evidence under advisement, but did not hear a motion to move the jury trial from Nantucket.

According to First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny, the law states that the outcome of a case should be decided by a jury of peers in the county where the crime was committed. Glenny said that in spite of Toolan's attorney's insistance that the case has received so much attention the accused man will not get a fair trial, the judge will not be able to decide that until a jury is actually being chosen.

Glenny said Judge Connon deferred the venue motion until he sees if the trial is prejudiced when the panel is being picked on Nantucket. If found guilty of first degree, premeditated murder, Toolan potentially faces life in prison without parole. The trial date has not been set.

Toolan, 39, was indicted by a Nantucket grand jury in January 2005 for the slaying of Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld on Oct. 25, 2004. Ms. Lochtefeld was 44 at the time of her death caused by multiple stab wounds. Toolan has been held without bail since his arrest in Rhode Island the afternoon of the murder, which occurred in Ms. Lochtefeld's Hawthorne Lane cottage. He has been jailed in the Barnstable House of Correction since he was arraigned on Nantucket shortly after his capture.

Toolan's Brockton attorney, Kevin Reddington, withdrew one of his six motions to suppress that involved a computer seized from Toolan's Manhattan apartment after the murder. Though the motion maintained that a search of the computer's contents exceeded the search warrant's authority, Glenny explained that the computer actually belonged to Ms. Lochtefeld, so Toolan had no standing in terms of rights to privacy or any possessory interest in the equipment.

A portion of another motion to suppress trace evidence and clothing seized at the time of Toolan's arrest was also withdrawn. According to the motion, the taking of fingernail clippings violated Toolan's person under Rhode Island state laws and his federal and state constitutional rights. Glenny said it is believed that an addendum to the law regarding taking of such trace evidence was made prior to Toolan's arrest and as such, the argument no longer applies.

A status hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 19 in Barnstable; however the judge may make his written decision on the remaining suppression motions before that date.

Reddington's motion to move the trial from Nantucket argues that due to intense 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 cites the fact that Ms. Lochtefeld has many island relatives with deep roots in the community as a factor that could influence a jury.

Reddington also 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. 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 items related to the relationship between her and Toolan.

In support of the search, state trooper Patrick White wrote in an affidavit that 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.

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 a 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.

I