Toolan lawyer to use insanity defense
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Brockton attorney Kevin Reddington has revealed how he intends to defend his client Thomas Toolan III, charged with the fatal stabbing of Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld, when Toolan's trial begins on Nantucket June 4. He plans to argue that the accused did not know what he was doing at the time, generally referred to as an insanity defense.

Reddington filed a notice with Nantucket Superior Court on March 8 stipulating that the case will "rely on evidence of diminished capacity/lack of criminal responsibility arising out of involuntary intoxication through the ingestion of medication as well as a combination of his mental and emotional condition, ingestion of alcohol and consumption of prescription and non-prescription medications." He names four experts who will likely testify.

Reddington also filed two new motions. One seeks to obtain by court order all records pertaining to investigations that have or are being done on a sample of Toolan's DNA at the Sudbury State Police Crime Lab. First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny, who declined to comment on the insanity defense prior to trial, said the motion for documents is common and allows Reddington to see what tests were done and if proper protocol was followed. The other motion seeks disclosure of anyone interviewed by police or the district attorney's office who spoke with Toolan when he was first incarcerated, a record of statements Toolan is alleged to have made, and whether the interviewees will be called as witnesses.

Toolan was arrested the afternoon of Oct. 25, 2004 as he drove a rental car through Rhode Island, believed to be on his way to Manhattan where he lived. Ms. Lochtefeld was fatally stabbed in her Hawthorne Lane rental cottage earlier that day. Toolan was identified as being on her cottage's property that morning by the woman's landlady and a neighbor, according to records. Officials allege that after Ms. Lochtefeld traveled to New York the previous week to break off her brief relationship with Toolan, she was unable to immediately escape from his apartment. When she did leave he followed her to the island. He is said to have been stopped by security in a New York airport when he tried to carry a knife on board, and when released, continued his trip to Nantucket where he is said to have rented a car, bought a knife at a marine business and gone to her home to wait for her arrival.

Toolan has been held without bail since his arrest and faces life imprisonment if convicted of firstdegree, premeditated murder. Though Reddington filed a motion to change the trial venue, Judge Richard Connon, assigned to the case, will not hear that motion unless an impartial jury cannot be

chosen on Nantucket. I