Dr. Donald Davidoff, a clinical neuro-psychologist brought in to testify for the defense in the trial of Thomas Toolan III, holds a model of the human brain to point out its areas and there functions for jury.

THE TOOLAN TRIAL

Jury begins deliberations

BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

Testimony in the murder trial for Thomas Toolan, III, ended yesterday after his defense attorney Kevin Reddington presented two days of medical witnesses in his attempt to establish a case portraying his client as being in such a distraught emotional state, aggravated by heavy ingestion of alcohol and medications, that he was not criminally responsible when he allegedly killed Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld in her Hawthorne Lane cottage on Oct. 25, 2004.

The prosecution, led by First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny, maintains that Toolan planned the fatal stabbing and carried it out with extreme atrocity or cruelty, and offered its own medical witness to support the government's assertion that he was criminally responsible for his actions on that date.

Closing arguments by both attorneys are being given this morning. Judge Richard F. Connon will then give the 12-person jury specific instructions on the law before they are sequestered and begin deliberating the case. There were 16 people hearing the case so that four alternates would be available and prepared in the event that any of the dozen had to be excused before the trial ended. If Toolan is convicted of first-degree murder he faces life imprisonment in a state penitentiary. If found guilty of manslaughter (murder without malice) he will be incarcerated in a state jail. If found not guilty by reason of insanity or not criminally responsible he will be sent to a state hospital.

TUESDAY, JUNE 19

In yesterday's testimonies, Dr. Donald Davidoff was called by the defense to explain his evaluation of Toolan. Davidoff is a clinical neuro-psychologist, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and a psychologist at Boston's MacLean Hospital. He said he read a number of reports, Toolan's school records, news accounts of the case and Toolan's employment history. "He had a checkered employment career," he said. He also observed that when guards brought Toolan lunch he placed a napkin under both hands and used another to hold his sandwich, an occurrance Davidoff termed "a telling moment" in relation to reports indicating that Toolan has obsessive-compulsive disorders. Davidoff testified that after testing Toolan for eight hours on May 31, 2007, he did not believe Toolan was feigning behavior to bias the test results.

Davidoff said he believes Toolan qualifies for a diagnosis of frontal lobe brain damage though in many ways his functions tested in the normal range for intellect, learning and memory. He added, however, that while it is not in his evaluation report, in his opinion Toolan has profound frontal lobe dysfunction resulting from the effects of chronic alcoholism, which has affected his working memory, ability to solve problems and to shift approaches to situations so that he may act in ways that are not in his best self-interest.

During cross-examination by Glenny, Davidoff, who did not review any of the videos of Toolan at airports or after arrest, agreed that Toolan was able to control impulsivity when he elected not to jump off the roof of the New York Athletic Club on Oct. 23, 2004 and recalled reading in other reports that Toolan was intrigued by the criminal antics of others and had difficulty being open and honest with himself and others.

Dr. Anthony Joseph, a neuro-psychiatrist, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an attending psychiatrist at MacLean Hospital, evaluated Toolan on May 3 and May 8, 2007 at Reddington's request and observed Toolan to be paranoid at times. He said he believes at the time of Ms. Lochtefeld's death Toolan was suffering multiple defects, was clearly intoxicated with alcohol and medications, had difficulty thinking clearly and understanding what was going on around him and was disinhibited in his control of behavior and impulses. He also termed Toolan's actions from when he tried to board a plane in New York carrying a knife through the events of Oct. 25, 2004 as "bizarre and irrational."

Joseph, who also did not review videos of Toolan, said he did not feel the viewings were necessary. Under cross-examination, he said he did not recall seeing any records prior to the murder that indicated Toolan had blackouts other than information to that effect that Toolan self-reported, and that he did not see anything in reports about Toolan when he was on Nantucket before the murder, or from people he dealt with after the incident at the Hyannis Airport that indicated he was intoxicated. He also testified that he agreed that in the past Toolan had an appreciation of how drinking and doing drugs adversely affected his relationships, but said he was unaware that after Toolan had an approximate yearlong sober period he chose to begin drinking again when he came to Nantucket Labor Day weekend 2004. Joseph further testified that someone in a blackout could still drive a car and interact with others.

MONDAY, JUNE 18

Reddington called Toolan's mother, Dolores Toolan to the stand. It was an emotional testimony, with Mrs. Toolan twice starting to break down in tears. Once it was when she spoke of meeting Ms. Lochtefeld soon after she and her son became acquainted, and said, "They seemed very smitten with each other. They seemed very happy together," and a little later when she spoke of the last time she and her husband saw their son on Sunday, Oct. 24 when she said "His whole body exuded the smell of alcohol. His tongue was totally swollen and his words were slurry."

The judge called for a brief recess, and when Mrs. Toolan returned to the courtroom, before she rejoined her husband and their daughter who appeared with them that day, she spent a few poignant moments with Ms. Lochtefeld's mother, Judy. The women sat close together as Mrs. Toolan cried and Mrs. Lochtefeld listened intently to what she said with a sincere expression of empathy on her face. Mrs. Lochtefeld appeared to try to console Toolan's mother, and the mothers hugged before Mrs. Toolan got up to sit with her family.

Mrs. Toolan recounted her son's history, both during schooling and work, and said Toolan, whom she referred to as "Tommy," appeared to her to have a drinking problem by the age of 16 or 17. "He was always able to cover it up," she said. "He was able to function." She testified as to how his drinking cost him two jobs, and how after two separate month-long stays in rehab clinics he relapsed and continued to drink and take medications. Though she said she knew he had a head injury when he was around seven years old, she did not know of others.

Mrs. Toolan stated that her son called the family at approximately 7 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 and sounded despondant when he said with slurred speech, "She's gone. She's gone. She's taken all her stuff. I was asleep and she just left." The Toolans saw their son with his friend Mark Mitchell that evening and were relieved he was in good company. The next morning was the last time they saw him when he talked with them in their car, then said he wanted to stretch his legs, got out of the car, lit a cigarette and walked away "very, very slowly but steadily," she said. The Toolans lost sight of him and drove around the area several times "because he was in such bad shape," said his mother.

Jurors also heard from Thomas Shamshak, a private investigator who assisted Reddington in the case. He testified about going to Toolan's Manhattan apartment on Dec. 9, 2004 and finding the place "unkempt" with no food in the refrigerator but empty and full vodka bottles in rooms and a number of empty and partially full vials of medications, mainly sedatives, found in a file cabinet.

Other testimony came from Dr. Ronald Ebert, a state forensic psychologist who is certified by the Dept. of Mental Health and is on the teaching staff at MacLean Hospital in Boston and both at Harvard Medical School. Acccording to Ebert, who assisted in an evaluation of Toolan for Reddington in late 2005, after reviewing extensive records, he met with Toolan first at the Barnstable House of Correction, and because he displayed such paranoia there, conducted the next three sessions in the Barnstable court building. Ebert said Toolan was anxious and intense, though cooperative, but at the jail he seemed preoccupied with whether people were listening in on the interview and interrupted the meeting by yelling at and slapping a wall intercom and making derogatory remarks to officers who might hear them.

After interviews with Toolan, Ebert said, "His history is replete with failure directly related to his alcohol [use]." Ebert also concluded that Toolan tested in a forthright manner, seemed mildly depressed, believes Toolan suffers from brain damage from alcohol and drug abuse, and that the damage affects Toolan's behavior in terms of controlling his behavior when under stress and using alcohol and drugs.

He further testified that Toolan's memory was spotty about what happened October 23 and 24, 2004, that Toolan believes he was intoxicated, crying and angry when Ms. Lochtefeld broke off their relationship, and that he tried to talk her into staying with him but fell asleep and found her gone when he awoke. Toolan also told Ebert that he did not recall many things about getting to or being on Nantucket on Oct. 25, 2004, other than throwing "something" in the bushes and at the island airport trash, and on the mainland, going to a doughnut shop and checking cell phone messages before being arrested.

Ebert said his opinion "to a high degree of psychological certainty" is that Toolan was not criminally responsible during the murder event, which he attributes to Toolan's long-term drinking and drugging that rendered frontal brain lobe damage causing him to act impulsively and aggressively in inappropriate and irrational ways, and said he has a persevering nature. "Once he starts something he can't stop," said Ebert.

Ebert's testimony, particularly regarding Toolan's scattered memories of the weekend before and day of Ms. Lochtefeld's death, was challenged by the prosecutor, who elicited a response from Ebert who said many of Toolan's actions coming to and leaving Nantucket on the date of the incident indicated an ability to execute a plan, though he still maintained that alcohol relaxed inhibitions for Toolan and triggered impulsive behavior.

The final testimony of the day was from Dr. David Benjamin, a clinical pharmacologist and forensic toxologist retained by Reddington, who spoke on the effects of excessive alcohol use and how it is compounded by ingestion of medications, such as sedatives. He testified that in examining Toolan's first breath alcohol reading taken a couple hours after he was arrested the afternoon of the murder, he calculated that at about noon that day, Toolan's alcohol level may have been at the end of the confusion stage and entering the stupor phase and possibly even reaching the alcohol coma stage. In cross-examination by Glenny, Benjamin stated that in nearing a coma stage a person "would be out like a light" and not be capable of driving a car, for example.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15

Friday's testimonies began with Dr. Martin Kelly, retained by the district attorney's office to evaluate Toolan and give his opinion after reviewing a volume of reports, including the autopsy report on Ms. Lochtefeld and some on Toolan's prior treatments, and conducting a nearly three-hour long interview with Toolan at the Barnstable House of Correction on May 17, 2007. Kelly said that during the interview Toolan was vague, guarded and suspicious, checking wall outlets because he thought someone was listening to the conversation.

Kelly, a psychiatrist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, a certified forensic psychiatrist, has a subspecialty in medical psychiatry and is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, determined that Toolan was criminally responsibile at the time of the murder and did not have a mental disease or defect that resulted in lack of capacity to understand the wrongfulness of his actions or lack of capacity to control his behavior to conform with requirements of the law.

Kelly said he found that Toolan has a substance abuse disorder, primarily with alcohol and potentially with some medications, and likely a mixed personality disorder with anti-social and narcissistic features. He added that Toolan may qualify for having a mental disorder with disease defects and conditions such as substance abuse, personality disorders, brief reactions to life events that cause emotional reactions and possibly bi-polar tendencies, explaining that the term essentially replaces what was formerly referred to as manic/depressive behavior.

In further testimony, Kelly said a person with personality disorder can make choices regarding behavior, and that tests were run on Toolan, such as an MRI, that did not indicate organic brain disorders or injury, as well as tests done for neuro-psychological abilities including problem solving and the ability to execute an action.

Additionally, Kelly said that Toolan's attempt to conceal a knife on his first try to fly to Nantucket and the offering of various reasons for carrying the knife indicated his ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act and attempt to mitigate that wrongfulness; that traveling to the island, purchasing knives, parking his car out of sight of Ms. Lochtefeld's cottage and in the direction for a "quick getaway" indicated Toolan's ability to conform his behavior to serve his own selfinterests at that time and appreciation of wrongfulness; that Toolan's stabbing of Ms. Lochtefeld 23 times, placing items on her back, dumping items on a bloodied bed and taking, then throwing away items from her cottage indicated deliberate acts, appreciation of wrongfulness and an understanding of criminality; that Toolan's flying to Hyannis, engagement with persons at that air terminal and car rental indicated an intact appreciation of situations; that Toolan's changing clothes after the murder indicated his appreciation of the implications of bloodied clothing and ability to decide what to do about that issue; that Toolan's call to a friend the night he was arrested asking him to phone the victim indicated he was aware that something needed to be "straightened out"; and that his denial of seeing Ms. Lochtefeld for three days before the murder indicated that he appreciated the wrongfulness of the event on Nantucket.

Reddington aggressively challenged the doctor's credibility, saying he had not read enough reports, had not asked Toolan enough questions, had not run enough tests and had frequently, when testifying for the government at trials, found the defendants criminally responsible as opposed to when he testified for the defense and found the defendants not criminally responsible. At one point, when Reddington said medical records indicate that Toolan experienced several head traumas but that Kelly did not inquire about them, he stated, "You don't care whether he has a head trauma. You're down there to get your check."

Citing records from various sources about Toolan's conditions, Reddington said that his client has been described as approaching life in a ritualistic way, experiencing paranoia and feelings of hopelessness, being anxious, depressed, irritable and exhibiting rage, and that Toolan has self-reported having a compulsion to wash his hands repeatedly, sometimes 40 to 70 times a day. In re-cross examination by Glenny, Kelly acknowledged that records also indicate that Toolan has a strong urge to control situations, especially in relationships.

Glenny also called Manhattan internist Dr. Richard Neufeld to the stand. Neufeld treated Toolan from 1999 to October 2004 and said he prescribed Klonopin and Zoloft for him after Toolan said he was stressed over his work and needed medication to assist him in making business presentations. He testified that he knew Toolan had been at an alcohol treatment facility but was unaware that he was experiencing alcohol problems in 2004 or had any compulsive disorders, did not know if Toolan was buying medication over the Internet and did not notice any changes in his personality.

Judge Connon told the jury that experts may render their opinions, but that at the close of the trial he will instruct them on Massachusetts law pertaining to criminal responsibility and it will be up to them to decide which witnesses to believe.

THURSDAY, JUNE 14

Testimony came from John Kotfila, a state trooper assigned to the Cape and Islands detective unit who interviewed Toolan in Rhode Island after his arrest the afternoon of the murder. Jurors watched an audioenhanced tape of Toolan being taken into custody and his transport to the Hope Valley, R.I. police barracks, during which time he is alleged to have somehow unbuckled his seat belt two or three times. Toolan was heard denying that he undid the belt, swearing and saying that "on his honor" he was just sitting there.

Kotfila said during the transport Toolan asked three or four times what the arrest was about and was only told it involved an incident that day in Massachusetts. Later, when told it regarded an incident involving Elizabeth Lochtefeld, Toolan said, "It's not Elizabeth, it's Beth," and said he wanted to answer questions but was concerned he would get in trouble if the situation had something to do with a theft she was connected with that he did not know about. He then said he could not have had any involvement with an incident that day because he had not seen Ms. Lochtefeld since the previous Friday.

The judge told jurors that the government must prove that any statements Toolan made under the arrest circumstances were voluntary, and that they must consider that he was charged with intoxicated driving in their decision as to whether the statements were voluntary. Toolan's breath tests for alcohol registered at about twice the allowed level on the first test and still high nearly three hours after he was pulled over by police.

The jury also watched a video surveillance tape of Toolan at the Hyannis airport after he left Nantucket, and heard from a state police crime lab chemist who collected samples for testing at the cottage crime scene and from the two cars Toolan rented. Further testimony was given by Massachusetts trooper Sgt. Christopher Mason who was among others conducting a search of Toolan's Manhattan apartment after the murder. He described it as "messy and cluttered" and said he saw a travel Web site on Toolan's computer screen displaying flight schedules from New York to Nantucket on U.S. Air. A couple of vials of prescription medications were seized from the apartment along with an empty Beck's beer bottle, a ring Toolan allegedly purchased at Nantucket's Jeweler's Gallery and photographs.

Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab DNA chemist Jennifer Elliott also testified. She ran tests on articles of Toolan's clothing seized after his arrest and said stains on a jacket, shirt, his watch, a pair of pants and paper towels found in the island's airport trash matched Ms. Lochtefeld's DNA, as did fingernail scrapings taken from him after his arrest.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13

State trooper Lt. Monty Gilardi, supervisor of the Crime Scene Services, testified that a search of Toolan's personal property after his arrest resulted in discovery of four prescription medications including sedatives as well as a prescription for Toolan's dog to be used to calm the animal during anxiety due to thunder storms.

Representatives of Nantucket Airport's ticket counters and Budget car rental testified to Toolan's presence and clothing and time of arrival on the island Oct. 25, 2004. The woman who rented him a Ford Escape said he did not appear intoxicated at the time. Testimony also came from a Hyannis Avis car rental agent at that airport who leased a car to Toolan after he left Nantucket, and described him as "lightheartedly" trying to choose between Avis and Hertz.

The jury heard from Bernadette Feeney, who introduced Ms. Lochtefeld to Toolan on Labor Day weekend that year, and described their attraction as "palpable," saying the relationship took off following that meeting. Feeney, who grew up with Toolan in New York and whose families lived in the same apartment building and were good friends, said she did not witness Toolan drinking when he was with Ms. Lochtefeld during Toolan's and his friend Mark Mitchell's stay with her for the extended holiday, and only knew Toolan had problems with alcohol and drugs through stories she heard from her brother. She further stated that when she saw Ms. Lochtefeld just before she was leaving for Manhattan to end her relationship with Toolan and asked her how things were going between them, Ms. Lochtefeld replied, "It's a roller coaster. I'll call you when I get back." Feeney never saw her again.

Mitchell, who met Toolan four years ago when Toolan was drinking beer mid-afternoon in Central Park with a mutual acquaintence, testified that Toolan was drinking beer when they were on Nantucket, but that he only saw Toolan once after the Labor Day trip until Toolan phoned him the morning of Saturday, Oct. 23. Toolan was at the New York Athletic Club and drinking in one of its bars. Mitchell said when he arrived at the club Toolan "was in bad shape and it was barely noon at that point. He was despondent. There had been a break-up with Beth."

Mitchell testified that he lost track of Toolan and found him on the 23rd floor roof of the club indicating he wanted to jump off. After diffusing the situation, Mitchell stayed with Toolan, who he described as disheveled with stained trousers, an uncharacteristic appearance for his usually dapper friend. "I hadn't seen him in that condition before," said Mitchell. "I realized his problems and underlying conditions were intractable."

Mitchell pursuaded Toolan to get something to eat, and said Toolan repeatedly told him Beth "was gone" and had taken her belongings from his apartment. When the men returned to Toolan's building later in the afternoon, Mitchell said Toolan went into the bathroom and he could hear him unscrewing a bottle. He found Toolan drinking vodka straight from the bottle and tried taking it away but gave up. Toolan took a couple more swallows from the bottle, then poured out the rest. Mitchell remained with him, took him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, then managed to take away two pint bottles of vodka Toolan bought while the two walked Toolan's dog. Mitchell left Toolan's apartment about 2:15 a.m. when his friend was "passed out" in bed, and did not know of the murder until he was contacted by police.

Jurors also heard from a clerk at Force Five Watersports, where Toolan first tried to buy a knife the morning of Oct. 25, and a clerk at Brant Point Marine, where he did buy a knife with an approximate six-to-seven-inch blade and a scallop knife. The clerk said Toolan remarked on the nice view from the store and told him that the airport lost his luggage and he had to get a new scallop knife. The clerk at Force Five said Toolan's demeanor "freaked her out" and the Brant Point Marine clerk described

him as overdressed and appearing sober. I