MEMBERS OF THE JURY REFLECT ON THE TRIAL
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
On Friday, Augie Ramos, one of 12 jurors who sat on the nearly threeweek long murder trial for Thomas Toolan, III, sounded a little weary after the experience. For him and his peers, the importance of the trial and extraordinarily disturbing sights they witnessed will not disappear from memory anytime soon. Ramos simply said, "It was a sad event, and I'd like to let it pass."

Though that passage may take time, other jurors, including Nancy Newhouse and an alternate juror, wanted to speak about what some termed a life-altering period. Newhouse and her colleagues last Thursday returned findings against Toolan charging him as guilty of first-degree, pre-meditated murder, guilty of committing murder with extreme atrocity and guilty of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - specifically, a knife never found that took the life of 44-year-old Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld on Oct. 25, 2004.

"It was horribly sad," said Newhouse, noting that the judge told the panel after the trial that they were free to discuss the case and that eventually the intensity of the experience will diminish.

"I think each one of us arrived at the guilty verdicts in our own way," she said. "It was different for each person and some were able to arrive at them more quickly than others. We had to put sympathy aside and weigh the evidence. It was not a struggle to keep emotions out of the decision - it's a protection for the juror and it helps you to be pragmatic. The facts are the facts, and knowing that in Massachusetts the law is in place so we weren't deciding his punishment was a relief.

"I prayed a lot during this," she continued. "I prayed that if I were chosen as a juror I would be able to do the best job I could. The reports from [Toolan's rehabilitation] stays were very informative, but to me it was his actions. Everyone knew he had committed the murder, but we had to decide if he was cognitively aware of the consequences and was going against the law. There was a one-way ticket to Nantucket from New York on Monday [Oct. 25, 2004]. I think that indicated he knew what he was going to do. A return flight would have been later, and it was quicker flying to Hyannis and renting a car. The judge told us very clearly that we could draw reasonable inferences based on our life experiences, and to me, that was a reasonable inference.

"When we first got into the [jury] room it was such a relief to talk about it. We had to vent for a while and then we got down to business. Every day I went for early morning walks and thought over everything. I think it was that way for everyone," said Newhouse. "It's a tragedy for his parents, too. Nobody wants that to happen. He wasted his life and I'm sure he has destroyed his parents. That's a crime."

Fellow juror Barry Paulson said, "It's just too damn bad the guy let his life end up like that. I'm still reflecting on a lot of it myself, but there was absolutely no question that murder was the issue. I'm glad the people of Nantucket got to have their voice. He got a good trial. I hope [her] family feels some justice was done."

Renee Ceely, who was one of the four alternate jurors who did not participate in deliberations, still heard all the evidence presented at the trial and said she was "completely relieved and in full agreement with the verdict."

"His mental issues were totally self-induced. I think what was most helpful was listening to the judge's instructions and the definitions of intoxication and mental illness," she said. "He [the judge] made it so clear.

"Clearly, [Toolan] was on a vendetta. There was a lot of hate," Ceely continued. "He may not have been planning the perfect murder, but he planned it nevertheless. The scallop knife was like the development of an alibi, and the [other] knife is still missing. If he didn't think he was committing a crime why did he dispose of it? He had the wherewithal to get rid of her wallet and change clothes, and I don't think you could do that in a blackout.

"The doctors didn't have any weight with me," she added. "The strongest evidence of all was Beth Lochtefeld herself. It was tragic and that was lifechanging for me to see. This was an experience I'll remember forever. I thought the emotional part was the hardest. The emotions went both ways - I felt sympathy for [Toolan], too, and his parents, but maybe that balanced it for me in the courtroom. There was no relief valve for any of us in the process. You had to keep it all pent up inside you unless you went for a walk and cried on your own. The judge said this was one of the most tragic murder cases he'd sat on."