Store video key in Collela trial

SALEM – Prosecutors say Blake Colella stabbed Richard Dalton, but without a statement from Dalton confirming that claim they must rely on a security camera videotape and witness accounts in their bid to convict Colella.Colella, 25, formerly of Swampscott and Lynn, pleaded not guilty at his initial arraignment to assault with intent to murder and various other assault charges and his trial before a Superior Court jury is expected to conclude next Thursday.If convicted, he faces up to a 20-year jail sentence.The stabbing occurred on May 19, 2006 at night outside the Fayette Street 7-Eleven store. As he walked out of the store, Dalton saw Colella talking to his girlfriend.”Richard Dalton thought he (Colella) was hitting on her,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Hickey told the jury.Hickey said Dalton felt a blow to his chest and left shoulder. Several minutes later, after Colella and his younger cousin fled the store parking lot, Dalton noticed blood on his t-shirt.Hickey told the jury the store videotape captured the confrontation and shows Colella wearing the same coat that police retrieved from the Franklin Street house where he was arrested.He also told the jurors they will hear witnesses over the next several days tell how Colella bragged “he stabbed a kid.”But Ronald Ranta, Colella’s attorney, told jurors Dalton and his brother, Joseph, who arrived at the store following the attack, never identified Colella as Richard Dalton’s attacker.”A number of people see bits and pieces, but only one person saw what happened – Richard Dalton who tells police and medical workers, ‘I don’t know what happened.'”Ranta also said witnesses described Dalton’s attacker as a teenager and not a man in his mid 20s. He also said the videotaped images of Dalton following the attack do not show blood on his t-shirt.”I submit you will be left with a reasonable doubt of what occurred,” Ranta said.He scored an initial win Thursday when Judge David Lowy twice denied Hickey the chance to ask a Lynn police officer to describe Dalton as he interviewed the stabbing victim in the Salem Hospital emergency room.”He was not very forthcoming with answers,” Officer David Galeazzi said before Lowy, at Ranta’s request, asked the jury to disregard Galeazzi’s testimony.A woman who was living with Colella last June claimed he beat her and threatened to kill her if she testified at the stabbing trial. Colella denied the charge.Mindful of Colella’s arrest record dating back to 2000, police halted traffic in Wyoma Square and converged on Colella’s apartment when they went to arrest him on Sept. 21, 2006 on witness intimidation charges.Prior to his arrest that day, one of the women slated to testify against him told police Colella said, “He would shoot a cop if they try to pull him over.”