Witness to fatal melee spills story

SALEM – Chad McDonald didn?t die until 11 days after Fernando Aristy allegedly beat him brutally with a wooden board, but a witness said in court Thursday the fight that ultimately killed him lasted less than two minutes.?It was fast. I told him like four or five times, ?Let?s go, let?s get out of here,?” Wilfredo Mordan, 39, of Boston, said through a Spanish interpreter. “He hit him with a stick (a board). I don?t know how many times.”Mordan gave a Salem Superior Court jury the most vivid picture yet of the events surrounding the fight between McDonald and Aristy that occurred around 3 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2010 outside 47 Bennett St., a storage warehouse in Lynn.View more photos from Thursday’s trial.McDonald died from injuries he sustained in the fight at Massachusetts General Hospital on Oct. 20, 2010. Aristy, 25, formerly of Chelsea, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing.Mordan, who is the only witness that has testified Aristy used a weapon in the fight, recalled emerging from an auto body shop adjacent to McDonald?s workplace after six hours of playing dominoes and drinking beers with friends and co-workers, including Aristy.McDonald came out of his office and began speaking with one of the men, Mordan said. They briefly shared a marijuana cigarette, and then began arguing. Mordan said he broke them up, but as he pushed McDonald, trying to make him to go back inside, Aristy came over, and McDonald lost his cool. The men had an ongoing dispute over a parking space, according to police reports.?He was shouting, ?Get the [expletive] out of my property [to Aristy],” Mordan said. “He said it two or three times.”When Aristy did nothing, McDonald lunged around him and toward Aristy with what turned out to be a screwdriver, Mordan testified Thursday.?I said, ?Be careful, he has a knife,? to Fernando and got out of the middle and they started fighting,” he said. “I didn?t want him to stab me.”Mordan described the two men punching toward each other before falling to the ground. That?s when, he said, Aristy straddled the father of two and began beating on him with his fists and a piece of wood he found lying nearby.He didn?t see McDonald strike back while on the ground, he said. And he didn?t see him get up as they drove away in his rented Ford Mustang.Defense attorney Raymond Buso spent an hour questioning Mordan on his criminal history, which includes multiple default warrants and license revocations under five different aliases since 1997.Then Buso took out the weapon Aristy allegedly used on McDonald – a piece of wood about two feet long, six inches wide and two inches thick. He had Mordan demonstrate the way Aristy held it as he struck McDonald in the head.Mordan, appearing nervous, stood up and mimed hitting someone with the edge of the board.?I don?t know which part he hit him with,” he said, meaning with the edge or the flat part of the wood.Buso insisted that he show exactly what he saw.?I?m not a robot that can remember everything,” Mordan said. “It was a year and something ago, I can?t remember everything that happened.”Buso also asked Mordan to describe the “deal” he made with the Essex County District Attorney?s office to bring him back into the country three months after his deportation last March in order to testify in the case, but Mordan said he had no ulterior motives for returning.?I think I have to say what I know,” Mordan said simply.?Oh, you?re interested in telling the truth now?” Buso fired back.McDonald?s wife, Michelle, said Mordan?s past shouldn?t affect the credibility of his testimony.?I think what he saw that night was what he saw, regardless of whatever he did in the past,” she said.A verdict in the trial is expected by the end of next week, according to presiding Judge David Lowy.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].