SALEM — The attorney for a man accused of a gruesome double murder in a Peabody crack house two years ago, admitted to jurors that his client is guilty.
“The Commonweath will ask you to return a verdict of first degree murder, the defense will ask you to return a verdict of manslaughter,” John Apruzzese told an Essex County Superior Court jury in opening arguments Monday.
Wes Doughty, of Peabody, is accused in the deaths of Mark Greenlaw, 37, and his fiancée, Jennifer O’Connor, 40, at a Farm Avenue home that has since been condemned.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Doughty is on trial for two counts of murder, attempted arson, carjacking, kidnapping, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
The difference between first degree murder and manslaughter is significant when it comes to sentencing. Typically, a first degree, premeditated murder conviction calls for life in prison without the possibility of parole. A manslaughter conviction offers the chance of parole.
In her opening, Kate MacDougall, Essex County assistant district attorney, said Greenlaw grew up in Salem and was trained as a carpenter. He was a father to his 18-year-old son, Matthew.
But for most of his adult life, Mark Greenlaw battled his own demons and battled addiction,” she said. “Despite that, he was very close to his family, particularly his mother, Margo Bollettiero-Duarte.”
MacDougall described O’Connor, a Beverly native, as a pretty blonde who was once a high school cheerleader.
“For most of her life, Jennifer was beset by one health crisis after another, including a flesh eating disease that left her body ravaged and her sense of herself destroyed,” she said. “Jennifer too, battled addiction to crack cocaine and other drugs.”
The couple were in the wrong place at the wrong time that February night in 2017, she said.
Shortly after Greenlaw and O’Connor arrived at the house to buy drugs, an argument between Doughty and Greenlaw ensued over a woman, MacDougall said. Police said Doughty confronted Greenlaw in the kitchen and shot him once in the face with a shotgun. He died instantly.
Minutes later, she said, the defendant turned on O’Connor. Prosecutors allege he stabbed her repeatedly, slit her throat, and slashed under each breast.
Following the murders, Doughty, and a second man, Michael Hebb, 45, wrapped the bodies in plastic and carpeting, placed them in the basement and surrounded them with cans of kerosene and a propane torch.
Based, in part, on statements by Hebb, prosecutors said the men’s intention was to burn the bodies.
Hebb pleaded guilty in January to helping to cover up and attempting to destroy evidence after the couple died. In January, Judge Timothy Feeley sentenced Hebb to serve 6- to 7-years in prison followed by 5 years of probation.
Prosecutors said Doughty fled and abducted Kenneth Metz in his car at knifepoint in Middleton, tied him up with the seatbelt, and drove to Boston together. Metz, a 64-year-old grandfather, escaped when Doughty stopped at a liquor store. The fugitive was captured a week later in South Carolina.
Ann Mailo, 24, testified she was driving on Farm Avenue on the night of the homicide when a woman, later identified as Christine Cummisky, flagged down her silver Subaru. She told Mailo she was fleeing a murder scene.
“She was running toward me in the snow in her socks,” she said. “I rolled down the window to see if she needed help and she came through the passenger window into the front seat … screaming let’s get out of here and told me two people were no longer in the world … and they’re going to kill me.”
Mailo drove her the Massachusetts State Police headquarters in Danvers.
In tearful testimony, Bollettiero-Duarte testified her son was a happy-go-lucky person.
“He was my baby,” she said. “But he struggled with prescription drugs such as Soboxin, Adderall, Xanax and cocaine.”
She talked with him two dozen times a day and knew something was wrong when her call went to his voicemail the night of the killing.
“His calls never went to voicemail, and my daughter, who also suffered from heroin addiction, called me that night and asked for a ride to that crack house and I refused,” she said. “She called me later to say my son was murdered.”
The trial is expected to resume on Tuesday.
