SALEM – The trial of John Michelin, of Lynn,who is accused of the 2017 murder of fellow Lynner Bret Reilly, began Thursday morning in Salem Superior Court.
Around midnight on April 8, 2017, police responded to a report of an assault in an apartment building on Chase Street in Lynn. When police entered the apartment, they found Reilly, 48, lying on the ground at the bottom of a set of stairs leading to a basement. Reilly had a bloodied shirt on his head and his pants pulled down around his ankles.
Police arrested Michelin, 37, and another Lynner, Darrin Stephens, on assault charges. The charges were later upgraded after Reilly died from his injuries days later. According to police, Reilly was severely beaten before being sodomized by a baseball bat, guitar, and broom.
Opening statements were made by both the prosecution and the defense during the morning session. Prosecutor Dan Bennett gave his opening remarks first. He said that there were five people in the apartment at the time of the incident, and at some point that night, a fight broke out and the tenant of the apartment, Richard Hilliard, punched Michelin in the face.
Bennett said that Hilliard was in the wrong for striking Michelin, however, that was the moment Michelin began plotting.
“He (Hilliard) knew, as a result of his actions, that he needed to retreat into his bedroom. He went into the bedroom, and that’s when this evening changed,” said Bennett. “That’s when John Michelin and Darrin Stephens began to work together as a team.”
Bennett continued on to say that both Michelin and Stephens entered Hilliard’s room. Stephens began hitting Hilliard with a baseball bat, breaking his finger. Hilliard then called 911 before Stephens took the phone out of his hands. The men then left Hilliard’s room. Moments later, Hilliard peered out of the room and saw Reilly being assaulted.
“He looked out into the living room of apartment two, and what he saw there was Bret Reilly being held up, under his arms, by John Michelin. He saw John Michelin striking Bret Reilly.”
Later, Michelin’s attorney Joan Fund argued in her opening statement that Hilliard did not see Michelin striking Reilly, and that there were no witnesses whatsoever.
“Nobody saw John Michelin strike Bret Reilly, no one,” she said.
She also argued that just because Michelin was present at the time of the assault does not mean that her client is guilty.
“Being present is not enough. Not helping somebody is not enough. That doesn’t mean you’re guilty of murder,” said Fund.
Two witnesses testified during the morning session. Medical Examiner at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Rebecca Dedrick was called to the stand first. Dedrick was the examiner who performed the autopsy on Reilly.
Dedrick testified that she observed blunt force trauma to Reilly’s head, as well as injuries to the rectum in which part of his intestines were removed by medical workers in an attempt to save his life.
“Two things in particular stood out. One that was a defect, about 3 and a half centimeters in diameter, circular defect in the rectum that went anterior, towards the front of the body,” said Dedrick. “The bladder, which sits directly in front of the rectum, also looked like it had sustained injury.”
After being asked what the cause of the defect could be, Dedrick responded that an object about the same diameter would have had to be inserted into the rectum with excessive force to cause that amount of damage.
Bennett then presented to Dedrick the broom that was allegedly used in the assault.
“Is this broom consistent with the penetrating injuries that you saw on Mr. Reilly?” asked Bennett.
“It could be, yes,” Dedrick replied. She later stated that Reilly had an infection from a tear in his digestive tract, and that bacteria had been obtained from the outside of his bowel that was consistent with the bacteria found inside of the digestive tract that helps to digest food.
It was determined that the infection from the penetration of an object was ultimately the cause of Reilly’s death, along with the trauma to his head.
Afterwards, Lt. Michael Perry, who was a trooper of the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Crime Scene Services Section in Danvers at the time of the incident, took the stand and reviewed a number of photos that he took at the scene of the crime.
Perry received a call at 2:30 a.m. on April 9th to report to the scene and once allowed inside the apartment, he began photographing objects and rooms in the building. In the photos that Bennett presented were multiple red-brown stains in areas of the building including the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, as well as a baseball bat and guitar that both appeared to have red-brown stains on them. In the basement, there were medical debris and the alleged broom that was used in the murder to the right of the stairs where Reilly was found.
The broom, bat, and guitar recovered at the scene were all presented as evidence to the jury.
The trial will resume Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. in Salem Superior Court.
