SALEM — The Commonwealth rested on the third day of the trial of John Michelin, a Lynn man accused of killing Bret Reilly by severely beating and sodomizing him with a baseball bat, a broom, and a guitar.
On Monday morning at Salem Superior Court, the jury took a trip to 8 Chase St., the Lynn apartment building where police found Reilly lying on the ground at the bottom of the stairs on April 8, 2017. Reilly, also of Lynn, was found with a bloodied shirt over his head and his pants rolled down to his ankles.
After returning to Salem, prosecutor Dan Bennett called Lynn Police Officer Joseph Ricupero to the stand. Ricupero and Officer Ron Brown arrived first on the scene, responding to a reported assault.
Ricupero said that he had responded to 8 Chase St. numerous times in the past while investigating a variety of incidents and that police consider the residence a “hot spot.” When he arrived on scene, Ricupero said he first spoke to tenant Richard Hilliard, who had an injury on his left pinkie finger and smelled of alcohol.
The officer said that he knew both Reilly and Hilliard, and had arrested Reilly in 2013 for public urination. He said that both men appeared to have drinking problems and that he had sent Hilliard to Salem Hospital for alcohol detox on a few occasions.
After Ricupero’s conversation with Hilliard outside the building, he said he called for backup through dispatch.
“The decision was made based on that conversation, that there were exigent circumstances to enter his apartment,” Ricupero said.
The Commonwealth alleges that on the night of the crime, Hilliard struck Michelin in the face, starting the fight. The Commonwealth claims both Michelin and Darrin Stephens, of Lynn, entered Hilliard’s room and that Stephens hit Hilliard in the hand with a baseball bat, breaking his finger. Hilliard then called 911 before Stephens took the phone out of his hands.
Moments after Michelin and Stephens left, Bennett said Hilliard peered out of the room and saw Michelin assaulting Reilly.
The prosecution is alleging that Michelin and Stephens worked together to sodomize Reilly with different objects, which killed him days later.
Ricupero said that he unlocked the front door with a pocket knife and walked into the entryway. There, he heard two people that he believed to be male, grunting and physically exerting themselves.
“I heard heavy breathing and grunting, and I knew there was more than one person because some of those kinds of noises were happening simultaneously,” he said.
After opening the stairway door, Ricupero said he drew his gun and observed Reilly lying face-down on the floor with a bloodied T-shirt on his head and what appeared to be blood on his anal region.
Ricupero said he shouted that he was a Lynn Police officer when he banged on the apartment door. Stephens opened the door, and Ricupero said he moved him away from the doorway at gunpoint before detaining him and patting him down for weapons.
While police searched the apartment, Ricupero said Michelin was pretending to be asleep in his bedroom before officers pulled him out and detained him.
Michelin’s attorney Joan Fund then cross-examined Ricupero. Ricupero confirmed that before entering the apartment, he looked through the exterior windows and did not see any movement or anyone in the bedrooms.
When Fund asked Ricupero if he saw any blood while entering Michelin’s room, he said that he did not recall seeing any red or brown stains.
Following Fund’s brief cross-examination, Bennett announced that the Commonwealth rested. When Justice Salim Tabit excused the jurors, Fund motioned for a required finding of “not guilty,” arguing that the Commonwealth lacked sufficient evidence to convict her client.
“I would submit to the court that holding somebody under their armpits while another person is striking them would not be sufficient in order to prove the intent to kill,” Fund said, referring to the prosecution’s opening statement on Thursday. “There may be an intent to strike Mr. Reilly, but there’s no content that I submit to the court that shows that Michelin had the intent to kill.”
Fund argued that because none of Reilly’s blood could be found on her client’s shoes and the Commonwealth could not prove that her client beat Reilly with the intention of killing him, a “not guilty” finding was appropriate.
Tabit overruled Fund’s motion, stating that he believed the Commonwealth displayed sufficient evidence to make the case that Stephens did not act alone when he sodomized Reilly.
“Given the weight and size of Mr. Reilly, there is a reasonable inference, not the only inference, but a reasonable inference that to dispants him and to have an item so severely penetrate his rectum isn’t a job that could have been done by simply one person,” Tabit said.
The defense and prosecution will deliver their closing statements at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Salem Superior Court.
