SALEM — Jurors were sent into deliberations Tuesday morning at the murder trial of John Michelin, of Lynn. Michelin is accused of fatally beating and sodomizing Bret Reilly, also of Lynn, on April 8, 2017.
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Dan Bennett argued that Michelin willfully and intentionally held Reilly up while Darrin Stephens, of Lynn, beat Reilly unconscious. Bennett said at one point Michelin hit Reilly with an electric guitar before the pair dragged him into the front vestibule of 8 Chase St. and sodomized him with a broomstick. This created an injury that Bennett said killed Reilly days later.
Bennett held the broomstick up before the jury, noting the depth with which it penetrated the victim’s rectum. He said given the fact that Reilly weighed 232 pounds, it would not have been possible for Stephens to carry him outside and sodomize him.
“Now that they get him out in the entryway, if he can still speak reasonably, they’re in just as much trouble because they’re the only two in there that could have done it […] They have to make sure that he is not going to come back against them and tell the police what they did to him,” Bennett said. “They pull his pants down, take this broom, under tremendous force, they penetrate his rectum — punching out his internal organs, causing damage, causing his death.”
Bennett further cited forensic evidence, adding that red and brown stains, believed to be from blood, could be found throughout the apartment. He presented a cracked red guitar to the jury, arguing that the instrument, found with blood at the top, was used as a weapon against Reilly.
Michelin’s attorney Joan Fund focused her closing arguments on forensic science, arguing that the Commonwealth lacked the evidence necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Michelin actively participated in Reilly’s death.
When police detained Michelin, Fund said that he sat on the living room floor for close to an hour, contaminating the crime scene.
Fund went on to state that blood was found all over the apartment, including on Stephens’ comforter, yet there was little testing or pattern tracing to determine whose blood was whose. In a forensic analysis of both Michelin and Stephens’ shoes, Reilly’s blood could only be found on Stephens’ shoes. Michelin’s shoes, she said, only had his own blood on them.
“Whose blood is it? What is it? What happened? Did they test the blood stain pattern or do they even analyze the blood pattern? You have none of that information,” Fund said. “You need to find that my client consciously and intentionally caused someone’s death. I submit to you, you have no evidence that was taken from that crime scene that could tell you what happened at that apartment.”
After Judge Salim Tabit gave the jury at Salem Superior Court specific instructions outlining the definitions and burdens of proof necessary to convict Michelin of either first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or involuntary manslaughter, the jury was sent to deliberations.
At approximately 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the jury was sent home for the day before reaching a verdict.
