Thursday, Dec. 18
COURT HOUSE — The jury in the Seth Cooper murder trial on Thursday, Dec. 18 returned a partial verdict and found Seth G. Cooper not guilty in the murder of John Cavicchio III.
Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten was about to rule for a mistrial in the case when the jury of six women and six men communicated to the court that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer and defense attorney John Tumelty had argued the possibility of the jury returning a partial without coming to an agreement. However, when Batten was about to rule for a mistrial, Tumelty asked the court if he could consult with his client, Cooper, over whether to accept the partial verdict “blindly”, meaning the court could not poll the jury about specific verdict questions.
After a ten minute break, Cooper and Tumelty returned to the court room and agreed to the state’s terms for reading a partial verdict.
Cooper kept his eyes on the table before him, only glancing up occasionally, as the partial verdict was read by the jury foreperson.
On murder in the first degree: not guilty.
In relation to that murder count, the jury also found him not guilty on passion provocation and not guilty on aggravated manslaughter. However the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on reckless manslaughter.
On count the count of attempted murder: not guilty.
For the count of possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose: guilty.
For the count of unlawful possession of a weapon: guilty.
For the count of hindering apprehension: not guilty.
Cooper was found guilty of a lesser count of accomplice liability.
Because of the jurors’ inability to reach a unanimous verdict on the reckless manslaughter count, Judge Raymond Batten called a mistrial in regard to that specific charge.
Batten dismissed the jury, and thanked them for their service and sacrifice.
John Cavicchio’s mother was present, as she had been since the beginning of this case, and was visibly upset by the decision reached by the jury.
A pre-trial conference in regards to the remaining reckless manslaughter charge was scheduled for Jan. 22. Cooper will not be sentenced until that charge is retried and a verdict returned.
Wednesday, Dec. 17
COURT HOUSE — The jury retired shortly after 4 p.m. after spending the day deliberating the fate of Seth G. Cooper, on trial for the slaying of John Cavicchio III on Dec. 10, 2006.
They will resume their work at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 18.
After spending a morning in deliberations with one newly-seated juror, the jury in the Seth Cooper murder trial told Judge Raymond Batten they were unable to return a unanimous verdict.
The instructed them that they were in deliberations for less than one day with a reconstructed jury, and asked that they continue to consider the matters before them.
“No reasonable jury is that period of time, one day, could be expected to reach a unanimous verdict,” said Batten.
He urged them to listen to each other as they returned to the jury room.
That jury is weighing five charges: murder, attempted murder, possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and hindering apprehension.
Tuesday, Dec. 16
Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Batten denied First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer’s request on Tuesday Dec. 16 for a mistrial after one juror in the murder trial of Seth Cooper did his own investigative work outside of court over the weekend.
The juror had driven to the scene of the Dec. 10, 2006 shooting on Pennsylvania Avenue and tested, with his own vehicle, how long it would take a car to travel the distance from the graveyard to Newark Road going 45 miles per hour. His conclusions he then shared with the other members of the jury.
Batten said the juror’s actions directly violated the promise to decide the case based solely on what was seen and heard in the context of the trial in the courtroom. The judge dismissed the juror on the basis of his misconduct, but opted not to hold him in contempt.
An alternate juror was chosen to fill the vacated seat and the remaining 11 jurors told Batten this morning they could continue and disregard the dismissed juror’s comments.
They also confirmed that they could begin deliberations anew.
Later in the afternoon the jury requested Batten to explain facets of self-defense, which Cooper claimed in the slaying of John Cavicchio III Dec. 10, 2006, and recklessness.
For continuing trial updates, go to the Herald’s Web site, capemaycountyherald.com.
Monday, Dec. 15
Jurors in the Seth Cooper murder trial retired for the day, and will resume deliberations on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Earlier this afternoon, the jury asked Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten for a definition of simple assault, the second county Seth Cooper is charged with in the murder of John Cavicchio III on Dec. 10, 2006. He recharged them on that, and they returned to deliberations.
The jury began Day 7 of the Seth G. Cooper murder trial on Monday, Dec. 15 by asking Judge Raymond Batten for the legal definition of recklessness. They also asked for a written transcript of Cooper’s testimony.
Batten recharged the jurors on the legal definition of recklessness. However, he told them there was no transcript available to see. If they desire it, they would have to listen to a tape-recorded version of Cooper’s testimony.
If they seek that recording, it is likely to take the remainder of the day, and possibly into Tuesday.
Friday, Dec. 12
COURT HOUSE — Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Batten adjourned the Seth Cooper murder trial until Monday, Dec. 15 at 9.a.m. The jury will resume its deliberations then. Batten admonished jurors not to read or listen to any reports about the trial over the weekend.
Twice throughout the afternoon the jury requested Batten to explain facets of self-defense, which Cooper claimed in the slaying of John Cavicchio III Dec. 10, 2006.
Thursday, December 11:
The fate of Seth G. Cooper, who’s on trial for the murder of John Caviccio III, will be in the hands of the jury as of Friday, Dec. 12.
Cavicchio was shot once in the head along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Middle Township, following a Dec. 10 altercation between Cooper and Ernest Dominguez.
Cavicchio was flown to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center trauma unit, where he died Dec. 11. Cooper fled and was captured Dec. 23 at a South Carolina Waffle House.
Defense attorney, John Tumelty said that Cooper wasn’t contemplating murder but trying to defend himself against a moving car
He said in his closing arguments that Cooper didn’t know Cavicchio and hadn’t seen him before that evening.
“There was no motive for him to kill John,” he said.
Tumelty told the jury that this was a case of an then 18-year-old young man who was about to be run over by a car.
“He jumped and fired,” Tumelty said.
The initial dispute, Tumelty reminded jurors, was with Dominguez. Who, according to the defense, had been “harassing and threatening” Cooper for four or five months over their relationship with Christiena McKinstry.
“If the plan was to shoot and kill Ernie [Dominguez] then Seth could have pulled the gun out and shot all five bullets at him,” Tumelty said. “But the evidence shows that he didn’t.”
Tumelty argued that First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer didn’t mention to the jury about the knife that Dominguez had on him during the incident.
Tumelty said Charles Griggs III testified that Dominguez went as far as to show him the knife before they left the Burliegh Wawa on route to the graveyard on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Tumelty also reminded the jury that Griggs testified to “ordering John to run the mother ****** over” and that Griggs had said “we were going right for him” when the car was approaching Cooper.
Tumelty said that Raymond Fryar, who had traveled with Cooper that night, may be “one of the most credible witnesses of that night” and said that Fryar heard Dominguez threaten to cut Cooper before Cooper pulled out the gun.
Fryar, Tumelty said, also said Cooper’s first words to him after the shooting was “they were trying to run me over.”
Tumelty questioned motive’s of the state’s witness, Dominguez, who had previously lied to police about the incident, first calling it a carjacking and omitting details.
“Ernie comes here with a motive to want to get back at Seth,” he told the Jury. “It is his chance for revenge, for payback.”
The closing arguments came two years to the day that Cavicchio passed away from the gunshot wound to the head.
“There’s no words to describe how tragic and sad it is,” said Tumelty. “There is enough responsibility to go around for John not being here. Ernie and Griggs are just as responsible for John not being here.”
He asked the jury to consider what was happening when the shot was fired at the car.
“It was self defense. He believed the car was coming to run him over.”
Meyer called the death of Cavicchio “tragic and absolutely unnecessary” in his closing arguments to the jury.
“John Cavicchio is no longer here because of outrageous choices made on the evening of Dec. 10,” Meyer told the jury.
Most of those choices, he said, were made by Cooper.
He asked the jury if they had heard of the adage, “actions speak louder than words” and suggested that Cooper’s actions had critical consequences that night.
Those choices Meyer said, was the possession of the gun and the decision to bring it to what was an unlawful physical fight with Dominguez. The third critical choice, he argued, was to pull the gun and “fire threateningly and then chase Ernie with the gun in hand as he fled down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Meyer agrees with Tumelty that Fryar was one of the most credible and honest witnesses that were present during the evening of Dec. 10. He reminded the jury that Fryar told them that he didn’t know about the gun until it was brought out during the fight.
“He [Fryar] kept telling him [Cooper] he was crazy and asking him what he was doing with a gun,” Meyer said. “I believe his own words were, “Yo, you buggin’ when Cooper brought out the gun.”
Meyer said that if Cooper’s intent was only to scare Dominguez that was accomplished at the graveyard.
“The game is over then,” he said.
But, Cooper chose to chase Dominguez down the street with the gun still in his hand.
Meyer told the jury that Cooper’s fourth choice, to knowingly fire the gun into the passenger compartment of Dominguez’s car, ended the life of Cavicchio.
“He knew precisely what he was doing and what the handgun could do,” Meyer said.
Meyer told the jury that the “evidence compels and justice demand” that they find Cooper guilty of murder in Cavicchio’s death.
The jury will begin deliberation Friday, Dec. 12 after Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten charges them on the matters of law and how they relate to the case.
For continuing trial updates, go to the Herald’s Web site, capemaycountyherald.com.
Wednesday, December 10:
Seth G. Cooper took the stand in his own murder trial on Wednesday Dec. 10, exactly two years to the day after John Cavicchio III was shot once in the head along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Middle Township.
Cavicchio was flown to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center trauma unit, where he died Dec. 11. Cooper fled and was captured Dec. 23 at a South Carolina Waffle House.
During questioning by his defense attorney, John Tumelty, Cooper said he had been threatened repeatedly in the months before the Dec. 10 shooting by Ernest Dominguez over his relationship Christiena McKinstry, the woman at the center of an ongoing dispute between Dominguez and Cooper.
Cooper testified that the .32-caliber revolver he brought with him that night to the graveyard meeting was bought a week or two before from a friend for $250. The gun, he said, had five bullets loaded and he hadn’t bought any additional ammunition and had not fired the weapon before that night.
Cooper said he “had the gun just in case Ernie [Dominguez] had a weapon. I had heard from a couple of guys that he carried weapons.”
Cooper said he thought, if needed, he could use the gun to scare Dominguez by “shooting into the air.”
He added that neither his brother Riley Cooper nor his friend Raymond Fryar, who both traveled with him to the meeting point, knew about the gun.
Cooper told the jury that he took the gun out and fired one shot in the air in response to Dominguez’s threat that “he was going to cut me.”
Cooper said that when he followed Dominguez as he ran down Pennsylvania Avenue he was “just trying to scare the heck out of him so he would stop threatening me.”
He told the jury that as he ran, he heard Dominguez’s car coming down the road after him.
“It sounded like it was going fast and as it got closer I moved off to the shoulder of the road,” he said.
“I cut off some sever feet off the road and I turned around and saw headlights,” Cooper said. “It was about to run me over.”
“I fired one shot to stop the car from running me over,” Cooper testified. “I didn’t have any time to think. I was just reacting.”
Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten also dismissed one jury member from the Seth G. Cooper murder trial because two members of Cooper’s family had approached her and commented about her car.
Batten told the court the juror did nothing wrong, and he released her begrudgingly and with thanks for her service.
He lauded her for informing jury management officials of the incident.
In connection with that dismissal, Batten also banned Cooper’s grandmother and younger brother for the duration of the trial.
Earlier Wednesday, the prosecution rested its case after medical examiner Dr. Charles Siebert Jr. told jurors that John Cavicchio III died as the result of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Tumelty’s first witness was Charles Griggs III, a friend of Dominguez who also traveled to the cemetery that night.
Griggs said he asked Cavicchio whether he could drive a stick shift and then told him, “Okay, let’s try to run this mother ****** over.”
“He swerved to hit Mr. Cooper,” Griggs said of Cavicchio.
Griggs, who pleaded guilty to false swearing in statements he had given to police in November about the Cavicchio killing, admitted under cross-examination that he had consumed beer, brandy, Percocet, and marijuana laced with PCP or angel dust in the hour before the meeting at the cemetery.
The latter, he said, “makes it feel like the whole world is made of marshmallows.”
Cooper’s testimony will continue with the prosecution’s cross examination on Thursday, Dec. 11. For continuing trial updates, go to the Herald’s Web site, capemaycountyherald.com.
Tuesday, December 9:
Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten on Tuesday, Dec. 9, denied a motion to declare a mistrial made by Seth G. Cooper’s defense attorney John Tumelty.
Tumelty made the motion for a mistrial in the wake of statements made Dec. 8 by Ernest Dominguez on the witness stand that he had prior knowledge of physical violence done by Cooper.
Dominguez told jurors Monday that he called Seth Cooper on Dec. 10, 2006 at the North Wildwood Wawa, to ask Cooper “why he hit my girlfriend.”
Dominguez had been warned by Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten not to mention any reported physical abuse by Cooper against his former girlfriend Christiena McKinstry, the woman at the center of an ongoing dispute between Dominguez and Cooper.
First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer continues to build the state’s case again Cooper, who is on trial for the murder of 23-year-old John Cavicchio III.
Cavicchio III died after being shot once in the head in a wooded area along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Middle Township on Dec. 10, 2006 in what First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer told the jury in opening statements was a “jealously fueled confrontation” over McKinstry.
However, Cooper’s defense attorney, John Tumelty said that Cooper wasn’t contemplating murder but trying to defend himself against a moving car.
At the start of the day Dec. 9, Batten instructed the jury to disregard Dominguez’s statement as well as a 16-year-old witness’ reference to a “restraining order.”
Dominguez continued his testimony after the motion for the mistrial was denied. Dominguez told the jury that he said Cooper had wanted to meet to fight.
“Was this a fight with fists?” asked Meyer.
“That’s how I took it,” responded Dominguez.
Dominguez said that Cooper had told him to come alone. But instead, Dominguez said he called his friend and roommate Cavicchio and asked him if he could come along for backup.
“Christiena told me to watch out because they [Cooper] were going to jump me. So I called John and he happened to be with Griggs,” said Dominguez.
Dominguez said after picking up Cavicchio and Charles Griggs on Pacific Avenue in Wildwood, he then stopped to get gas and then left Christiena and her friend, who was 14-years-old at the time, out at the Burleigh Wawa.
Dominguez said that he took a tire iron from under his seat and gave it to Griggs, “just in case someone had a weapon.”
Dominguez, who said he had a knife in his pocket, responded in questioning that he didn’t say anything to the others about his knife.
Dominguez testified that once he arrived at the meeting place, the cemetery on Pennsylvania Avenue, he pulled over and saw someone in a white T-shirt.
That person, he said, was Cooper. When Dominguez said he started walking toward Cooper, he saw someone else.
“That’s when I asked if they were going to jump me,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said that he also threatened to “cut someone” if they were planning on jumping him.
Tumelty questioned Dominguez if he had taken out his knife, with a three-inch blade, out of his pocket.
Dominguez responded that he never took the knife out.
“It was defense,” he said of the knife. “I just wanted to put it in their heads.”
Dominguez said that once he saw the other person with Seth, Griggs and Cavicchio got out of the car and “got right up in Seth’s face.”
Dominguez said that’s when Cooper took out a gun, waved it in the air, pointed it at Griggs and then Cavicchio’s head. Then, Dominguez said, Cooper fired the gun at him.
“At first I thought it was a cap gun,” Dominguez testified, but then he said he saw the flash of the gun’s muzzle and heard the shot.
Dominguez said he ducked behind his car and then saw a third person come out from behind a tombstone with a stick. He said he looked back over at Cooper and when he saw him advancing, made the decision to run “in a zig zag” down Pennsylvania Avenue.
He said he was running that way because, “he [Cooper] had fired another shot.”
“I knew he was chasing me and I was worried about getting away,” said Dominguez. “I only looked back over my shoulder after I heard the second shot.”
Dominguez said that he heard his car, which he earlier testified had been modified for racing, coming down the street in first gear.
Tumelty asked if he knew his car so well that he could tell it was in first gear, he could tell the jury how fast it was going.
Dominguez responded that it could go 40-45 miles per hour in first gear.
Dominguez said that he was in the left hand lane of traffic, past the unpaved Newark Road, when he stopped running. He said he saw Cooper step into the driveway [also called Newark Road] “and as the car passed by, shot into the window.”
Raymond A. Fryar, one of four men who were indicted in the shooting and pled guilty Jan. 31 to hindering the apprehension of Cooper, also testified.
First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer said the plea deal hinged on Fryar testifying against codefendants, Seth Cooper and his brother Riley Cooper, and Griggs.
As a condition of his guilty plea, Fryar testified on his knowledge of events of the Dec. 10 shooting, including witnessing Cooper pull out the handgun that killed Cavicchio.
Fryar, 23, formerly of Rio Grande, told jurors that he was supposed to be living at a halfway house but had “walked off” and was violating his parole by living at Cooper’s apartment in Stone Harbor.
Fryar said that he was with Cooper and his brother during the evening of Dec. 10. Fryar said that he didn’t know Cooper was armed and was surprised when he took out the .32 caliber revolver during the confrontation with Dominguez.
Fryar said that Cooper fired a shot, but he couldn’t remember where Cooper was aiming, and “everyone froze.”
Dominguez, Fryar testified, took off running with Cooper in pursuit, followed by his brother Riley, who had picked up a stick.
Fryar said that “the two other guys” then jumped in the car and followed after. Fryar said that he went back to the car he arrived in with Riley and Seth Cooper, also intending to follow, but the keys weren’t in the ignition.
Fryar said he heard another shot and started walking towards the direction the group had traveled, but by the time he had gotten close enough, he said, Riley and Seth Cooper were already running back to him.
Fryar said that they group went to a friend’s house where he said Riley Cooper stashed the gun.
Fryar said that Riley drove to Atlantic City, where Fryar and Cooper stayed the night. The next day after the shooting the two men traveled to Fryar’s mother’s house in Philadelphia. Fryar said he didn’t know Cavicchio had been killed until his uncle had informed him on Dec. 12.
Fryar’s testimony will continue with the defense’s cross examination on Wednesday, Dec. 10. For continuing trial updates, go to the Herald’s Web site, capemaycountyherald.com.
Monday, December 8:
COURT HOUSE — A 16-year-old female told jurors that she was a passenger in Ernest Dominguez’s car when he agreed to meet Seth G. Cooper in the graveyard on Pennsylvania Avenue the night of Dec. 10, 2006.
First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer had argued that John Cavicchio III life was tragically and unnecessarily cut short that night during a “jealousy fueled confrontation” in which Cooper fired the fatal shot that struck Cavicchio in the head as he drove the car along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Cooper’s defense attorney, John Tumelty said that Cooper wasn’t contemplating murder but trying to defend himself against a moving car.
After police arrived on scene, Cavicchio was flown to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center trauma unit, where he died Dec. 11. Cooper fled and was captured Dec. 23 at a South Carolina Waffle House.
The young woman who testified Monday, Dec. 8, who was 14-year-old at the time of the shooting, said she was a friend of Christiena McKinstry.
Cooper had dated McKinstry for a year and then she began dating Dominguez in July 2006. The young woman said that although she knew of McKinstry’s ex-boyfriend, she had never met him and “didn’t know much about him. She added that she was only familiar with Dominguez, the person McKinstry was currently dating.
The juvenile testified that she McKinstry had called her that afternoon “to hang out” and had come over to her home with Dominguez, which at the time was in Wildwood. She said that they had dropped another friend off and were heading toward the North Wildwood Wawa when Dominguez received an unknown call on his cell phone.
She said that McKinstry, who didn’t have her own phone, used her phone to call back the unknown number. That’s when, she said the arguments began.
The witness said that Dominguez kept asking “who it was” and telling McKinstry to give the phone to him. She testified that the conversation was heated and “a lot of curse words” had been used.
From what she heard from the cell phone conversation, the witness said that Dominguez had agreed to go meet Cooper.
“It was fighting the one,” she testified. “When to goes go to fight one on one.”
The young woman told jurors that Dominguez had picked up two friends, Charles Griggs and Cavicchio, because “he didn’t want to go alone.”
Griggs, she said she had seen around town before. Cavicchio, she said she hadn’t met until that night.
The juvenile said that she decided to get out of Dominguez’s car at the Burleigh Wawa due to “a bad feeling” about the situation. She added that McKinstry opted to get out as well.
While the two women waited at the Burleigh Wawa, McKinstry made and received a number of calls from the witness’ cell phone.
One call that was received at 7:45 p.m., about a minute after police were dispatched to the shooting site, was put on speaker phone. The witness had made statements to the police that she heard the voice on the other line say, “you’re friends are ******** now. You’re friends ain’t breathing now.”
The witness had difficulty remembering her statements from 2006 and at times became evasive when answering lines of questioning. She asked if she could leave because she didn’t think she could continue with her mother crying in the courtroom
.
Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten instructed that juvenile that she was a witness in a murder trial and had to answer questions “as many times” as asked. He asked that a break be given and reminded those in attendance in the courtroom to step outside if they couldn’t keep their emotions in check.
When she returned more composed, the witness testified that McKinstry then called Dominguez who “was crying and saying that someone had been shot.”
McKinstry and the young woman were soon picked up by McKinstry’s father who told them the correct thing to do “was to go and see if there was something they could do to help.”
She said, however, that Pennsylvania Avenue was blocked and all she could see was police lights. An officer at the roadblock, she said, directed them to the hospital.
“That’s when I found out that someone really had been shot,” she said.
She testified that she was told Dominguez and Griggs were OK, but Cavicchio had been airlifted to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center trauma unit.
Dominguez’s testimony was expected to continue into the afternoon Tuesday, Dec. 9. The defense has estimated that they can begin to call their witnesses on Wednesday, Dec. 10. For continuing trial updates, go to the Herald’s Web site, capemaycountyherald.com.
Thursday December 4:
COURT HOUSE — Jurors viewed John Cavicchio III’s autopsy photos and were able to see the bullet that was lodged in his skull during the second day of testimony in the murder trial of Seth G. Cooper on Thursday, Dec. 4.
The autopsy photos showed the entrance wound of the bullet as well as an X-Ray of Cavicchio’s skull with the bullet still embedded in it. The bullet was removed and was able to be matched to a .32-caliber handgun.
Cavicchio died after being shot once in the head in a wooded area along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Middle Township on Dec. 10, 2006.
Cooper’s defense attorney, John Tumelty continued his cross-examination of Middle Township Police Officer Steve Novsak, one of the first officers to respond to the scene.
Novsak said that he and the other officers had to coax Charles Griggs and Ernest Dominguez, who had initially traveled together with Cavicchio to a graveyard along Pennsylvania Avenue to meet Cooper, his brother Riley and Raymond Fryar.
The initial confrontation wasn’t between Cooper and Cavicchio, but between Cooper and Dominguez over a mutual girlfriend, Christiena McKinstry, according to the investigation.
“When they [Griggs and Dominguez] came out, the first story Ernie Dominguez gave was a carjacking, wasn’t it,” Tumelty asked Novsak.
“Yes,” responded Novsak and agreed that the first story he was told by Dominguez was a “complete fabrication.”
Tumelty also asked if Novsak had found any weapons on Dominguez at the time he was first questioned. However, Tumelty said, a knife was found on Dominguez by a police officer when Dominguez was at the hospital for a shoulder injury he suffered that night.
“You’re not going to find any mention that you found a knife or that you patted him down for weapons,” Tumelty said in reference to Novsak’s report.
Detective William Henfey, of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, was called by the state for his role in collecting evidence at the crime scene, both at the site of the shooting and at 49 Honeysuckle Lane, where the gun was found.
Both First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer and Tumelty focused on the broken glass of the passenger side window of Dominguez’s 95 Honda Civic.
Meyer has argued that Cooper chased down Dominguez on Pennsylvania Avenue, with a loaded gun, because “the job wasn’t finished.”
As the car approaches Cooper on his left side, Cooper turn and fires a second shot that shatters the passenger window, passes by the face of Griggs and strikes Cavicchio in the head, Meyer said.
Tumelty contends that his client was afraid for his life when he saw the headlights of Dominguez’s car being driven toward him. He jumped out of the way and fired one shot in self-defense.
The broken glass, Henfey told the jury, was on the dirt road of Newark Avenue, where it intersects with Pennsylvania Avenue.
Tumelty argued that because of where the glass fell, the car would had to have crossed the white fog line and moved into the shoulder of the road.
Tumelty asked Henfey if he would agree with one possible explanation that the car went off the road to hit Cooper and then veered back left. Tumelty said that would give one explanation why the bullet went into the side passenger window and wasn’t fired through the front windshield.
Henfey agreed that it was one possible explanation, but could not say if the car “veered” to either side.
There we no marks on the roadway to indicate that, Henfey said.
Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten said the jury would continue to hear evidence in this case on Monday morning at 9 a.m.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008:
COURT HOUSE —John Cavicchio III died after being shot once in the head in a wooded area along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Middle Township on Dec. 10, 2006 in what First Assistant Prosecutor J. David Meyer told the jury in opening statements Wednesday, Dec. 3 was a “jealously fueled confrontation.”
Meyer argued that Cavicchio’s life was tragically and unnecessarily cut short by Seth G. Cooper, who is on trial for the murder of the 23-year-old. However, Cooper’s defense attorney, John Tumelty said that Cooper wasn’t contemplating murder but trying to defend himself against a moving car.
In his opening statements Meyer told the jury of nine women and seven men that the initial confrontation wasn’t between Cooper and Cavicchio, but between Cooper and Ernest Dominguez over a mutual girlfriend, Christiena McKinstry.
Meyer said that the continuing arguments over McKinstry escalated to where Cooper and Dominguez agreed to meet on Dec. 10 at around 7:40 p.m. at a graveyard on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Burleigh section on Middle Township. Cooper, he said, picked the location.
Cooper arrived at the location first with two other men, his brother, Riley Cooper, and Raymond Fryar. Dominguez arrived shortly after, also with two men, Cavicchio and Charles Griggs.
Meyer argued that as Cooper and Dominguez begin to walk toward each other, exchanging threats and insults, Cooper pulls a .32-caliber handgun out of his pocket and fires. Dominguez, he said, decides to “high tail it out of there” and run south down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Meyer said that Cooper chased Dominguez with the loaded gun.
Tumelty disagreed with the Prosecution’s statements and told jurors that Cooper brought along a gun because of his fear of Dominguez’s violent reputation. Dominguez, Tumelty said, first brandished a switchblade at Cooper.
Cooper, Tumelty said, only pulled out his gun after Dominguez brought out his knife and then fired one shot in the air.
Tumelty said that Cooper took this opportunity to frighten Dominguez, a person he argued had been harassing his client for four months, by chasing and yelling at him.
“He [Cooper] fired the gun once in the air to frighten Dominguez. He did not fire as he was running after him,” said Tumelty.
Meyer said that out of concern for Dominguez, Cavicchio and Griggs decided to get in the car and drive toward their friend.
“As the car approaches Cooper on his left side, Cooper turns and fires a second shot that shatters the passenger window, passes by the face of Charles Griggs and strikes John Cavicchio in the head,” said Meyer as he pointed to the right side of his head, by the temple.
“Seth’s no angel,” Tumelty said.
But he argued that his client was afraid for his life when he saw the headlights of Dominguez’s car being driven toward him.
“He saw Ernie’s car coming right at him and he jumped and fired to defend himself from a moving car that was a second or two from running him down,” Tumelty told the jurors. “The only thing going through Seth’s mind was these guys are going to run me over.”
After police arrived on scene, Cavicchio was flown to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center trauma unit, where he died Dec. 11. Cooper fled and was captured Dec. 23 at a South Carolina Waffle House.
The jury also heard from the state’s first witnesses, including Marva Robinson, the resident of 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue who made a 911 call.
Robinson testified that she was at home with her children the evening of Dec. 10, 2006 when she heard a bang and a male voice screaming for someone to call 911.
Robinson said she had called 911 and told the dispatcher a motorcycle accident may have happened on her road. Robinson testified that the noise she heard didn’t sound loud enough to be a car accident and had assumed it was an incident involving a motorcycle.
She also testified that because it was dark outside and the area wasn’t lit until police arrived, she did not see anything.
For more on this story, continue to check the Herald’s Web site for updates and the Dec. 10 print edition.
