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Peter Shanley killed his wife, defense attorney Brian Neary told them, but he “is not guilty of the crime of murder.
“The act was committed in the course of passion, the result of provocation,” Neary said. “It didn’t have to happen – but sometimes the unforeseen consequences of behavior lead to tragic and terrible events.”
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno (STORY / CVP PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno disagreed, insisting that Shanley never lost self-control and that everything he did was based on “actions, not reactions.”
Today’s closing arguments in the trial of Shanley for murdering his wife of 35 years wrapped up a trial that began in the Hackensack courtroom nearly two months ago.
Neary stood directly in front of the jurors, addressing them in an even, measured voice.
Novey-Catuogno, meanwhile, projected a PowerPoint presentation onto a large screen that included photographs of the crime scene. She also used transcribed police interviews with Shanley, accompanied by audio recordings.
Neary objected to the PowerPoint both before and after Novey-Catuogno’s closing remarks – arguing that he was denied an opportunity to review the slides in advance — but was over-ruled by Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian.
“If this is a request for a mistrial, I’m denying it,” Jerejian told him.
The basic bone of contention between the two sides is whether Peter Shanley already intended to kill Deborah Shanley — a teacher and former Dumont Board of Education member – or whether she died during a fight between them.
Shanley, l., with defense attorney Brian Neary (STORY / CVP PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
She’d become a member of the “Harley Owners” motorcycle riders a couple of months before, bought herself a bike and began spending weekends riding and socializing with the group. One of the male members became her lover, testimony in the trial indicated.
What jurors believe happened the night of April 10, 2010 will determine how long Peter Shanley goes to prison.
Did she deliberately hit him over the head with a lamp at the outset of the confrontation, as Neary insisted, or only throw it at him, as the prosecutor said?
The 6-foot-3-inch Shanley was standing over his wife on the bed, getting dressed, when she hit him with the lamp, Novey-Catuogno said in her close.
He then removed a club that he kept in a bedside table and struck her over the head with it at least eight times, she said.
According to his own account to detectives, Shanley left the room, retrieved a knife and returned – stabbing and cutting his wife several times. The fatal blow was to her throat – an injury that Novey-Catuogno displayed on the screen.
Neary, in turn, said evidence was randomly collected at the scene.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno (STORY / CVP PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
“[T]hey could have tested [blood] on the fan blade, on the wall,” he said. “That might have been Peter’s blood. That would show, in fact … the crime was committed in the heat of passion after a reasonable provocation.
“But not in THEIR fantasy world,” Neary emphasized. “They believed he was a jealous man who committed a cold-blooded crime.”
Peter Shanley was later admitted to a nearby hospital for surgery and treated for the wound on his head, as well as a broken ankle he suffered while stumbling around the house in the hours after the crime. He also stabbed himself in the neck.
“It’s in the details that you will find the truth,” the prosecutor told jurors. “In the details you will find it was Peter Shanley who murdered his wife.
“You may understand the reasons Peter Shanley killed Deborah Shanley,” Novey-Catuogno said. “That doesn’t mean it’s justified.
“There is no justification, there is no excuse, there is motive and there is murder.”
Neary didn’t dispute that his client cut through the handlebar and forks of his wife’s new Harley. However, he said, Deborah Shanley and her friends damaged the bike further.
Both sides also agreed that Deborah borrowed $10,000 from the couple’s 20-something son, Devin, who’d been living in the basement of their house.
Neary claimed this was “part of the secret life that operates without regard for the consequences.”
Deborah Shanley
The motorcycle wasn’t all that was damaged, however, Novey-Catuogno noted.
Peter Shanley trashed Deborah’s motorcycle jacket and “put her laptop in the dishwasher and made it inoperable,” she said.
These acts were evidence of mounting anger that exploded that fateful night in their bedroom, the prosecutor said.
“He was angry she was spending all her time with the Harley group, and when she was home she retreated into her computer,” Novey-Catuogno told jurors.
“He slashed her motorcycle jacket through the lining, to the other side,” she said. “It shows us he was angry, that he is unhappy, ten days prior to the killing.”
STORY / CVP PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia
Carol Novey-Catuogno (STORY / CVP PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
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