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Shanley’s homicide trial opened this morning with Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno describing how Shanley, a few weeks before the killing, cut up Debra Shanley’s brand-new Harley Davidson with a chain saw.
Debra Shanley
The couple then agreed he would move out of their Dumont home into a nearby apartment complex on April 15, 2010, she said.
“Saturday, April 10, 2010 Debra Shanley came home to her house in Dumont sometime between 10:30 and 11:30 at night. She was confronted by Peter Shanley and threw a lamp at him,” Novey-Catuogno said.
“He used a small club — he called it a blackjack — and beat Debra Shanley. He used it to hit her in the head several times,” the prosecutor said, in an opening statement that attracted dozen of colleagues and other court personnel. “He then took a knife and slit her throat, cutting her carotid artery, her jugular vein, and her trachea.
“After her almost immediate death, he left her in that room, closed the door behind him, and stayed in the house.”
Sometime later, she said, Shanley cut his own neck, although it was “not a lethal injury.”
Peter Shanley (left); defense attorney Emile Lisboa (middle), defense attorney Brian Neary (right) CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos/story: Mary K. Miraglia
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno (CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos/story: Mary K. Miraglia)
Authorities found 58-year-old Debra Shanley’s body in a pajama shirt and pants that were “down around her ankles,” Catuogno told jurors.
Shanley killed his wife, but it wasn’t a calculated attack, defense attorney Brian Neary countered.
Besides teaching, Debra Stanley had been a member of the Dumont Board of Education for several years.
At 54, she found new interests in life after joining the Harley Owners Group, Neary said. She began spending time with the group on motorcycle excursions and making new friends.
One of them became her lover, Neary said, but his client didn’t know that.
Over time, Peter Shanley became “frustrated, confused” and was “trying to work things out” with his wife rather than split up, the defense attorney told jurors.
The day she was killed, Debra Shanley agreed to come home that evening and have a talk with Peter over dinner, Neary said.
Sometime later, however, she changed her mind and went on a ride with the motorcycle group, he said. She called her husband and said plans had changed.
When she arrived home late that night, Neary said, a violent argument ensued.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno, Peter Shanley, defense attorneys Emile Lisboa, Brian Neary ((CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos/story: Mary K. Miraglia)
Shanley wandered around the house for hours after his wife died and apparently broke his ankle tripping over the family dog the next day, he said.
Dumont police called sometime after, looking for Debra. They spoke with Shanley, who, Novey-Catuogno said, gave shadowly responses to their questions.
Neary asked jurors to keep an open mind until they have heard all the witnesses and seen the evidence.
“There is no dispute a horrible crime happened, and forever he will bear that burden,” the said of his client. “[But] what had happened to his life that brought him to this?
“Focus is not simple, not as the prosecutor would have you do, on the horror of these events — how Peter Shanley came to these events, came to that room,” Neary said. “The full story is always the best — the state of mind, what brought him to that point, the level of responsibility …. the level of legal responsibility.
“Wait ’til you hear both sides, all the evidence, all the circumstances – to decide,” Neary said.
The trial is expected to last at least until Christmas.
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