Prosecution Alleges Mistrial In Resh Case
Thu, Apr. 05, 2007
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
RAVENNA - Prosecutors moved for a mistrial in the case of Randy Resh on Wednesday after an assertion before the jury that their star witness -- who is in prison for the murder in question -- was offered favorable treatment for his testimony in the new trial.
In cross-examination of the mother of Troy Busta -- the first man charged and convicted in the 1988 murder of Connie Nardi -- the defense presented a recorded phone conversation from last year in which the mother told her son she felt an offer was on the table from Portage County Prosecutor Victor V. Vigluicci.
Busta was the state's star witness in 1990 at the original trials of Resh and Bob Gondor, and it was his testimony that led to their convictions on charges of attempted rape, kidnapping and murder in the Nardi case
Late Wednesday afternoon, as Resh defense lawyer Mark B. Marein was questioning Kaye Busta, Marein brought out that Troy Busta had called his mother from Chillicothe Correctional Institution on Dec. 27, and his mother promptly informed him: ``Randy and Bob are back in Portage County.''
Continuing with his inquiry, Marein said that Kaye Busta told her son that, ``reading between the lines'' of her conversation with Vigluicci, the prosecutor ``could do something'' for him if he testified against Resh.
A recording of the Chillicothe phone call was obtained by the defense under subpoena and an ensuing court order by Common Pleas Judge Laurie J. Pittman, who is presiding over Resh's retrial.
It was the day before the phone call, Dec. 26, when the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously vacated the convictions of Resh and Gondor and granted them new trials after they had served more than 16 years in prison.
Wednesday's development occurred on the second day of testimony by witnesses for the prosecution.
As assistant county prosecutor Thomas R. Buchanan left the courtroom minutes before closing time, he said he would put the motion for a mistrial on record today because Resh's lawyers had not provided him with a tape of the Chillicothe call in advance of Kaye Busta's testimony.
Resh lawyer Gregory S. Robey said Buchanan asked for a mistrial in Pittman's chambers during a break after Kaye Busta left the stand.
Busta, 39, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, has his next parole board hearing in July 2008.
No evidence at pond
In other developments, retired Geauga County Sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Dewey testified that he found no signs of a struggle, nor any other evidence, in the area of a Troy Township pond on the day he helped recover Nardi's body. ``We didn't find anything,'' Dewey said. ``Nothing disturbed -- like no one had even been there to use it.''
Prosecution witness Geauga County Sheriff Sergeant Thomas Dewey shows where the body of Connie Nardi located in the pond during the third day of testimony in the Resh's retrial in Judge Laurie Pittman's court Wednesday April 4, 2007, in Ravenna, Ohio.
Nardi's body was found in the pond, floating facedown, in the early evening of Aug. 15, 1988, the day after the slaying.
Dewey's testimony was significant because of defense assertions that Nardi probably was murdered at the pond.
In opening statements Monday, defense lawyer Steven L. Bradley told the jury that an FBI agent is likely to testify that a compacted soil sample from the sole of one of Nardi's boots was consistent with the soil on a 650-foot-long path from Rapids Road to the pond.
The only way that could have happened, Bradley said, was if Nardi had walked ``freely and under her own power'' from the pathway to the pond.
Prosecutors have long contended that Nardi was killed in the area of a washed-out bridge near Allyn Road in Portage County, and Troy Busta testified to that at the original trials of Resh and Gondor.
In other testimony, a former analyst for the Lake County Regional Forensic Laboratory, Barb Caraballo, said in a videotaped deposition that she tested three soil samples from the area of the pond that she had received from Geauga County authorities on Aug. 25, 1988, 11 days after the slaying. Caraballo said she compared those samples to soil scraped from brown work boots that Busta allegedly wore when he was with Nardi, and she found the samples were ``dissimilar.''
However, when Dewey was cross-examined, he said he and the lead investigator, former Sheriff's Lt. David A. Easthon, asked for and were given the boots and other clothing Busta was wearing by Busta himself.
That occurred when they went to Busta's residence on Aug. 18, 1988, the day before his arrest for Nardi's murder.
When Bradley asked Dewey how he knew the boots he received from Busta were the ones Busta had worn when he was with Nardi, Dewey replied: ``I don't.''
Following up, Bradley asked: ``So, you were relying on Busta'' to provide the boots he was wearing?
``Basically, we were,'' Dewey said.
The former sergeant said he and Easthon did not search Busta's residence for any other boots.
Outside court during a break in testimony, Bradley said the defense's pretrial investigation showed that Busta probably was wearing cowboy boots -- not work boots -- on the night of the murder.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
To view other articles on the Portage County Prosecutor's office, click here.
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