Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270468
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREGORY LANG SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: SALEM, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
He was looking for Autiello's baby sitter, Marjorie Brown Freer - a woman he hardly knew but to whom he had "taken a shine," according to testimony in Colby's murder trial Tuesday.
Instead of Freer, he found Autiello.
Witnesses for the prosecution painted that scenario for jurors Tuesday in Superior Court during the second day of testimony.
The 44-year-old Roanoke, Va., man sat quietly as his former fiancee, Linda Ellenwood, testified about his apparent interest in Freer.
"All this attention was going to Marge," Ellenwood said, referring to Colby's behavior when he first met Freer a few months before the killing.
"He was always watching her," she said. "He tried to strike up a conversation with her and she would just ignore him."
Ellenwood testified that she and Colby dated for about 1 1/2 years and had been engaged before the relationship ended in early 1977.
A week after learning of Autiello's death, Colby told her he was going to Virginia to visit a sick relative but would be back in a week, Ellenwood said.
The next time she saw Colby was last week at the courthouse.
During the cross-examination, Judge John Ronan repeatedly refused defense attorney Hugh Samson's attempts to ask Ellenwood about whether Colby had a violent reputation. Eventually, she said Colby "never showed physical violence."
During emotional testimony Tuesday in which she twice broke down in tears, Freer said she remembered once meeting Colby at an acquaintance's house, but gave no indication that any sort of relationship existed between them.
Ten years after the killing, State Police Investigator Thomas Spartichino testified that he and James Murphy - then a Haverhill police detective sergeant - reviewed the case and contacted authorities in Florida and Virginia.
The investigation continued for another two years, and in August 1989 the pair went to Salem, Va., where he said Colby admitted to them he had killed Autiello.
"I didn't mean to kill her," Spartichino said Colby told them.
A trembling, teary-eyed Colby told them he entered the house, went upstairs and beat someone with his fist, Spartichino said.
"All I know is I had a fight with somebody," he said, quoting Colby. "I know I'm going to the gas chamber."
by CNB