THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240714
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 54 lines
A defense motion for a mistrial in the second-degree murder trial of Joshua Hilliard Cathey was denied late Thursday by Dare County Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett.
Tillett ruled that the testimony did ``no substantive or irreparable harm'' to Cathey's case.
Cathey, a 22-year-old construction worker, is charged in the shooting last July of Matthew Addelman. Cathey contends he shot his housemate and Marine Lance Cpl. Carlos Bonafonte in self-defense.
Defense counsel G. Irvin Aldridge asked for the mistrial Wednesday. Prosecutors hadn't told him, he said, that Bonafonte would testify that he saw Cathey point a 9mm pistol at Addelman.
Bonafonte also said he threw a glass candy dish at Cathey, hitting him in the head, before Cathey fired two shots, hitting Bonafonte in the elbow and buttock. Bonafonte then said he heard several more shots downstairs in the two-story house.
Bonafonte returned to the stand Thursday, and under vigorous cross-examination by Aldridge, said he could not recall the size of the upstairs bedroom where Cathey lived, or remember portions of his statement to police shortly after the shooting.
However, he maintained that he saw Cathey point the gun at Addelman, and heard Addelman say, ``What are you going to do with that gun?''
In other testimony Thursday, a state medical examiner said Addelman, a waiter at Carolina Seafood, died of four wounds in the back.
Dr. M.G.F. Gilliland testified that the first of the four bullets severed Addelman's aorta, and was a fatal wound. The other wounds caused damage to the internal organs.
She said the front of the white T-shirt worn by Addelman when he was killed carried one word: ``Peace.''
Special Agent Ricky Navarro of the State Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab in Raleigh testified that there were no discernible fingerprints on the 9mm weapon used in the shooting, and that he could not rule out the possibility that Cathey and Addelman had struggled over the gun.
However, Agent Eugene Bishop, a firearms expert with the SBI, confirmed that the bullets that killed Addelman were fired by Cathey's 9mm.
Testimony also came from Sgt. Jim Mulford of the Kill Devil Hills Police Department. Jurors saw a videotape of the blood-spattered interior of the home Addelman and Cathey shared with two others at 1513 Glider Court.
Mulford testified that at no time in his statements to police did Bonafonte say he saw Cathey point the gun at Addelman, or that he heard Addelman ask Cathey what he was going to do with the pistol.
Mulford also said there was only one broken surfboard found in the house the morning after the shooting. Earlier, two Marines testified they accompanied Addelman to his house to get surfing equipment. Only upon arrival, they said, were they asked to help Addelman evict Cathey.
KEYWORDS: MISTRIAL MURDER by CNB