State: Suspect Watched TV To Prepare For Killing
Defense Says Friend Was Real Killer
POSTED: 12:55 pm EST March 3, 2006
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DEDHAM, Mass. -- Opening statements were delivered in the trial of a man accused of conspiring with two friends to kill an 84-year-old Quincy woman.
Thomas Lally of Norton was alleged to have been the mastermind in the 2001 murder of Marina Calabro, who prosecutors said was beaten with a frying pan and a tea kettle and smothered with a pillow. Her death was initially ruled to have resulted from an accidental fall.
The victim's great-nephew, Anthony Calabro, is also charged in a plot that prosecutors said was aimed at getting the younger Calabro an early inheritance.
In her opening statement, prosecutor Susan Corcoran said in the months leading up to the killing, Lally watched forensics shows on TV and became knowledgeable about how to commit crimes and cover them up.
Defense attorney Robert Griffin told the jury that another friend, Jason Weir, was the real killer. Griffin said Weir struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against Lally in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
