n Session The sidebar ends. “If we look at the defendant’s behavior, he committed the murder on the early hours of Sunday morning. He clearly emphasizes on national television how unusual it was for her not to be there. And he couldn’t go into the house without her accusing him of stealing stuff . . . he was afraid to go into the house. This isn’t a picture of a smooth relationship . . . he’s the watch commander, in uniform, and his wife isn’t there to pick up the kids, isn’t answering the phone. Mary Pontarelli is 35 feet away. And he doesn’t reach out to her? He also doesn’t try to reach out to her boyfriend, Steve Maniaci. He had his phone number . . . he’s the watch commander, the top banana, he’s in charge . . . he’s a sergeant, and he’s the watch commander. He takes the children home, and then a series of phone calls begins from his house to Kathleen Savio’s house. He did an interview on NBC News, and he said ‘I was one of the first people there, and I was actually the watch commander . . . I went ahead and met with her best friend . . . I was planning the next day, Tuesday, to go into her home with the neighbor. But the neighbor wanted to go in that night.’ The neighbor was upset, not the watch commander. ‘Kathy didn’t want me in her house; she was always afraid I was going to steal something.’ I would submit that as a police officer for decades, having gone on wellness checks, as a certified evidence technician, that his behavior shows consciousness of guilt. That Sunday night, he doesn’t go in, because no one has yet found the body . . . he collects a band of civilians, and they go in the house in the middle of the night . . . how many red flags would go off in a policeman’s mind? There could still be an intruder in the house.”
