D.A.: Fight between house painters led to Nantucket slaying

March 6, 2009 03:03 PM Email| Comments (4)| Text size – +

By Andrew Ryan and David Abel, Globe Staff

An alcohol-fueled fight between two house painters allegedly turned violent last night on Nantucket and a 39-year-old man was killed in what prosecutors say appears to be the first homicide on the island in five years.

The two painters worked together and spent the early evening drinking at a neighborhood bar, according to a press release from the Cape & Islands District Attorney's office. The two men returned to a ranch-style house on Cato Lane, where an altercation occurred that left 39-year-old Scott M. Bernard dead.

Police arrested the other painter, Thomas E. Ryan, 50, and charged him with murder. The press release from the district attorney did not describe the alleged fight or say how Bernard was killed. A passerby discovered his body at 7:30 p.m. in front of 69 Cato Lane, where Ryan lives.

The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the manner and cause of Bernard's death.

The Inquirer and Mirror newspaper reported on its website that the body was discovered lying face down on the side of Cato Lane with puncture wounds in his chest. Nantucket Police would not confirm that the man had been stabbed. The crime scene has been set up in front of 69 Cato Lane, a 768-square-foot stucco house with two bedrooms, according to real estate tracker Zillow.com.

The last homicide on Nantucket was on Oct. 25, 2004, when Elizabeth Lochtefeld, 44, was stabbed to death by her former boyfriend, Thomas Toolan 3d, a former Citibank executive from Manhattan. Lochtefeld had asked police about getting a restraining order, but did not name the person she was concerned about.

Toolan traveled from New York to Nantucket to kill her, and police arrested him in Rhode Island. In the island's first murder trial in 23 years, a jury convicted Toolan of first degree murder in 2007.