Of Townies and justice

Vinnie Tamburello's next-to-last mistake was bringing an ax to a gunfight.

His last mistake was attacking a man's pickup truck in Vermont. Because, in Vermont, this is a crime punishable by death.

It started over a stupid fight. Vinnie Tamburello showed up for a prearranged meeting at a park in Chester, Vt., with a guy he had been jamming with. Vinnie was in a car with two women. His opponent showed up with a bunch of guys, two of whom had guns in their trucks.

Vinnie Tamburello grew up in Charlestown and he did not run away from fights. In fact, he ran toward this one, ax in hand. He headed straight toward a fellow named Kyle Bolaski, who did something very wise in running away.

Unfortunately, he stopped running when he saw Vinnie take an ax to the side of his truck. An enraged Bolaski took a high-powered rifle from his truck and shot Vinnie in the leg. Vinnie turned to get away, ax still in hand, and Bolaski followed and fired the fatal shot into his back.

Then Bolaski stood over a dying man and smashed his face repeatedly with a rifle butt. The orbit of Vinnie's eye was pulverized.

Oh, and for good measure, one of Bolaski's friends, a fellow named Tim Arbuckle, went over and kicked Vinnie Tamburello as he lay dying.

Kyle Bolaski, who when he isn't getting loaded or loading his rifle is apparently something of a legal scholar, went around to all the witnesses saying, "That was self-defense."

The police arrived and disagreed. Bolaski was charged with second-degree murder, based largely on the statements of his own friends.

But in this part of Vermont, there is townie justice but no justice for Townies. Because once Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand got involved, the state of Vermont did everything it could to give the benefit of the doubt to Kyle Bolaski and turned its back on a blow-in from Massachusetts named Vinnie Tamburello.

Sand took the case to a grand jury, and - surprise! - the witness accounts changed and Bolaski's charge was reduced from murder to aggravated assault: smashing Vinnie's face with the rifle butt. It's as if the shooting of Vinnie Tamburello didn't even happen, which would come as news to Vinnie Tamburello in his grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden.

Vince and Ronnie Tamburello stood in their shipping store in Methuen the other day, filled with grief and rage and questions, convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Bob Sand bagged the case, that if their son wasn't some working-class stiff from Charlestown who had just moved to Vermont, things would be different.

"The witnesses changed their stories," Vince Tamburello said. "The prosecutor went out of his way to take Kyle Bolaski's version and minimize anything that pointed to the fact that he committed murder. The whole thing stinks. Vinnie shouldn't be dead for hitting some guy's truck."

Bob Sand said many things when I talked to him. He said the wounded Vinnie was still a threat as he advanced toward Bolaski's brother, who was also armed with a rifle, and who peeled off two shots at Vinnie that missed. And he said he understands the Tamburellos's frustration, but they are mistaken when they say he is supposed to be an advocate for them or their dead son.

"I don't have a side in this," he said. "My job is to see that justice is done."

He offered to let any outside prosecutor of the Tamburellos's choosing go over the evidence. "I will listen, and if someone thinks the judgment call made here was wrong, I'm man enough to admit I made a mistake," he said.

He vehemently denied there was any favoritism toward native Vermonters.

Ronnie Tamburello shook her head.

"Do you know what really stinks?" Vinnie Tamburello's mother said. "Vinnie's initials are VT."

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.