Lawyer accuses Worcester DA of incompetence in murder case

COURTROOM DIFFERENCES A jury acquitted Lee F. Chiero (left) of the stabbing death of his mother. District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., who had sought first-degree murder charges, said, "My decision was based on the purposefulness of his actions."

The day after a jury found an Uxbridge man not guilty by reason of insanity in the slaying of his mother, his lawyer accused Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. of incompetence for insisting that Lee F. Chiero be tried for first-degree murder despite the opinions of three mental health experts that he was mentally ill.

It took a Worcester jury about six hours over two days to acquit Chiero, 37, who repeatedly stabbed his mother, Nancy, in the face in January 2007 and then videotaped her as she lay dying at the foot of the basement stairs. Massachusetts juries rarely acquit murder defendants who claim they were insane.

On March 6, the prosecutor told Chiero's sister that he expected to reduce the charge to second-degree murder in light of the opinions of mental health experts, including one hired by prosecutors, said Chiero's lawyer, Keith Halpern. But Early overruled the prosecutor minutes later in an act of political pandering, said Halpern, resulting in the trial that ended with Chiero's acquittal.

"You're the district attorney responsible for the case for two years, and on the day the trial is scheduled to begin you still can't make up your mind" about how to proceed? Halpern said. "Yes, I think that reflects incompetence."

Chiero's sister, Gina Mariona of Southborough, said in a phone interview that she had implored Early not to prosecute her brother for first-degree murder after providing medical records showing that he had suffered from severe mental illness for years.

"I begged them all along not to do this," said Mariona, who testified at the trial, during which jurors saw part of the video that Chiero made of his dying 59-year-old mother. "It was torture for me and torture for my brother, and my mother would never have wanted that to happen."

Early said his prosecutor never promised to reduce the charge. He said siblings of Nancy Chiero had urged him to pursue a first-degree murder case because they did not want Lee Chiero ever back on the streets.

As for the mental health experts' opinions, Early said prosecutors believed Chiero's behavior after the slaying - washing up, changing his clothes, taking his mother's pocketbook containing $4,000 and driving 170 miles to upstate New York - showed he knew right from wrong.

"My decision was based on the purposefulness of his actions," Early said.

After the verdict Thursday, Superior Court Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr. ordered Chiero committed to Bridgewater State Hospital for up to 40 days of psychiatric observation. Halpern said he expected his client will spend years confined to state psychiatric hospitals.

Chiero had long suffered from delusions, according to his sister. He believed people were poisoning him and tapping his phone, insisted on eating only canned and jarred food, and shut off the electricity in the house he shared with his mother to prevent imaginary conspirators from tracking him.

He made hundreds of hours of videos documenting plots against him, said his lawyer.

Based on the evaluations of mental health specialists, the prosecutor in the case, Eduardo Velazquez, e-mailed Halpern last July saying he would recommend to Early that Chiero be held not responsible for his mother's death, Halpern said.

A week later, Halpern said, Early rejected the recommendation. This month, Velazquez told Halpern that Early planned to reduce the charge to second-degree murder and to try Chiero without a jury, Halpern said. That would most likely have resulted in a judge finding him not guilty by reason of insanity and committing him to Bridgewater, according to legal specialists.

But then Early overruled Velazquez again and insisted on trying Chiero for first-degree murder, Halpern said.

Chiero's lawyer said Early's real purpose was to deflect public criticism for his office's handling of Daniel T. Tavares Jr., a convicted murderer who killed a Washington state couple in November 2007.

Tavares was freed from prison without bail in July 2007, over the objections of Worcester prosecutors, while awaiting trial on assault charges. Earlier this month, the families of Tavares's murder victims told the state they plan to file a wrongful death suit against prosecutors and other law enforcement officials.

Early denied that the cases had anything to do with each other and called Halpern's criticisms "absolute nonsense."

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.