CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Quoizel Wilson, formerly of Centerville, is on trial for first degree murder at Barnstable Superior Court.
BARNSTABLE – After bringing 35 witnesses before the jury over four days, the prosecution rested at 2:30 Tuesday in the Quoizel Wilson murder trial in Barnstable Superior Court.
The defense called just one witness, a state police trooper who had earlier testified for the prosecution, and rested as well a few minutes later.
Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson said the jury will get the case for deliberation today. “There is no minimum and no maximum time” for deliberation, he told the jury.
The jury was dismissed early for the day and closing arguments are scheduled this morning at 9 a.m.
Nickerson suggested to the 16 jurors—12 regular jurors and 4 alternates—that they keep their evening schedules flexible in case the jury decides to stay late to deliberate.
Wilson is charged with first degree murder in the 2010 shooting death of 23-year-old Trudie Hall of Nantucket.
He is also charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, a gun, and improper disposal of a body. Hall was reported missing by her husband Ram Rimal, and her mother, Vivienne Walker, on July 28, 2010.
Hall had come to the Cape the previous day with Rimal and the two were staying in two separate rooms at the Bayside Resort in West Yarmouth.
The prosecution’s evidence took the jury through a theory of the crime in which Wilson, who told the police he was likely the father of Hall’s unborn child, killed Hall and disposed of her body in woods off Hayway Road in the Hatchville area of East Falmouth.
CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Dr. James T. Pokines, a forensics anthropologist with the chief medical examiner’s office, testifies to his findings on examining Trudie Hall’s skeletal remains that were found in East Falmouth. He is showing the jury photos and video of his findings. Standing behind him and watching the presentation on a monitor are Judge Gary Nickerson, defense attorney Robert Galibois, and First Assistant District Attorney Michael Trudeau.
Wilson worked for Allied Waste driving a garbage truck that picked up recycling. His route passed by the woods where Hall’s body was found almost two years after she was reported missing.
On Tuesday, jurors heard more evidence from a cell phone expert linking Wilson’s and Hall’s phones during the hours when police believe the murder was committed the night of July 27, 2010.
They also heard from forensics and ballistics experts who recovered Hall’s DNA as well as bullet fragments in the rental car she was using. The car was found bloody and abandoned in the commuter lot on exit 6 off Route 6.
Police found Hall’s skeletal remains and the skeleton of her unborn child in the woods off Hayway Road. Her clothing and jewelry were found near the remains. Ballistics evidence was found near the body.
An examination of Hall’s skeleton by Dr. James T. Pokines, a forensics anthropologist with the state medical examiner’s office, found that Hall was shot multiple times in the back.
Dr. Mindy J. Hull, a medical examiner, determined the cause of death was gunshots to the torso.
In interviews with police, Wilson admitted having sex with Hall the day she disappeared but claimed he did not see her again that evening.
But police said Wilson could not account for about two hours of time that evening. Cell phone evidence placed his phone with Hall’s phone for the hours when police believe she was murdered.
As the final witness for the prosecution, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Trudeau brought forward State Police Captain Christopher Mason who testified to checking the mileage of Hall’s rental car and taking it through the route from the Yarmouth motel to the commuter lot to Falmouth that police believe it traveled the night Hall was killed. The mileage of the route matched the odometer within a few miles.
As his first and only witness, defense attorney Robert Galibois called State Police Trooper Mark Powell who had interviewed Wilson in the days after Hall was reported missing.
Galibois asked about another man who was staying at Wilson’s home in Centerville. During cross-examination by Trudeau, Powell said the man was a relative of Wilson’s wife who was staying at the home while undergoing cancer treatment at a Boston hospital.
