STEVE HEASLIP/CAPE COD TIMES POOL
Barnstable Police Sgt. John York points out interior views of a rental car recovered in the West Barnstable commuter lot that was found to contain human flesh, blood stains and bullet fragments at Barnstable Superior Court in the first day of testimony in the trial of Quoizel Wilson being tried for the murder of Trudie Hall.
BARNSTABLE – In an emotional first day of testimony in the murder trial of Quoizel L. Wilson in Barnstable Superior Court Wednesday, the mother of murder victim Trudie Hall broke down on the witness stand upon seeing video of her daughter just hours before she was killed.
The video shown to the jurors established Hall at the Cape Cod Mall cinemas in Hyannis the day she went missing on November 27, 2010.
Barnstable First Assistant District Attorney Michael Trudeau told the 16 jurors empaneled in the trial that their job is “to find the facts and apply the law.”
The commonwealth will seek to prove that Wilson is guilty of first degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Trudie Hall with, Trudeau said, “malicious deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
In his opening statement, Trudeau took the jury through the days when Hall disappeared and told them about the links between her and Wilson, a married Centerville man who was the father of Hall’s unborn child.
Cell phone records will be critical in the case, he said.
“The defendant’s cell phone and Trudy Hall’s cell phone were together at the commuter lot, they were together at the service road and then later the defendant’s phone was tracked all the way down into the Hayway Road area on the night of the 27th of July that Trudie Hall was murdered,” Trudeau said.
CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Quoizel Wilson enters the courtroom on the first day of testimony in his murder trial.
Wilson has pleaded not guilty and his defense attorney Robert Galibois told those same jurors to listen carefully to the evidence. What they will hear, Galibois said, is that despite numerous and thorough searches of Wilson’s home and vehicles, police did not find forensic evidence linking his client to the crime.
“This is going to be an incredibly intense case. It is going to be a very emotional case. All I’m asking right now is to keep that open mind as we marshall through all the evidence in the case,” Galibois said.
Galibois also told the jury in his opening statement that the rental car that contained evidence of Hall’s death had on it a bloody fingerprint from another man, not Wilson.
That man, Steve Newcomb, is among the 130 people on the witness list for the trial. Outside the courthouse Monday, Newcomb said that he had rested his hand on the car as he was getting out of his own car at the AM PM Convenience Store at the intersection of Bearse’s Way and Route 28 in Hyannis and had nothing to do with the case.
A grand jury handed up indictments back in November 2013 finding that Quoizel Wilson murdered Trudie Hall on or around July 27, 2010.
But Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson cautioned the jurors that the indictment should not be a factor in their determinations. It is, he said, merely a formality of the justice system.
“You are the trial jurors. Your job in the coming days is to receive all the evidence and then attempt to reach a verdict,” he said.
MERRILY CASSIDY/CAPE COD TIMES POOL
Vivienne Walker, Trudie Hall’s mother, looks at the jury before her testimony Wednesday. She was the first witness on the stand in the trial of Quoizel Wilson.
Quoizel Wilson was in Barnstable Superior Court Wednesday for the second day of his trial. He is being charged with the murder of Trudie Hall.
Unlike a grand jury made up of 23 citizens where a majority vote of 12 can hand up an indictment, in a trial jury, Nickerson said, the verdict must be unanimous.
Even more significant, Nickerson said, the commonwealth must prove every element of the charges and find the defendant guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a standard that does not need to be met in the grand jury process.
Jury empanelment was completed yesterday morning with the final four jurors selected on the 16-member panel.
There are 9 woman and 7 men on the jury.
The majority of the jurors were chosen Monday. Tuesday was a break in the trial because of a scheduling issue.
But Wednesday morning, one of the jurors selected on Monday told Judge Nickerson he could not serve because he believed the judge had participated in rulings against his family’s business in the past.
“I mean no disrespect,” the man said.“
“None taken,” Nickerson said.
Nickerson asked the juror for specifics, but the juror said only that there were numerous examples.
Nickerson said he recalled civil cases involving the man’s family business but that Nickerson, who mostly serves in criminal cases, did not serve on them. The man assured Nickerson that he did not mind doing his civic duty by serving on a jury.
“I’ll take you at your word,” Nickerson said and declined to excuse the man from serving on the trial.
Trudeau questioned whether the juror would properly follow the judge’s instructions with regard to rule of law. But when Nickerson asked the man if he would do so, the man replied that he would.
After opening statements, the first witness was Trudie Hall’s mother, Vivienne Walker.
Outside the courthouse after the first day of testimony, Walker said it remains to be seen whether justice will be done in the case.
Though almost five years have passed, she said the pain from losing her daughter is still fresh.
“It never goes away. It never goes away,” she said.
Also testifying were several police officials including Barnstable Police Sergeant John York who found Hall’s missing rental car in the commuter lot at exit 6 off Route 6. In the car, police found forensic evidence of Hall’s murder.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Within the first few days of the trial, jurors will tour the sites associated with the case, including the Bayside Resort in Yarmouth, the exit 6 commuter lot off Route 6, woods off Service Road and the woods off Hayway Road in Falmouth where Hall’s body was found.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
