Thomas Capano Trial: 1998-99 - The Trial

At Capano's trial, which began October 26, 1998, prosecutor Ferris Wharton in his opening address described Capano as becoming incensed because Fahey had ditched him for another man. "Tom Capano had determined that if Anne Marie Fahey could not be manipulated into being with him, she would be with no one else forever."

Responding for the defense, Joseph Oteri brought gasps to the packed courtroom as he presented that Capano now admitted being present when Fahey had died at his home—despite his previous denials of complicity in Fahey's disappearance—but that he had not killed her. "Anne Marie Fahey died as the result of an outrageous, horrible, tragic accident," said Oteri, adding that one other person was present at Capano's home that night and knew the whole story.

During the course of the trial it became apparent that the prosecution had built a strong forensic and circumstantial case against Capano. A search of his home had revealed the presence of two tiny bloodstains, which matched a donor sample given by Fahey in April 1996. Alan Giusti, a DNA analyst at the FBI laboratory, said Fahey "could be the donor" of the blood found in the two bloodstains, with only a 1 in 11,000 chance that they had come from another white American.

Additionally, Gerard Capano, the defendant's brother, testified that he and Capano had dumped Fahey's body, stuffed in a cooler, 60 miles off the New Jersey coast. Astonishingly, this same cooler—empty but full of bullet holes—was later recovered by a fisherman. A credit card receipt showed that Capano had bought an identical cooler on April 20, 1996.

The testimony of Deborah MacIntyre, a 48-year-old school administrator and Capano's longtime mistress, would prove to be pivotal. She admitted buying Capano a. 22 caliber Beretta pistol on May 13, 1996, but had not seen it since. This, combined with the purchase of the cooler, was evidence, the prosecution claimed, that Capano had been planning Fahey's murder for some time.

Thomas Capano escorted from the courthouse during his trial for the murder of Anne Marie Fahey. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Attorney Eugene J. Maurer's crossexamination of MacIntyre revealed the strategy behind the defense's case. Hadn't she been at Capano's house when Fahey was killed?

"No," said MacIntyre.

"You deny you discharged that firearm?"

"I don't know what happened to that firearm," MacIntyre responded indignantly.

Maurer pushed hard and extracted an admission from MacIntyre that she was testifying for the prosecution under a promise of immunity from her earlier perjury to the grand jury. "You're scot-free," he said, implying that Fahey's real killer was going to go unpunished.

"I'm fortunate," MacIntyre replied.