Thomas Capano Trial: 1998-99

Two and a half years after Fahey's disappearance, Thomas Capano took the stand—against the advice of his lawyers. The former state prosecutor wove an incredible tale. He and Fahey had been watching TV at his house on the night of June 27, 1996, when MacIntyre called and asked to come over. Explaining that he had company, Capano hung up.

"The next thing I know, Debbie MacIntyre [had come over and] is in the room.… She was pretty ballistic." Babbling threats of suicide, according to Capano's story, MacIntyre suddenly grabbed a gun from her bag. "Debbie was off the wall. I thought, 'Oh my god, she's going to shoot herself.' "As he grabbed MacIntyre's arm, the gun discharged, hitting Fahey, who had stood up to leave. "She [Fahey] was motionless on the sofa. I said, 'No, this can't be possible.'"

Capano went on. "That's when … I basically made the wrong decision, a cowardly decision, to get rid of the body." To protect MacIntyre, he said, he put Fahey's body in a cooler, which MacIntyre helped him move into his garage the next day.

He then recruited his brother Gerard and borrowed his boat to dump the body. When Capano and his brother threw the cooler containing Fahey into the Atlantic, they thought it would sink immediately. It didn't. "That's when Gerry shot it," Capano said. "Even after Gerry shot it, it still would not sink."

During cross-examination by prosecutor Colm Connolly, Capano was barraged with questions trying to unravel the tale he had woven together. Connolly accused him of manipulating family members in order to back up his story. "Let's talk about your daughters."

"Don't ask me questions about my children!" Capano yelled. He then flew into a rage, calling Connolly a "heartless, gutless, soulless disgrace of a human being."

This outburst by the defendant was too much for Judge Lee, who told guards, "Please take Mr. Capano out of the courtroom."

"He's a liar!" Capano screamed at Connolly as he was hauled away.

Connolly's closing speech to the jury was a scornful diatribe on Capano's outlandish description of how Fahey had died. "Ladies and gentlemen, this story is ludicrous. It defies common sense.… The defendant thought he would get away with murder. If anybody was going to be given the benefit of the doubt, it was the defendant with his political connections."

On January 18, 1999, the jury decided against the defendant and convicted Capano of murder. Ten days later, they handed down his sentence: death by lethal injection. On March 16, Judge Lee upheld this sentence, stating, "The defendant fully expected to get away with it, and if not for his arrogant and controlling nature, he may have succeeded.… He is a ruthless murderer."

As a lawyer Capano should have appreciated the value of silence, but his decision to testify, against the advice of counsel, was ruinous. Hubris got the better of him, and his punishment was of the severest kind.