This Day in Norwood History-March 17, 1955-Defense Counsel In Plea For Not Guilty Verdict As Murder Trial Ends

An hour and three quarters’ fervent plea for the return of a not guilty verdict for his youthful client, Peter Makarewicz, echoed through the courtroom at Dedham this morning as the Chief Defense Counsel, Louis Goldstein, summarized his case before the jury sitting in the Annese Murder Case.

“Don’t let anyone shift the responsibility of this case onto your shoulders, “he told the jurymen. “Satisfy your own conscience and be at peace with your minds. Let your mind be free from bias. It is for you to decide where the guilt lies. You arc all members of this society and so is this boy. You checked your coats when you came to the courtroom, but not your minds. I want you to go home knowing that you have done the right thing.”

The courtroom once again was crowded to capacity with many of the previous prosecution and defense witnesses sitting in on the proceedings for the first time. Seated in a front row directly in front of the prisoner’s cage were the boy’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Makarewicz, and three places away from them In the same row sat the father of the slain girl, Joseph Annese.

Continuing in his summation to the jury, Goldstein said: “The prosecution says that Peter got the urge to kill this girl while lying beside his sister. If he had the urge to kill, why didn’t, he kill his sister or why not his brother when he came home? The police say that he was shocked to hear of the girl’s death.

In a direct remark to the jury-men he said: “If you knew someone who died, you would he affected by their death.”

“You took a view of the locale at Norwood on the first day, and recall when various things were pointed out to you. You saw the picket fence, the hook on the rear door of the cellar of the Makarewicz house, the garage window, and the implements in the garage, and the look around the grounds, so that you would have a clear picture In your minds.

“This is a serious crime, and you have a serious job. The boy’s future is in your hands.”

He then went on to relate various parts of the alleged confession as made at the police station on the morning of November 6, and said that Sgt. Waiter Bogdanchick stated: ‘1 don’t believe it to various things that Peter had said. He also recalled to the jury the testimony of Police Chief Mark Folan while on the witness stand, and stated that the Chief is an intelligent man and that he is an experienced police official, and yet the police admitted they questioned Peter three times.“You heard Peter from the witness stand,” continued Goldstein, “and you heard him say what transpired that morning in the police station ”

He went into great length in describing what went on at the police station on the morning of November 6 between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9:12 a.m. He asked: “Did they close down the police station during that time, and also why did Sgt. Delay say during the questioning of Peter to George Kenney, the District Attorney’s secretary, “Don’t take this down until I tell you.’”

“It has been four months and ten days since Peter was arrested, and before he took the stand. It was six men against a boy in the police station, and as one man stopped, another man started asking him questions. He was in the station from 12.15 a.m. to 12:07 p.m. and not once did they ask him to take it easy.

Says Boy Stood Up Well

“They had six and a half days to put in a case against this boy. He stood up well and testified that they never saw him go to sleep while at the police station.”

A question of Goldstein was: “Can the D.A. remember all his questions without his notes before him? Why did four of the police officials have to go to 1010 Commonwealth avenue (state police) for information? Do you think they left the station alone that night?”

In referring to Peter’s father, who testified on the witness stand yesterday that he looked through a Venetian blind into the chief’s office and witnessed his son being questioned, Goldstein .said: “What father wouldn’t be upset if he was told by an officer that his son was upset? What would you expect him to says, Hallelujah?”

“They had the heavy artillery there” he said. And then Goldstein named Lt. Delay, Chief Folan, and Lt. Murphy. “But you did not hear ! one of them testify as to how that ] picket fence in the backyard had been broken,” said. Goldstein.

He also told the jury that there was no loose hair from either Peter or Geraldine found on the clothes of the deceased or the defendant, according to the testimony of the state police chemist on the stand.

“There were no blood spots on the boy’s shorts, and there was no dirt in the cuff of his dungarees,” he said. He strongly emphasized that no evidence was produced on the stand that the blood found on the dungarees was human blood, or that It was Geraldine’s blood. He then showed the jury the shirt worn by Peter on the night he is alleged to have slain Geraldine Annese and called their attention to the fact that there was no blood on it.

“I am not an expert and I don’t know all the answers. If there is confusion in this case that leads to a reasonable doubt, the law says don’t convict. Your mind must be free of any reasonable doubt,” he declared.

It is up to the District Attorney to prove him guilty. It is on the shoulders of the prosecution to do so. The truth is there are 14 judges in the Jury box. You are the judges of the facts. No one can usurp that power from you.

“While Peter was on the witness stand here,” the lawyer went on, you saw the drama unfolded of one man (Lane) against a boy in the courtroom, but at the Norwood police station there were six men against him ”

He said, “There is no confession here You heard the boy testify he could not take any more at the police station. He had the right to stand here and fight for himself in your eyesight. He was on trial for his life.”

lie also recalled to the jury that there had been testimony of footprints outside the garage, and that Sgt. Bogdanchick had told Peter at the police station that they had taken casts of these footprints, but they had never been introduced as evidence.

“The police would have you believe that this kid is a tough guy, but he was an altar boy for four years and never had been picked up for questioning by the police,” Goldstein continued. “He didn’t do anything, but they kept after him until he wrote ‘yes’ on a piece of paper.

With the completion of the summation by Atty. Goldstein before the jury, Judge Goldberg called a recess, after which Myron N. Lane, chief prosecutor for the Commonwealth, started to outline the government’s summation before the jury. After that, Judge Lewis Goldberg will give his charge to the jury, and point out the law involved in this case.

Judge Will Remain

It is expected that the jury will retire for their deliberations late this afternoon or early this evening. They will be confined to their jury room until a decision is reached. Judge Goldberg will also remain at the courthouse until he is notified that the jury wishes to report its finding.

Peter’s gray-haired mother took the witness stand late yesterday afternoon and testified her son was at home in his bedroom at the time the State contends he was leaving the two-car garage where Geraldine Annese was slain last November 4. Last witness for the defense, Mrs. Adrienne Makarewicz followed her husband to the stand in defense of her oldest son and denied she ever told police he was not in his bedroom and was away from their home when she returned to her Tremont street home, at about 10 10 p.m. on the night of the slaying.

But a rebuttal witness, State Police Sergeant Walter Bogdanchiki the last witness before testimony In the nine-day first-degree murder trial closed at 3:45 yesterday afternoon, refuted the testimony she gave.

The appearance on the stand of the parents of the accused strangle-slayer of Geraldine preceded a parade of police witnesses, called back by District Attorney Lane to refute late testimony, and highlighted the final day of testimony.

Throughout most of yesterday, the defendant dueled from the witness stand with District Attorney Lane, refusing to budge from his stated testimony that a confession to the murder allegedly made by him was put in his mouth by police questioners.

After he stepped from the witness stand after his second three-hour ordeal in two days at the. hands of the District Attorney, his. parents were called to testify.

The boy’s father, Peter Stanley Makarewicz, denied his son told him at the Norwood police station at 10 a.m. November 6 that he had confessed to the murder.

Police witnesses had previously testified that Mr. Makarewicz was brought to the station that morning and confronted his son. They said he was told of Pete’s alleged confession and they quoted him as saying, “You couldn’t have done it… You were tired … they made you” and that Peter answered, “1 did kill her.”

Under both direct and cross-examination on the witness stand yesterday, however, he denied he ever heard his son make such an admission.