White River Junction
Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill, who was co-counsel to lead prosecutor Christopher Moll, said Perkins provided police with so many versions of how Scott Hill and Emma Jozefiak were shot inside Hill’s Bethel trailer that it complicated matters.
Prosecutors — and ultimately the jury — were left with the challenge of determining which story was closest to reality. The case was largely circumstantial because Hill was killed, Jozefiak survived but had no memory of what occurred, and there were no eyewitnesses.
“Those stories were all hinging on a skeleton of truth,” Cahill said.
“This case had many moving pieces,” Moll said.
Perkins was whisked off to jail Thursday to be held without bail pending a sentencing hearing in the spring. She faces a maximum term of life in prison.
Another part of the case that made it difficult to present was the fact that some evidence was based on fixed data, such as text messages that concretely put a person in a certain place at a certain time, while other evidence, such as witness testimony, only provided approximate timeframes.
Jurors were given two different timelines, one by the defense and one by the prosecution, which painted two different pictures of who could have shot Hill and Jozefiak on the morning of Nov. 8, 2011.
Based on the defense’s timeline, Michael Perkins, Emily Perkins’ now deceased husband, could have been the shooter. Under the timeline constructed by the prosection, however, that would have been impossible.
Jurors appeared to be focusing on the timeline during their deliberations Thursday afternoon. The only time the jury emerged from deliberations was to re-listen to the taped recordings of five witnesses’ testimony. Three of the witnesses had been at the trailer on the morning of the shooting, and two of them saw Emily Perkins there.
Cahill said he felt the timeline was the smoking gun for the jury.
By the prosecution’s account, Emily Perkins arrived at Hill’s residence around 10:15 a.m. to pay for the one Percocet he loaned her as collateral for a .22 caliber pistol she left the day before. Prosecutors contend she left about 10:45 a.m. to return home to Sharon.
She would have arrived at the couple’s Sharon home around 11 a.m. if she drove fast, leaving Michael Perkins not enough time to return to the trailer before Krystle Clarke arrived in search of Hill around 11:15 a.m., the prosecution said. Emily Perkins testified that her husband set out toward Bethel after she told him that Hill had made a sexual advance toward her.
Defense attorneys argued that Emily Perkins arrived at Hill’s trailer “a little bit before” 10 a.m., creating the possibility that she could have made it back to Sharon by 10:45 a.m., leaving her husband enough time to drive to Bethel by around 11 a.m. — and before Clarke arrived around 11:15.
Attempts to reach jurors to find out how the panel arrived at the two guilty verdicts were unsuccessful Friday. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for more than 10 hours before delivering its verdict around 9:30 Thursday night. Attempted second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison; voluntary manslaughter comes with a one- to 15-year sentence.
Several people involved in the case have been waiting for a verdict for years, said Cahill.
“There was a cloud hanging over the Bethel-Royalton area (because) it was unresolved,” Cahill said. “I’m glad that we can help that cloud slowly lift and help the affected individuals pick up the pieces and move on with their lives.”
Meanwhile, the guilty verdict struck particularly hard at the Royalton farm of Peggy and David Ainsworth, the home of Emily Perkins’ mother and stepfather where she had been living with her two daughters, ages 8 and 6.
Peggy Ainsworth, a Royalton selectwoman, said in a phone interview on Friday that she had broken the news to her granddaughters.
“The kids took the news very well. I introduced it by telling them the story about the boy who cried wolf, so I reiterated that,” Ainsworth, who had testified that she believes her daughter was innocent of the shootings and had lied to protect her dying husband.
“I said ‘Mommy told a lot of lies over a long period of time, and so when it came time to tell the truth, nobody believed it.’ ”
Ainsworth also said her granddaughters have yet to comprehend that their mother may be imprisoned for years.
“I don’t think they understand how long Mommy is going to be away. That’s going to be hard,” she said.
Peggy Ainsworth said her granddaughters also spend time with Michael Perkins’ father and stepmother in White River Junction, and that other family members are also in the area.
On top of the trial, it’s been a difficult year for other reasons for the Ainsworths, who are well-known dairy farmers with a farmstand along Route 14 selling sweet corn. David Ainsworth, who stepped down as longtime town moderator earlier this month, had a kidney replacement — Peggy donated the kidney — but said he is now back to farming, and feeling well.
Peggy Ainsworth said she has been working on guardianship papers for her granddaughters, and also said the family has support in the White River Valley community.
“We’ve got a lot of good friends, and they’ve got good shoulders to cry on,” she said.
John P. Gregg contributed to this report. Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.