NORTH HAVERHILL — An inmate in the Grafton County Jail who prosecutors say has information about a drive-by shooting that injured a visiting college student near Dartmouth College last year will not testify at the alleged shooter’s trial, according to an order from Grafton Superior Court Judge Lawrence MacLeod.
In the Nov. 18 order, MacLeod said Grafton County prosecutors had already withdrawn the inmate, Tony Greenwood, from their witness list for the upcoming trial of 23-year-old Lebanon resident Gage Young in January.
Despite the withdrawal, defense attorneys were still concerned about the possibility that prosecutors would add Greenwood back to the witness list, MacLeod said in the order.
“The court finds that permitting Greenwood to testify at trial would result in significant prejudice to the defendant,” he wrote, and he officially barred Greenwood’s testimony. As reasons for his decision, he noted that the trial is “rapidly approaching” and the court has already spent “considerable resources.”
The ruling was among several MacLeod made this month, including one that deemed supplemental evidence about a teenage witness to the crime inadmissible.
Young is charged with reckless conduct and assault stemming from the incident in November 2018. Prosecutors have said that Young fired shots from a passing car on School Street in Hanover, hitting and wounding 18-year-old Thomas Elliott, a Providence College freshman who was visiting a friend at Dartmouth. Young has pleaded not guilty in the case, and his defense attorney has claimed that Lebanon resident Hector Correa, who was 17 at the time and was with Young in the car, actually fired the shots.
Greenwood, who was held at the jail with Young following the incident, told police Young informed him that he fired the gun and then went to his parents’ house to change clothes. Young’s father, David Young, a former Lebanon police officer, then unwittingly brought the clothes that Young had been wearing during the alleged shooting to the Lebanon police station for him to change into following his arrest, Assistant Grafton County Attorney Mariana Pastore said during a court appearance last month.
Young’s attorney, Richard Guerriero, didn’t deny that his client changed his clothes, but said that isn’t incriminating evidence.
He argued that Greenwood isn’t a reliable source and was trying to get a favorable result in his own criminal case.
It wasn’t clear why prosecutors decided to pull Greenwood from the witness list.
In his order, MacLeod also denied a motion filed by Guerriero that focused on Correa’s alleged criminal history. Guerriero sought to have evidence admitted to trial about an unrelated charge that Correa is currently facing after an alleged shooting from a motor vehicle in Connecticut, according to the court order.
The defense attorney aimed to prove to a jury that Correa is capable of a “drive-by” shooting.
“Frankly, many people are ‘capable’ of participating in a drive-by shooting,” MacLeod wrote, adding that the charges would be relevant only if Correa had a “character disposition” for carrying out drive-by shootings. He ruled the evidence inadmissible.
Another motion MacLeod addressed was filed by prosecutors to have Dr. Debra Joslin, a gunshot residue expert, testify at the trial via a live video feed rather than in person.
Joslin would have to fly to New Hampshire from Chicago for the case, which would be unnecessarily costly, Pastore argued.
But MacLeod denied the motion, writing that defendants have the right to address witnesses in court.
“The court finds that the costs of airfare and lodging are insufficient to sustain an exception to the defendant’s right to confront the witness face-to-face,” he wrote.
A final pretrial hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 2.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.