RUTLAND — A Vermont judge has thrown out key evidence against an 83-year-old New York state man who faces two counts of murder in the death of his wife’s parents in Danby in 1989, prompting a move by his attorney to toss out the entire case.
Rutland Superior Court Judge Cortland Corsones’ ruling is the latest twist in a cold case that led eventually to charges more than three decades later against Michael Louise in the killings.
Bennington County Deputy State’s Attorney Jared Bianchi, who is prosecuting the case, is appealing the judge’s ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court.
Louise, of Liverpool, New York, was arrested and charged in 2022 with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Catherine and George Peacock, who were respectively 73 and 76 when they were killed.
Vermont State Police said they cracked the case when, after a round of DNA testing in 2020, a laboratory analysis matched a spot of blood found inside Louise’s car in 1989 to that of George Peacock.
However, the police officer who collected that evidence from that vehicle decades ago has since died. Corsones, in a decision last month, sided with Louise’s defense attorney, Dan Sedon, and threw out that evidence. Sedon had argued that the prosecution couldn‘t produce evidence properly authenticating the source of that blood, in large part, due to the death of the officer.
The development shows the difficulty in prosecuting cold cases where new technology to analyze DNA evidence collides with the legacy problem of the lifespan of investigators who gathered the evidence in the first place. If the investigators aren’t around to testify, the case can unravel.
The prosecution had sought to rely on records and statements related to the handling of that evidence.
But the judge found that wasn’t enough.
“Based upon the evidence presented, and proffered, the court concludes that the State lacks sufficient evidence to authenticate that the sample tested in 2020 is from a floor mat collected from the defendant’s vehicle in 1989,” Corsones wrote in his nine-page ruling.
“No live witness can make this connection,” Corsones added. “The only way the connection can be made is from chain of custody statements which violate the defendant’s confrontation rights.”
Sedon, Louise’s attorney, had filed a motion to throw out the murder charges against his client in light of Corsones’ recent ruling. That motion is now on hold pending the outcome of the prosecution’s appeal.
Charging documents did cite other circumstantial evidence authorities allegedly used to tie Louise to the murders.
Louise had long been a suspect in the case. At one point, according to charging documents, Louise said that he had decided to take the nearly 400-mile round trip from his home in New York state to Danby on Sept. 13, 1989, the day of the murders, in order to pick up some particle boards he had kept there.
But as he reached Saratoga Springs, New York, Louise said he dropped that idea and turned around and headed back home, the documents stated.
Asked by investigators if he may have blacked out and actually drove to Danby and killed the Peacocks, Louise said he had “thought about that,” but he ultimately denied the accusation, the charging documents stated.
Sedon said in an interview Monday that without the blood evidence both murder charges should be dismissed.
“The only thing that changed in 2022 was that they finally claimed that they had DNA analysis that could link that speck of blood to Mr. Peacock. That’s the only change,” Sedon said.
“So it stands to reason,” he added, “that if that evidence went away, if that evidence got knocked out, we’d be back to there not being enough evidence to bring charges.”
Sedon, in a court filing, also pointed to past decisions by the judge in which the blood evidence was cited as critical.
“This court has previously ruled that the State’s evidence is insufficient without the purported blood evidence and DNA testing result,” Sedon wrote.
Louise, who has several health problems and cannot walk, had been court-ordered to reside at a skilled nursing home in northern Vermont for the past several months, with his bail set at $20,000.
Corsones, during a hearing Monday in Rutland County Superior criminal court, reduced that bail to $100. Louise isn’t likely to post that and leave the skilled nursing facility in Vermont anytime soon pending the ruling from the Vermont Supreme Court regarding the blood evidence, Sedon said.
“There’s not going to be any changes on where he’s living at the moment,” the defense attorney added.
Bianchi, the prosecutor, could not be reached Monday for comment.