Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991 TAG: 9102260196
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREGORY LANG/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIME & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: SALEM, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
That emerged Monday as a cornerstone of the prosecution's case against Colby, who is charged with the 1977 murder of Beverly Autiello at her home in Haverhill.
Colby, 44, moved to Roanoke, Va., shortly after Autiello's death and was working in Salem, Va., at the time of his 1989 arrest.
During opening arguments, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Mitchell said that Colby went to Autiello's house looking for another woman, Marjorie Brown. Autiello often baby-sat Brown's 6-year-old daughter, Kala, along with her own 4-year-old daughter, Gina.
Prosecutors have not elaborated on the relationship between Colby and Brown.
Defense attorney Hugh Samson, in his opening statement, questioned the credibility of Colby's confession, portraying his client as the victim of misinformed Virginia police whose relentless questioning made Colby confused and vulnerable.
Colby had no reason to murder Autiello, and the prosecution cannot produce any evidence that places him in the bedroom where she was killed, Samson said.
In August 1989, Massachusetts authorities contacted Virginia police, who then questioned Colby about the killing. At first, he told them he knew nothing about it. About 10 minutes later, though, Colby put his head in his hands, started trembling and told them, "This was the worst [thing] I've ever done," Mitchell said.
" `I've tried very hard to forget that night,' " Mitchell said, quoting Colby's statement. " `In all this time, I've tried to convince myself I didn't do it.' "
The prosecutor called Colby's actions "cruel and vicious" and described the beating as a "bludgeoning" with a "long, cylindrical object."
In his opening statement, Samson called Colby a "quiet, peaceful guy, non-violent" who had no reputation as a woman-beater. Colby is "a little slow . . . [and] has trouble processing information," he said.
Shortly after his move to Roanoke, in December 1977, Colby got married to a woman he had met in Virginia Beach. He never changed his name or disguised his identity, Samson pointed out.
Neither of the two witnesses in the bedroom at the time of Autiello's killing can identify Colby as the killer, Samson said.
One of those women - Kala Brown Freer, who was 6 years old when she awoke to a stranger standing over the beaten body of Autiello - relived those events for the jury as testimony got under way after opening arguments.
Now 20, the woman recalled how the girls were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom when she awoke to find Gina crying. Beverly Autiello was slumped against her on the floor and a strange man in the room held a "round, long object," she testified.
Freer said she shook Autiello's ankle. "I asked her to talk to me and she didn't say anything."
Freer said she was questioned by police and looked at some mug books. She was questioned again years later and identified a mug shot of Colby, officials have said.
What Freer did not talk about Monday was her later identification of Colby as the slaying suspect. Amid doubts about how the past 14 years may have clouded her memory, Superior Court Judge John T. Ronan last week ruled that testimony inadmissible.
by CNB