Man charged in Chester murder

The first shot was self-defense but the second was murder, Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand told the court Monday, as he charged Kyle Bolaski, 24, with gunning down an axe-wielding assailant who had already been wounded at the McKenzie Field ballpark on Sunday evening.

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Man charged in Chester murder

By Eric Francis, Contributing Writer
Twin State Valley Media Network
Friday, September 19, 2008 8:23 AM

CHESTER — The first shot was self-defense but the second was murder, Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand told the court Monday, as he charged a Springfield man with gunning down an axe-wielding assailant who had already been wounded at the McKenzie Field ballpark on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, Vermont State Police at the scene would not confirm or deny that a young woman was at the center of an argument between the two men that resulted in the death.

Kyle Bolaski, 24, stood in a bright red prison jumpsuit before Judge Kathleen Manley in Windsor District Court in White River Junction and wiped his eyes repeatedly Monday afternoon as his court-appointed public defender, attorney Kevin Griffin, entered innocent pleas on his behalf to second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a weapon.

Seated immediately behind the defense table in the first row of the courtroom were both of Bolaski’s parents, his sister, and his 22-year-old brother Corey Bolaski who, according to court documents, told police Sunday night that he fired either one or two warning shots into the ground himself during the same confrontation that ended with his brother’s arrest.

Police estimate that somewhere between 30 and 40 people witnessed the last minutes of Vincent “Vinny” Tamburello’s life and all of the statements detectives made reference to in the affidavit filed with the court on Monday seemed to clearly agree that Tamburello, 32, was the initial aggressor.

Authorities said there were three groups of witnesses present by the time the shooting took place at 7:20 p.m.: Tamburello and a couple of female friends, the Bolaski brothers and approximately a dozen of their friends, and the much larger gathering of softball players and spectators who were relaxing post-game in a beer tent between two of the ballfield’s diamonds.

Police in Springfield had already spent Saturday night dealing with complaints that Tamburello had made death threats, slashed tires, invaded a house and stolen money, and knocked one person out cold with his fist. By the time Sunday evening rolled around and several of the people Tamburello had been harassing gathered at McKenzie Field there was already allegedly talk in the air that a fight was imminent.

Sources close to the scene said that Julie Kronberg, Tamburello’s girlfriend, was the likely cause of the fight. Tamburello had recently moved from Boston to Springfield to be with Kronberg and became upset over a text message she had received from a man Tamburello suspected she had been involved with. After Tamburello stormed into a house in Chester Saturday night and “took some money off the table and left,” Jerry Ucci, 21, told police that “some friends got together” and chased Tamburello to Kronberg’s house in Springfield where he said Tamburello got rid of them by brandishing a taser and a knife. Springfield police were called but the affidavit said no one ended up being arrested as of Saturday night.

Tamburello's rage allegedly carried over into the next evening. where he confronted a group congregated at the common area between the two ballfields at McKenzie Park.

Lt. Timothy Oliver confirmed many details of the case but said that a motive had not been determined. “We want to get all our ducks in a row before coming to a conclusion,” he said.

Softball player Casey Brickey, 24, told police he “overheard earlier in the evening that there may be a fight,” and so he noticed as brothers Kyle and Corey Bolaski pulled into the parking area in their silver Ford pickup truck along with “a few other vehicles.” A short time later a gray Pontiac G6 driven by Kronberg pulled in with another women seated in the front and Tamburello in the back seat, witnesses said. Brickey said that someone approached the Pontiac and then returned to where the Bolaskis and their group were gathered, before that whole group began moving toward Tamburello’s vehicle.

At that point, witnesses told police, they could hear a shouting match erupt as Tamburello got out of the car, flipped a taser into view, and began making sparking noises with it.

Next, witnesses said Tamburello retrieved a pick ax from the back of Kronberg’s car and then charged down the slope at the group of men approaching, holding it aloft as he ran. Witnesses agreed that Tamburello began smashing Bolaski1s truck with the ax, denting the doors and breaking out the windows, until Kyle Bolaski climbed out of the passenger side carrying a “0-06 rifle. Kyle circled around the front of the truck, aiming toward Tamburello from the front driver’s side toward the back of the driver’s side of the pickup and fired one round into Tamburello’s thigh area, witness Nicholas Batchelder, 23, among others, told police.

During Monday’s court hearing, State’s Attorney Sand took pains to stress that shot was not the one Bolaski was being charged with firing. It was what allegedly happened next that moved Kyle Bolaski from victim to murderer in the state’s calculation.

Sgt. William Jenkins of the state police said that witness Kristina Morgan, 19, heard the first shot and saw that Tamburello “buckled,” from the impact to his leg, then saw Kyle Bolaski run after Tamburello.

As the first shot was being fired, Corey Bolaski retrieved a second, smaller rifle from the interior of the truck. Police said Corey Bolaski told them he was concerned that Tamburello would go for the rifle himself but, as he was removing it to get it safely away from the vehicle, Tamburello came around the front of the truck so he fired two warning shots into the ground before retreating.

Kristina Morgan told police she heard those two “BB gun style shots” and then two more “loud gun shots” at which point she saw Tamburello fall to the ground. Her view was partially blocked, but she told police she then saw Kyle Bolaski “run up to Tamburello and observed Bolaski hitting something on the ground three or four times with the butt of his rifle. She then observed Tim Arbuckle kick something lying on the ground which she thought was Tamburello,” Detective Jenkins wrote.

In a similar account, Batchelder told police he saw Corey Bolaski fire a round into the ground with his .22 caliber rifle and then as, “they continued moving around the truck Kyle Bolaski shot again and hit Tamburello in his lower side abdomen area,” Jenkins wrote, saying that Batchelder continued by saying, “Tamburello went down and Kyle Bolaski came over and hit him hard three times in the head with the butt of the rifle.”

“Kyle Bolaski then started hollering to everyone, “You saw it! It was self defense!,” according to Batchelder and at least one other witness who gave a statement.

Brickey described the shooting sequence the same way as the other witnesses, telling police that when it came to the first round which hit Tamburello in the upper leg, “there was no doubt that the gunshot came from Kyle Bolaski.”
Brickey said next Corey Bolaski fired two “smaller caliber” shots in front of Tamburello which made the “dirt fly” before Corey turned and started running towards a nearby latrine. Brickey then saw Kyle Bolaski “pursuing the guy with the axe in front of the vehicle parked next to (his) truck,” Jenkins wrote, continuing, “Brickey heard another shot, ran up to the guy who was lying on the ground, and the guy was ‘really messed up’,” Jenkins recalled Brickey saying.

Brickey told police that a few moments later, as he was sitting in his own truck getting his thoughts together, Bolaski allegedly approached him and “said something to the effect of ‘that was self defense’,” Jenkins wrote, adding, “Brickey was asked about his opinion and he said that it was definitely not self defense, (that) Kyle was pursuing the other guy.”

Tamburello continued to call with threatening phone and text messages saying he was “going to get everyone who was there last night,” Ucci told police, prompting one of the friends, Tristan Blanchard to call Ucci and the Bolaskis “crying because he was so scared,” the detective quoted Ucci as explaining.

Ucci told police that once he saw Tamburello chasing them with the axe he was convinced that Tamburello “definitely was on something because he kept coming at Kyle.”

“‘I’ve never seen anyone that angry — he was like psychotic,” Jenkins quoted Ucci as saying.

Tamburello was still alive and moving slightly when the first police officers arrived at the scene approximately five minutes after the shooting took place.
Medical responders, including a DHART helicopter crew who landed at the scene and worked on Tamburello for 45 minutes before he was declared dead, noted that he apparently bled to death from “a very deep jagged flesh wound” to his lower abdomen. Detective Sgt. Mike O1Neil also noted that in addition to a pair of bullet wounds, including an exit wound on his back, Tamburello had bruising, swelling and bleeding in and around his left eye,”consistant with witness reports of Tamburello being hit by Bolaski with the butt end of the gun.”

During Monday’s court hearing, defense attorney Griffin described Kyle Bolaski as a full-time landscaper with only one DUI on his criminal record who had spent his entire life in Springfield, graduating from the high school in 2002 before getting an associates degree at the University of Massachusetts and returning to town. “He was living with his parents up until a couple of months ago,” Griffin said, arguing in favor of a reduced bail amount, which Judge Kathleen Manley eventually set at $100,000.

Griffin characterized the police description of what led up to the shooting as the “tip of the iceberg” of what will eventually be investigated before a jury eventually decides, “whether or not this shooting was justified or unjustified.”

“The problems with (Tamburello) begin the day prior and had absolutely nothing to do with Kyle,” Griffin argued, continuing, “At least two of the witnesses felt threatened or had been threatened (by Tamburello but) Kyle had never met (Tamburello) before.”

“There is absolutely a prima facie case of self defense here with not one but two deadly weapons being used to initiate the confrontation,” Griffin argued.

Speaking outside the courthouse after Bolaski was led back to the holding cell, State’s Attorney Sand said, “Up until the time of and through the initial gunshot that was a legitimate exercise of self defense (but) the dynamic of who was the aggressor and who was the retreating party changed after that first gun shot.”

On the felony aggravated assault charge, which stemmed from the alleged rifle butt beating to the head, Bolaski faces a maximum potential penalty of up to 15 years in prison. On the second degree murder charge, the presumptive penalty upon conviction in Vermont is a 20-year minimum term and a maximum of up to life.

http://www.messagefortheweek.com/ET/story/080819-chtrshooting