Murder victim was shot in the back

The second -- and fatal -- shot that killed Vinny Tamburello last Sunday evening on a ball field in Chester was fired into his lower back and not his belly as first reported, Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner's Office concluded during an autopsy performed this week in Burlington.

---

Chester murder victim was shot in the back

By ERIC FRANCIS -- Contributing Writer
Twin State Valley Media Network
Monday, September 22, 2008 9:13 PM

CHESTER -- The second -- and fatal -- shot that killed Vinny Tamburello last Sunday evening on a ball field in Chester was fired into his lower back and not his belly as first reported, Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner's Office concluded during an autopsy performed this week in Burlington.

"The back-to-front direction of travel of the fatal shot undermines (Kyle Bolaski's) claim that the deceased was pursuing him and that he shot the fatal round in self-defense," Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand wrote in a motion which asks the court to increase the bail for shooter Kyle Bolaski of Springfield from $100,000 clear up to a quarter of a million dollars.

A bail review hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. at the Windsor District Courthouse in downtown White River Junction to consider Sand's request in light of both the new medical evidence and additional witness statements that have since been obtained by police detectives.

Bolaski, 24, pleaded not guiolty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a weapon last Monday afternoon during an arraignment in which his public defender, attorney Kevin Griffin, described Bolaski as a young man who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time when he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an axe-swinging attack by the enraged Tamburello.

Based on that account, Sand stressed to the court that he was not prosecuting Bolaski for the first shot he fired - which had hit Tamburello, 32, in the leg resulting in a relatively small, non-life-threatening gunshot wound -- but rather for his second shot to the lower torso which ultimately led Tamburello to bleed to death just over an hour later.

The supplemental affidavit filed by state police against Bolaski said it was discovered at autopsy that the entry wound for the second shot was located on Tamburello's lower back, "just left of the buttock centerline, near his waistline," and that the "jagged flesh wound" which police on the scene had described seeing near Tamburello's pelvic area was actually the exit wound.

Witnesses told police that Kyle Bolaski's second shot -- which occurred just moments after Kyle's younger brother Cory Bolaski fired two warning shots into the ground in front of Tamburello -- occurred after Kyle "pursued" Tamburello as the wounded man tried to retreat behind Bolaski's pickup truck. Once Tamburello collapsed from the impact of that second hit, witnesses said, Kyle Bolaski ran up and struck him several times in the face with the butt of his high-powered 30-06 rifle, actions which led to the filing of the aggravated assault charge.

The autopsy confirmed that Tamburello had "suffered fractures" around his eye socket leading credence to reports he had been struck repeatedly with the heavy gunstock.

In the initial confused hours following the shooting, witnesses who knew both men characterized Bolaski as a friend of people who Tamburello had been threatening during the preceeding days and thus as someone who just happened to be at the wrong place when Tamburello came calling.

That impression was reinforced in the courtroom last Monday when defense attorney Kevin Griffin explained to Judge Kathleen Manley that the axe-wielding charge into an angry group moments by Tamburello moments before he was shot was the "tip of the iceberg" when it came to violent acts he'd committed in recent weeks. Griffin said that but for being at the ball field with those friends, what had preceeded Sunday's confrontation, "had absolutely nothing to do with Kyle," and he added that Bolaski did not even know Tamburello.

It now appears that on the same afternoon Bolaski was using those arguments as part of his defense, his version of events was being unraveled back at the state police barracks in Rockingham where detectives were interviewing his friend Tristan Blanchard, 22, of Chester who gave a completely different account of how the Bolaski brothers and their rifles came to be at the ball field that evening.

State police said that when they interviewed Kyle Bolaski about the shooting just before midnight last Sunday he told them the reason he was able to grab a 30-06 semi-automatic rifle from his truck, and that his younger brother Cory was able to come up with a .22 caliber rifle from the same cab moments later, was because he "always" kept rifles in his truck and used them to hunt coyotes whenever he was scouting for deer.

Police said that Blanchard told them that he and the Bolaskis were all in Cory Bolaski's truck along with their friend Jerry Ucci, 21, late Sunday afternoon while, "Kyle and Jerry were drinking Budweiser," which was when Ucci decided to call Tamburello on his cell phone.

"Blanchard advised he couldn't hear what Vinny was saying but could tell that the conversation was heated and that Jerry made arrangements with Vinny to meet at the baseball field. Blanchard then advised that Jerry contacted Timothy Arbuckle who was at (McKenzie Field) and told him they were on their way and that Vinny was going to meet them there," Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Walter Smith wrote in his affidavit.

Next, according to Blanchard, the quartet decided that because the fuel was low in Cory Bolaski's truck they would drive back to his residence and switch to Kyle's pickup for the trip to McKenzie Field. "Kyle transferred the (30-06) rifle from Cory's truck into his," police quoted Blanchard as explaining. "Blanchard advised that that Cory went into the house and came out with a second rifle and placed it inside Kyle's truck as well (then) they all proceeded to (McKenzie) field."

"I asked Blanchard if, while arrangements were being made to meet Vinny at the ball field and seeing alcohol and firearms being brought into the situation, if any one of them thought to use his cell phone to call the police and he advised they did not," Detective Sgt. Smith noted.

Smith said that during the interview, which was tape recorded, Blanchard claimed that when they arrived at the ball field and noticed there were quite a few people there, including families, because a ball game had just ended, that he, "told Cory he didn't like what was happening."

Blanchard told police it was Kyle Bolaski, Tim Arbuckle, and Jerry Ucci who walked up the slope to confront Tamburello who at first was holding up a stun gun and clicking it at them until he suddenly pulled an axe from the car that he'd arrived in and began chasing the group down the hill with it raised over his head.

Blanchard said he only saw Tamburello hitting Kyle Bolaski's truck with the axe and added that he was still running in the opposite direction when he heard "one or more" gunshots and "turned around to see Vinny lying on the ground," Smith wrote. "Blanchard advised he turned back and continued to run away and then heard several more gunshots."

Other witnesses told police they saw Tamburello bash out the windows of Bolaski's truck, then saw Bolaski exit the passenger side with the high-powered rifle at which point at least one witness said Tamburello raised his axe at Kyle Bolaski before Bolaski shot him in the leg. Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand had said last Monday that the sequence of events available to authorities at that point led him to conclude that first shot was justifiable as self-defense but Sand took a dimmer view in the motion he filed later in the week.

"Although (Bolaski) claims the guns were in his vehicle as a result of an earlier deer scouting trip, newly-received information makes clear that the guns were deliberately placed in (Bolaski's) truck in anticipation of a confrontation," Sand wrote.

Among the police reports filed by Sand in support of his motion was a narrative by Springfield Police Officer Dean Fullerton who described his uncompleted investigation into the events involving Tamburello almost exactly 24 hours before he was shot.

Fullerton said Springfield Police received a report of a large fight on Summer Street early Saturday evening and when he arrived he found, "10 or 12 people yelling and separating themselves."

Fullerton listed that several people who ended up at the ball field the next evening who were also involved one way or another in Saturday night's incident, including Tristan Blanchard, and Fullerton said both sides charged members of the other side had brandished either knives, tire irons, or been involved in trying to run vehicles off the road both in Chester and Springfield.

"The story is confusing and it didn't make sense," Fullerton wrote in his affidavit, adding that while Tamburello and his friends had given statements that night, at least four people on the other side, including Blanchard, had not yet provided written statements so the incident remained unresolved. "The case is pending -- more investigation needed," Fullerton wrote, adding, "When I (get the other statements) possible charges could be made."

http://www.cvspectator.com/ET/story/080824-eaf-chst-murder-fol-low