Suspected player in violent feud wants curfew dropped

A Springfield man awaiting trial for his alleged role in the controversial 2008 fatal shooting of a Massachusetts man on a Chester ballfield has finished serving his jail sentence for unrelated drunken driving convictions and is now asking a judge if he can leave his house to get a job.

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PHOTO BY ERIC FRANCIS Timothy Arbuckle of Springfield was recently released from jail and is asking the court for permission to work for a concrete company while he awaits trial on a charge of accessory to second-degree murder. Published April 23, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Suspected player in violent feud wants curfew dropped By ERIC FRANCIS WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield man awaiting trial for his alleged role in the controversial 2008 fatal shooting of a Massachusetts man on a Chester ballfield has finished serving his jail sentence for unrelated drunken driving convictions and is now asking a judge if he can leave his house to get a job. Timothy Arbuckle, 35, a lifelong resident of the Springfield-Chester area, recently “maxed out” his Vermont sentence and was placed on probation by New Hampshire authorities for a separate felony drunken driving conviction in that state. But his unresolved criminal charges stemming from the shooting of Vincent Tamburello Jr. still require him to observe a 24-hour-a-day curfew at his residence. Arbuckle’s defense attorney, Robert Sussman, played down the overall significance of the remaining charges Wednesday. “Although the charge is extremely serious the way it is on paper — second-degree murder — this was originally charged as a simple assault. … Mr. Arbuckle was not part of the shooting,” he told Judge Theresa DiMauro. Arbuckle told the court he has jobs lined up with excavating and construction companies in southern Vermont that he can do if the court lifts his curfew. Witnesses testified that Arbuckle kicked the dying Tamburello in the face after he was fatally wounded by two rifle shots fired by Chester native Kyle Bolaski. Special prosecutor John Lavoie said Arbuckle deserved the accessory-to-murder charge leveled against him, calling the defense effort “to minimize his role really disingenuous and looking at the facts from 10,000 feet.” “(Tamburello) would never have been at the Chester ballfield where the (alleged) murder occurred except for Mr. Arbuckle’s involvement,” Lavoie told the judge. He added the “mob” that was there to confront Tamburello that evening had “enlisted Mr. Arbuckle’s services as a strongman” in a confrontation that had been brewing. Tamburello, 33 at the time, had been engaged in a feud for days with several local men when he showed up at MacKenzie Field for what investigators described as a prearranged invitation to fight. In front of a crowd of onlookers just finishing up a softball game that evening, Tamburello charged down a hillside from the parking lot, waving a splitting maul over his head and bashed out the windows of Bolaski’s pickup, according to testimony. Bolaski pulled a rifle from the truck and shot Tamburello in the leg at close range, investigators said. When the wounded Tamburello limped away, Bolaski allegedly fired a second, ultimately fatal shot into his lower torso, dropping Tamburello to the ground. Witnesses said Arbuckle kicked the dying man several times. Bolaski, who maintained that he fired in self-defense, was convicted of murder for Tamburello’s shooting. But his conviction was reconsidered on appeal after he’d spent several years in jail. He is free on bail awaiting a retrial that has been ordered by the Vermont Supreme Court. Lavoie told the court this week he opposes releasing Arbuckle from his 24-hour-a-day curfew because “the state’s main goal is to make sure Tim is available for trial and doesn’t get into any more trouble.” In addition to the second-degree murder accessory charge, Arbuckle also faces a perjury charge for his role in Bolaski’s original 2012 trial. “(Entirely) lifting the curfew with that history is not an option,” DiMauro said. But she said if he could provide proof of a job, she would consider amending the curfew so he could work while awaiting trial. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160423/NEWS01/160429771