Dicki Anderson Jr. Arrested for 1997 death of Renee Pellegrino

[Rockin Ma]

Wow. My county must have some new cold case unit or something because they are solving them pretty steady all of a sudden.

This is a case of a woman, who was a lawyer, that found heself addicted to crack and running the streets... throwing it all away. Details from the warrant should be released in a week and a half or so.

Waterford detectives long suspected Dickie E. Anderson Jr. in the 1997 murder of Renee Pellegrino, and over the past 13 years they say a case was built using DNA, inconsistent statements he had made and his admission that he was with Pellegrino shortly before her body was discovered in a cul-de-sac off Parkway South.

With help from the Southeastern Connecticut Cold Case Unit, they obtained a warrant and charged the 40-year-old father of three with murder Tuesday. The strength of the state's case against Anderson was debated briefly in a New London courtroom when he was presented for arraignment Wednesday. A slight man in blue jeans and black T-shirt, Anderson said nothing as he stood before Judge Kevin P. McMahon. He turned and stared coldly at media cameras as he was led away in shackles.

The arrest warrant affidavit detailing the case remains sealed, but some information was divulged when the public defender, Elizabeth Stovall, began an attack on the state's case. McMahon, who signed the arrest warrant and presided over the arraignment, said that the state has a strong case.

"You have his DNA, his inconsistent statements and him admitting being with the victim shortly before the discovery of her body at the parkway," McMahon said.

He ordered Anderson held in lieu of $2.5 million bond and transferred the case to the court where major crimes are heard. Anderson's next court date is June 16.



Pellegrino, an accomplished scholar with a law degree, had become addicted to crack cocaine and turned to prostitution. She was 40 years old and pregnant when her naked body was discovered in a cul-de-sac off Waterford Parkway South on June 25, 1997. She had been strangled, and the killer had left her body in what the judge described Wednesday as an "extreme" condition.



During the arraignment, the public defender said Anderson's DNA and another unidentified person's DNA were found on Pellegrino's body and that another man had confessed to a jailhouse snitch to killing Pellegrino. Stovall said Pellegrino had been seen with many people on the night before her body was found. Police have said Pellegrino was last seen in downtown New London.



"I don't believe the state has very strong evidence at all in this case," she said.



But prosecutor Michael Kennedy and the judge both asserted the strength of the case. McMahon said the state had put its whole case in the lengthy arrest warrant, "warts and all," for the defense to see.

"They're not hiding anything," the judge said.

At the time of his arrest, Anderson was on probation for a 2008 conviction for third-degree strangulation and interfering with police. He has five prior assault convictions and history of failing to appear in court, according to bail commissioner Tim Gilman. At the time of the murder, Anderson worked as a mailroom clerk at The Day. He was employed at the newspaper from April 1997 through December 1998, according to company records.

Waterford detectives who had worked on the case were in the courtroom for the arraignment as well as Margaret White, who said she was a friend of Pellegrino.

"The path she chose was a negative path, but she still was a beautiful person," White said. She said she also knew Anderson and had seen Pellegrino and Anderson together.

"When they were together, they did party a lot," White said.

Both Pellegrino and Anderson were well known in the New London courthouse - Pellegrino for the way she boldly challenged authorities on legal issues when she was brought before them and Anderson as a habitual offender with an arrest record dating back to his teens.

http://www.theday.com/article/201006...39579/-1/NWS02

[akika666]

omg yes Rockin i was just reading about this, i'm closer to Hartford. such an interesting story. so glad they are solving these cases!

[backlash]

At the time of his arrest, Anderson was on probation for a 2008 conviction for third-degree strangulation

I'm sure he's innocent.

[Rockin Ma]

Cold Case Unit is on it! Got him on another unsolved murder 20 miles away... super close where I live:

A New London man charged in June for the 1997 strangling death of a Waterford woman was arrested again today, this time for the unsolved 1998 strangling death of a Norwich woman.

Dickie E. Anderson Jr., 40, was served with a warrant charging him with murder in the 1998 slaying of 29-year-old Michelle Comeau of Norwich. Comeau, who had a history of drug and prostitution arrests, was found May 1, 1998 dumped along an access road to the Norwich Industrial Park near Dodd Stadium along the Franklin and Norwich town lines.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, Anderson was arraigned today in a New London courtroom where Judge Patrick Clifford read Anderson his rights.

A man seated in the courtroom with a woman who identified herself as Anderson’s mother told Anderson, “we love you,” as he walked out of the courtroom. Both declined to give their names.

Clifford ordered the $1 million bond to remain in place. Anderson is now held on a combined $3.5 million. Anderson waived the 60-day time period for a probable cause hearing. He will not enter pleas in the cases until he decides whether or not to go forward with the hearing. He is due back in court on Sept. 28.

Anderson is represented by attorney John Walkley, who was not immediately available for comment.

Police have now linked Anderson to the death of two prostitutes, following his arrest in June in the death of Renee Pellegrino. Pellegrino, 41, was discovered June 25, 1997 at the end of a cul-de-sac in Waterford. Pellegrino had a law degree but also a history of drug abuse and prostitution.

Anderson’s latest arrest comes from investigation by state police detectives with the Eastern District Major Crime Squad and the Southeastern Connecticut Cold Case Unit, composed of state and local police investigators. Since their formation late last year, the group has made arrests in four unsolved murder cases.

Information about Anderson’s latest arrest remains sealed until Sept. 14. Police have said scientists from the State Police Forensic Science laboratory in Meriden matched his DNA to evidence recovered in the Pellegrino case.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/carou...-Norwich-woman

Someone I'm very close to known him for years and spent a couple hanging with him everyday. He's really shocked and in disbelief.

[Rockin Ma]

Warrants unsealed

Police delved into the region's seamier side as they investigated the 1997 and 1998 murders of two women, then eventually charged confessed "trick artist" Dickie E. Anderson Jr., a man with a history of violence against women who has admitted knowing both victims.

The arrest warrant affidavits detailing the police probe of the deaths of Renee Pellegrino and Michelle Comeau were unsealed Tuesday in New London Superior Court. Both were troubled women who worked as prostitutes, smoked crack cocaine and were familiar with the prison system. Anderson told police he often traded crack cocaine for sex with prostitutes.

Police quickly linked the two women's deaths. Both women were strangled, and their bodies were found lying on their backs on out-of-the-way roads - Pellegrino in Waterford, and Comeau in Franklin.

The investigations centered in downtown New London, where Pellegrino worked, and downtown Norwich, where Comeau plied her trade. Over a 13-year period, investigators interviewed dozens of witnesses, developed Anderson as a suspect, and then, in 2008, learned that the state forensic laboratory had a DNA "hit" - physical evidence that linked Anderson to Pellegrino.

The laboratory notified police that DNA taken from Pellegrino's body matched a sample that had been taken from Anderson. The laboratory also found DNA on Pellegrino from an unknown source.

The Southeastern Connecticut Cold Case Unit charged the 40-year-old Anderson with Pellegrino's murder in June. Last month, they charged him with Comeau's murder.

The court papers indicate police questioned Anderson on multiple occasions, and that he initially denied knowing both women but eventually admitted he was lying. Confronted with the DNA evidence, Anderson admitted he had sex with Pellegrino in the early morning of June 25, 1997, before her body was found on Waterford Parkway South. He said Pellegrino had come to his sister's New London apartment with another man and that she left with the man after she and Anderson had sex.

Anderson initially denied knowing Comeau, but witnesses said they had seen him with Comeau at Anderson's father's apartment in Norwich. Comeau was living on and off with the now deceased Dickie Anderson Sr. at the time of her death. Anderson eventually admitted Comeau was his friend and that he had been "intimate" with her.

During the lengthy investigations, police attempted to gain information from johns who had patronized the women and through jailhouse informants who were placed in Anderson's cell while he was incarcerated.

One inmate reported that Anderson admitted to killing "Renee" and said several times that he would have never done it if he had known Pellegrino was pregnant. She was 17 weeks pregnant when she died, according to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police also spoke with former girlfriends of Anderson who told them he was rough during sex. One woman said Anderson threatened her and said he had gotten away with killing somebody. The woman said Anderson said he fought with a prostitute who kept asking him for money, and that he hit and killed the girl in Bates Woods in New London.

At one point, the investigators interviewed Clifford Gilliland, who was convicted in 2005 of killing Hope Becker, another prostitute, in Norwich in 2002. Two inmates had reported that Gilliland claimed to have killed Pellegrino. Gilliland "adamantly" denied killing Pellegrino, though he spoke freely about the Becker murder, the warrant says.

Police found no physical evidence to connect Gilliland with the Pellegrino and Comeau murders.

The police also interviewed a girlfriend who broke up with Anderson in 2000. She recalled that twice Anderson choked her so hard he left red marks on her neck, the warrant says. She turned over to police a picture of her injuries that she said a friend had taken.

Another former girlfriend, whom Anderson was convicted of strangling in 2008, said the two had argued about her getting a job and that Anderson threw her to the floor and began choking her. She said if police did not break into the apartment and physically remove Anderson from her, she thinks she would have died.

At the time of Pellegrino's murder, Anderson was working at The Day in the mailroom. Several of the witnesses interviewed during the investigation were mailroom employees.

Anderson is being held in lieu of $3.5 million bond at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institute in South Suffield. His next court date is Sept. 28.

http://www.theday.com/article/20100915/NWS02/309159904

DNA of an unknown. Wonder if that will help him despite prior attempted strangulation charges.

[Rockin Ma]

A local man accused of the strangling deaths of two women in the 1990s is expected to go on trial in one of the cases in mid-December.
Dickie E. Anderson Jr., 41, who has lived both in New London and Norwich, is charged with strangling Renee Pellegrino on June 25, 1997, in Waterford and Michelle Comeau on May 1, 1998, in Norwich.
Defense attorney Christopher Duby has filed a speedy trial motion in the Comeau case, meaning jury selection in New London Superior Court must begin within 30 days. Jury selection has tentatively been scheduled to begin on Dec. 12 before Judge Arthur C. Hadden. The trial would not likely begin until after the new year. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen M. Carney is prosecuting.
Attorney John T. Walkley, who represents Anderson in the Pellegrino case, will assist Duby at the trial. Asked why the Comeau case would be tried first, Walkley said DNA testing has not been completed in the Pellegrino case. The Comeau case does not involve DNA.
“I think principally both of these cases are going to hinge on the believability of the jailhouse informant,” he said.
Anderson, incarcerated on unrelated charges in 2009, allegedly told an inmate who was placed in his jail cell at Osborn Correctional Institution that he had killed both women. Anderson knew both of the victims, who were troubled women who smoked crack cocaine and worked as prostitutes. He was charged with their murders in 2010.
In May 1998, police found Comeau’s body dumped along an access road to the Norwich Industrial Park near the Norwich-Franklin town line. Anderson admitted he knew Comeau through his father, the late Dickie Anderson Sr., who had invited Comeau to stay in his Norwich apartment when she was released from prison about a month before her death.
He told police he was with Pellegrino on the night she disappeared from downtown New London. His DNA and another person’s DNA were found on her body, which was discovered on June 25, 1997, at the dead end of Parkway South in Waterford, not far from New London city limits.

http://www.theday.com/article/201111...111139944/1047

[Rockin Ma]

Attorneys for a New London man accused of killing two women will ask a judge this week to delay the start of trial because of a witness statement they claim points to a different suspect.
Attorneys John Walkley and Christopher Duby filed the motion Wednesday in New London Superior Court on behalf of their client, Dickie Anderson Jr. Anderson, 41, is slated to go to trial Tuesday on two counts of murder in the 1997 death of Renee Pellegrino, 40, of Waterford and the 1998 death of Michelle Comeau, 29, of Norwich.
The state plans to link the two deaths to Anderson, who knew both women and admitted having sex with Pellegrino on the morning that her body was discovered and the night before, police said.
In the motion filed Wednesday to delay the start of trial, Anderson’s attorneys said prosecutors presented them this week with a redacted police report that “speaks for itself.”
“It indicates that police spoke with a witness on Feb. 23, 2012, who has information that an individual other than the defendant is responsible for the murder of Renee Pellegrino,” according to the motion.
The police report refers to a Feb. 23 interview with an unidentified person who was apparently questioned in 2000 about Pellegrino’s murder while in a cell at the New London courthouse. The witness, according to the report, recalled “that his father told him other prostitutes that worked in the New London area had stated that the (redacted) killed Renee because she was pregnant with his baby,” according to the statement. Pellegrino was pregnant at the time of her death.

Read more: Witness testimony prompts bid for delay of murder trial - Norwich, CT - The Bulletin http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/...#ixzz1ofYPZnQm

[Rockin Ma]

I had the opportunity to go to the courthouse and sit in for a while. They focused on Pellegrino. I saw video and pictures of her body. I did not expect for it to affect me like it did :(

I did not realize where the spectators are, it's like a wedding. There's the state's side (or victim's side) and the defendant's side. There were two elderly relatives of Pellegrino, two reporters, a photographer and I believe two men in the back were detectives (LE, not private). On the defendant's side was his mother only. Another relative was there, but outside. The reporter wondered who I was, she came over and sat in front of me then looked across the room at the other reporter and shook her head a couple times. I'm not sure who she was thinking I could be.

The crime scene video was disturbing. She was on her back with her head to the side, eyes closed. Her arms were straight out and bent at the wrists like a crucifixion and her knees were up, with her feet slightly turned to the middle. Her arms and legs were very thin. By that time, the road had dried from a quick storm that had happened early morning and when they moved her, there was a silhouette of her body by the water that was under her.

An officer that processed the crime scene surmised that she was placed there after it started raining and before it stopped because of the water under her body, soaked hair and water in her belly button.

I don't know though, it was a soaking half hour summer thunderstorm. I would think if a body were on the ground beforehand, that much rain leak under the body. That wasn't argued by anyone though. There was sand or like road dirt on the bottom of her feet (which were turned up partly) and on her private area. She had ligature marks on her neck.

The ME actually came to the scene. They used a sexual assault kit for swabs. The cross by the defense was sure to have the witness clarify that they did not use it because they suspected a rape (rape kit) but because it contains everything to take evidence from the body. I think it's interesting to note that there are various envelopes marked "step one" etc. They only used steps 11 & 12 which is the vaginal and anal swabs. They did not use the fingernail scraping one or any others. I would have at least taken the fingernail one. They did not indicate if it was done after the body was taken away. They did indicate it was their understanding they obtain DNA off the body after it was taken away from the scene, but did not witness it being taken. They also testified that they pulled two hair like fibers from an elbow and hand.

The defense on cross did get one of the officers to indicate that now it's not there, but at the time of the murder, there was a cut through from that dead end road straight onto the highway.

I watched the jurors. I was surprised they looked so closely at the video. The pictures weren't published. I only saw them because when they were entered into evidence by the prosecution, they had to show it to the defense to give them a chance to inspect and object first. The jurors never took their eyes off the video. I had to look away many times. Continuously watching her dead naked body didn't feel too good to me.

The defendant wasn't overly interested in the video. He glanced up and took notes, but it was a quick glance back and forth like I was doing.

The reporter there has already written her story taking the trial through the lunch break (1-2). I didn't go back after that.

Anderson, 41, is accused of fatally strangling Pellegrino in 1997 and of murdering Michelle Comeau in a similar manner a year later. He has pleaded not guilty and opted for a trial. He wore a blue suit to his trial and sat at the defense table between attorneys John T. Walkley and Christopher Duby.

Prosecutors Stephen M. Carney and David J. Smith called witnesses to introduce the first crime scene as the trial opened. Waterford Patrolman Steven Whitehead testified that he had just started his shift on the morning of June 25, 1997, when he came across a body in the middle of the cul-de-sac on Parkway South, a road that runs parallel to Interstate 95 and used to connect to the now-defunct Waterford Airport. Whitehead testified that he notified the police dispatcher and, once another officer arrived, felt the female victim's carotid artery for a pulse.

Another officer, Cynthia Munoz, testified that she had patrolled the same section of road while working the midnight shift and had seen nothing out of place. She said that it had rained that morning during her lunch break, which she took between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.

Detective Sgt. John Turner from the Eastern District Major Crime Squad said he arrived at the scene at about 9 a.m., videotaped the crime scene and surveyed the body.

Though Carney warned Pellegrino's mother, Jean Russell, that she might not want to see the video, Russell stayed in the courtroom as the picture of her daughter's body, naked and in a crucifix-like position, aired on a projector.

"I have to know," Russell had said earlier when asked if she would be looking at the crime scene photos. Pellegrino, 41, had become addicted to crack cocaine and was working as a prostitute at the time of her death.

Turner testified that Pellegrino appeared to have been killed somewhere else, and the Waterford site appeared to be a dump site, or "secondary scene."
Her killer appeared to have posed her body intentionally. She had marks on her neck that indicated she had been killed with a ligature, such as a rope or cord. The only article on her body was a pink hair tie that was wrapped around her wrist.

Turner said it appeared that Pellegrino's body had been placed at the crime scene during the rain storm, since she had water underneath her body and in her belly button and her hair was wet and matted.

http://theday.com/article/20120313/NWS02/120319850/1018

[Rockin Ma]

Today they focused on the discovery of Michelle Comeau's body. She was still warm when a man with his two daughters drove up on her. The girls who were 6 and 10 at the time testified. One of the girls remembered a truck leaving the scene and concluded the body had come from that truck. Another witnesse stopped after seeing the first witness' car in the road, thinking they hit a deer until he saw it was a body. He felt for a pulse then covered her with a jacket from his car. EMTs did work on her and she was transferred to the hospital (deceased). It is alleged one thing linking the defendant to the crimes is that both bodies were posed in a similar fashion. I didn't see any evidence this is true. In fact the body was moved by the ones who found her and the emts. No photos of the scene were taken before she was moved. There was testimony the Norwich victim had her arms out to the side as well and her legs were spread, but there was no description to me that matched the first one. A police officer testified about his many dealings with the victim and actually was called to the hospital to identify her for sure. She had ligature marks on her neck and wrists. The jury was removed while they argued entering photos of a vehicle that was investigated early on from a possible suspect. Suspect enough that they were able to get a warrant. The jury did not hear, but I did that rope the same size as was used as a ligature was found in that truck. They did not say who this vehicle belonged to, but I think I know where the defense was going and that is the murder of Hope Becker. She was found dumped in a park here wearing only socks and a hair tie years ago. She also had ligature marks on her neck and wrists. I think they are going to try to point to her murderer as the one here. They have not yet gotten to the subject of how the defendant knew this Norwich victim, but so far this seems like a pretty weak case. I'm calling it that they won't convict this defendant on the Norwich one. At least right now it seems this way, but the judge did say this case has a long way to go. They have estimated the trial to last to the end of the month.

[Rockin Ma]

There was hours of testimony from an inspector today. I just can't recap it so I'm going to look for an article instead:

Eleven years after Renee Pellegrino's body was discovered in a Waterford cul-de-sac, investigators got a break in a murder investigation that had long grown cold.
They were notified that DNA taken from Pellegrino's body matched a sample that had been provided by Dickie E. Anderson, Jr., a New London man who had provided a DNA sample to authorities when he was convicted of an unrelated crime.
Testifying this morning at Anderson's murder trial, retired Waterford detective Sgt. Michael Hurley pointed to Anderson and identified him as the man, sitting between his two attorneys with "a bald head, goatee, suit and nice tie." Hurley described how he and two others met with Anderson at the Osborn Correctional Institution in August 2008. Hurley was retired by that time, but was still authorized to conduct investigations as an inspector for the Division of Criminal Justice. He was accompanied in the interview by detective Sgt. Joseph DePasquale from the Waterford Police Department and detective David Lamoureux.
Anderson agreed to talk and waived his rights. The investigators recorded the interview without Anderson's knowledge.
"We showed him a picture of Renee Pellegrino and asked him if he knew the girl in the picture," Hurley testified. Prosecutor David J. Smith displayed the photograph, a mug shot of Pellegrino after she had been arrested by Waterford police – on the projector for the jury. Anderson said he didn't know the woman and signed a statement saying so.
"We knew he was lying because of the DNA hit," Hurley testified. "We said, 'We know you're lying.' His story changed."
Anderson told the investigators he worked a split shift at his job in The Day's mailroom on the night of June 24, 1997. He said he worked 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and returned for a 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. shift. After the first shift, he said he had a beer with a co-worker at Ernie's Café, met up with another friend and began walking toward his sister's home on Fern Street. On Washington Street, he said they saw Pellegrino, who appeared to be arguing with a man in a blue station wagon. Anderson said Pellegrino walked back with them and then left.
"He left a huge part out," Hurley said. "He didn't mention how his DNA was with Renee."
Anderson admitted he had sex with Pellegrino and gave her $20 before she left and he went back to work. He initially said he used a condom but changed his story when pressed again about the DNA, Hurley said.
Anderson told the investigators he returned to work, and was back at his sister's house by 3:45 p.m., when Pellegrino and their friend, Darryl, came to the door. He said Pellegrino agreed to have sex with him, so they went into his sister's basement, where they once again had unprotected sex. Anderson told the investigators Pellegrino and Darryl, a person police have never been able to identify – left together and he stayed in for the night.
Based on a timeline of Pellegrino's activity and the condition of her body, police estimate her body was dumped on Parkway South between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. on June 25, 1997.
In his cross-examination of Hurley, defense attorney John T. Walkley asked Hurley, "Isn't it a fact Mr. Anderson said he never killed Renee Pellegrino?" Hurley answered affirmatively.
During his interview with the investigators, Anderson told them he had seen Pellegrino's picture in the paper on the day she was killed and told a New London Police officer that he saw in Captain's Pizza a few days later about her encounter with the man in the blue station wagon. Hurley said that the information was relayed to investigators, who followed up on the lead.

http://theday.com/article/20120315/NWS02/120319718/1047

That's an o.k. recap. But a lot more happened. The Defense did get the Inspector to admit that they said things to him that weren't true to get information...like they told him they found his hair on her, but actually they did not. They had a hair, that was being tested, but they did not know if it was his. They showed an aerial of his house, it's literally a hop skip and a jump from where the news articles (but not mentioned in Court when I have been there) has stated a jailhouse informant said he said he "killed a woman in Bates Woods". It doesn't explain how the body got to the "secondary scene" though his sister this morning stated he was not allowed to drive her car after he got into an accident, but she did could not recall when that accident was. He would have to have a vehicle to get the body to the next town. But was her car available to do that? No idea. She said she was the only one with a car and four people used it at any time. I didn't catch her work hours, but she worked night shift too. She did not say if she took her car to work that day. I would like to know this.

Interesting to note that this morning, the victim's relative hugged the Defendant's sister and told her she hoped her testimony would not take too long. Apparently she testified in the afternoon yesterday when I wasn't there. They are very nice to each other there. Holding doors open etc. The courtroom is so small. It is a very intimate setting. The max people in the gallery watching tops out at about 6 at the most. The jurors are very attentive. I don't see them looking around bored at all. I think the will do a good job.

The inspector stated a name... I think of the person in the blue station wagon, I can't remember, but the Prosecutor spoke over him and told him he did not have to say the person's name.

[Rockin Ma]

Arthur Moore, who has spent most of his adult life in prison, knew what to say when prison officials intentionally placed Dickie E. Anderson Jr. in his cell at the Osborn Correctional Institution three years ago

.

"We got comfortable because I knew somebody in his family."
The 45-year-old Moore, whose rap sheet carries at least 11 felony convictions, some for drugs and weapons, had agreed to elicit information from Anderson, who was suspected of murdering Renee Pellegrino in 1997 and Michelle Comeau in 1998. At the time, Anderson was serving a yearlong prison sentence for the attempted strangulation and unlawful restraint of his then-girlfriend.
As Moore told his story to the jury Monday, prosecutor Stephen M. Carney interrupted him frequently to ask for translations of street talk and jailhouse lingo.
"He said he had caught a body," Moore testified.
"What does that mean?" Carney asked.
"He said something happened where he killed a female," Moore responded. "... He said he was trickin' with her for $5 but she wanted more money."
Pellegrino was working as a prostitute at the time of her death. Anderson has admitted to having sex with her before she died.
Anderson told Moore he "put his hands around her neck and shook her to try to get her to shut up," Moore testified. Anderson said Pellegrino "was sleeping," so he called a friend who helped him take the woman to Waterford, where she was from, and "pushed her out of the car."
Pellegrino's body was discovered in the cul-de-sac of Parkway South on June 25, 1997. She was 41.
Moore said Anderson told him that Comeau, whom he met at his father's apartment, overdosed on drugs.
"He said he had sex with her and dropped her off over there by Franklin," Moore testified.
Comeau's body was discovered on New Park Avenue in Franklin on May 1, 1998. She, too, had been working as a prostitute.
When Moore went to correction officials with the information, they installed a recording device in the cell at the request of police. The device recorded 12½ hours of conversation between the two men but did not capture any confession from Anderson.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Christopher Duby, Moore admitted that he had testified at a previous murder trial and that he had later recanted his statement.
"I recanted my statement because my son was kidnapped," Moore said. "My son was kidnapped by a rival gang member that I saw kill somebody."

Also Monday, jurors heard the clink of handcuffs as they listened to a recorded interview between murder suspect Anderson and state police Detective Keith Hoyt.
Hoyt went to the Office of Adult Probation on June 1, 2010, to interview Anderson about the Comeau homicide. Two other detectives were there that day to arrest Anderson for the Pellegrino murder. During the interview, Anderson initially said he did not know Comeau but later admitted he had seen her at his father's Norwich apartment on the day she died.
Under cross-examination, Duby asked Hoyt whether there was any place in an investigation for police to manipulate facts.
"I don't like the word 'manipulate,'" Hoyt responded. "We don't try to manipulate anything."
Duby then brought up an interview that Hoyt and another detective conducted with Mark Allen, a Massachusetts man who once lived with Anderson's father. He asked Hoyt if he had told Allen that investigators "played with dead bodies and manipulate things." When Hoyt said he didn't remember saying that, Duby asked Judge Arthur C. Hadden to excuse the jury, then played a snippet of the interview.
On the recording, Hoyt said, "We walk into those crime scenes, we play with those bodies, we manipulate things…"
Prosecutor David J. Smith said the 10-second snippet was not in context and that he would like the jury to hear the entire portion of the interview. Hadden said Smith should review the recording to find the relevant section before bringing it up to the jury.

http://theday.com/article/20120320/N...09935/-1/NWS02

I heard today a juror wrote the Judge a note he feels the Defendant is guilty and nothing can change his mind, so he should be let go. I believe it to be a case of "this shit is taking forever and I want to get back to home/work" You get $250 per week of service

If you are employed full time, your employer must pay you your regular wages for the first five days of jury service.

Full time employment is anything more than 30 hours per week.

If you do not work full time, the state may pay you up to $50 per day for out-of-pocket expenses (with proper documentation), for the first five days of jury service. Out of pocket expenses include child care, parking, and mileage or other transportation costs. You must complete a Reimbursement Form, JD-JA-16 and return it to the court.

The state pays all jurors $50 per day starting with the sixth day of jury service and each subsequent day of jury service.

http://www.jud.ct.gov/jury/faq.htm#paid

[Rockin Ma]

Anderson told Moore he "put his hands around her neck and shook her to try to get her to shut up," Moore testified. Anderson said Pellegrino "was sleeping," so he called a friend who helped him take the woman to Waterford, where she was from, and "pushed her out of the car."

The problem with that witness's statement is that the Defendant said he pushed her out of the car. Which I am still haunted by that first day of seeing her naked deliberately posed body, no way she was pushed out of a car. Also if he put her hands around her neck, why are there ligature marks? I think he's a pretty bad witness.

[Rockin Ma]

Oh crap, I've forgotten to update. I hadn't attended many more court days. I really think it's weak as to both, definitely to the Norwich one.

It's with the Jury since I think Monday. I was sure being Friday they'd reach a verdict, but I guess not.

[Rockin Ma]

Guilty for one. Mistrial for the other. I thought there was a possibility since the State put the two together, he'd be found not guilty as to both.

A New London jury has found Dickie E. Anderson guilty of killing Renee Pellegrino but has been unable to reach a verdict in the case of Michelle Comeau.
Anderson, 42, has been on trial for the strangling deaths of Pellegrino in 1997 and Comeau in 1998.
Judge Arthur C. Hadden declared a mistrial in the Comeau case.
The jury, which began deliberating March 27, sent Hadden a note at 12:15 p.m. today saying it had reached a verdict in one of the cases but was unable to come to an agreement on the other. Hadden instructed them to try to come to an agreement, reading them the so-called "Chip Smith charge" in which the dissenting jurors are asked to consider the position of the majority.
The two murder cases were joined for trial based on their similarities. Both victims were troubled women who were addicted to crack cocaine and working as prostitutes. Both bodies were found naked and laid out on wooded stretches of roadway. The medical examiner who conducted the autopsies of both women said they had been strangled manually and with a ligature, noting that was extremely rare in his experience.

http://www.theday.com/article/201204...120409864/1017