This is a revised and updated post with some additional facts! Please read it!
Wednesday – both the govt and the defense rested their case. The jury is now deliberating.
In closing arguments the govt argued that Chris hired Bressman to kill Garguilo. However, there is no evidence of that at all. They are relying heavily on a 3 minute phone call that Bressman made to Chris days before the murder. They of course ignore the fact that those same phone records also show several other calls that Bressman made to his friends during the same time period. His call to Chris was NOT unusual or out of the ordinary. Bressman’s calls were NOT indicative of planning a murder and there are NO facts to support that. It would be fair to say however that he was “drunk dialing” after a 12 hour crack binge!
It is also clear that the govt’s motive - which tries to position that Chris killed Garguilo to prevent Garguilo from turning over a tape to the FBI – makes ZERO sense. The timeline shows that Garguilo was leaving threatening messages on Scott Mulligan’s answering machine 10 months before the murder. Why on earth would Chris or anyone wait that long just to hire a crackhead to kill Garguilo ONE YEAR LATER? It makes NO sense at all.
The defense showed that Garguilo was killed in a drug related incident. The govt’s own witnesses testified that Vinny and Bressman were friends and drug addicts and that Bressman had sold Vinny drugs in the past – and that he was trying to sell Vinny drugs just the week before the incident. Phone records show a direct relationship between Bressman, Vinny, and Vinny’s then roommate.
As far as Scott Mulligan and his testimony – all I can say is that nothing he said had any direct connection to Chris murdering Vinny. It is that simple.
Evidence showed that Bressman and Amador were both junkies at the time of the murder. Whether Vinny owed them money, or they just wanted to rob him of drugs they thought he may have had on him, or they were just on a delusional crack binge, we may never know for sure.
What we do know is that an eye-witness to the shooting testified that he saw an Hispanic male with a tattoo of colorful wings on his arm shoot Vinny in the head – this matches Amador’s description exactly! The eyewitnesses statement has not changed in all these years – despite the govt’s despicable attempt at trying to make him look like a liar. It’s funny that the gov’t tried to argue that this eyewitness lied because he wanted two free nights in a hotel room -ludicrous! So this eyewitness had to guess that Amador had a colorful winged tattoo – Amador took off his shirt and there it was – wow this eyewitness must be psychic!!!
The government also noted that Amador’s fingerprints were found on a beer can located inside of a nearby phone booth. This is consistent with the defense theory because Amador’s roommate said that Amador and Bressman left the apartment hours before the actual shooting. That gave them plenty of time to go to the location and scope it out before leaving to come back later when they expected Vinny to show up. Amador must have left the beer can there when they were casing the scene earlier.
Lastly – Amador was arrested with a 22 caliber gun in September 2003 and that was the the same caliber gun used to kill Garguilo.
What does all of this this mean? That AMADOR shot and killed Vinny in the head – not Bressman – and that Amador’s story was a TOTAL FABRICATION designed to help him avoid a life sentence. That seems to be a recurring theme in this case – the gov’t gives ridiculous deals to criminals without verifying major parts of their testimony, as long as they incriminate Chris. Enough is enough.
Let’s hope the jury sees that the dots just don’t add up. They will return on Monday to continue their deliberation. Thanks for your support!
