ALFRED — Patrick Dapolito lay down on the bathroom floor, spooning the life-size mannequin that was standing in for his dead wife.
They always went to sleep in that position, he told detectives, and this time they were lying on their right sides, his left arm draped over his wife’s body, his face in her hair and a gun in his right hand under his head.
Additional Photos
The detectives asked him about the location of Kelly Winslow’s head, the pillow she put over their heads to block out the light, and the position of his body when he woke to the “pouf” of the gun firing.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I remember,” he said.
In the videotaped re-enactment, Dapolito told authorities that he was high on cocaine when the gun accidentally fired and killed his wife in their home in Limington on March 16, 2010.
But now, the defense in his murder trial is arguing that Winslow, 30, was the victim of a dispute between Dapolito, who had turned to drug dealing, and his suppliers.
Dapolito says he returned home after getting cigarettes and coffee from a nearby store that day and found his wife dead.
If he’s convicted of murder, Dapolito, 41, will face 25 years to life in prison.
On Thursday, the prosecution showed jurors the video and presented witnesses who said there were problems with Dapolito’s account of the accidental shooting.
In the video, taken in his home, Dapolito demonstrates various positions that he and Winslow may have been in before and after she was killed by a gunshot to the head. The gloved hands of detectives take measurements, camera flashes illuminate the bathroom, and a cat wanders into the bathroom during the re-enactment.
The camera follows Dapolito to other parts of his home: the master bedroom attached to the bathroom, and the basement where he put Winslow’s body in a freezer before bringing it to his father’s property in Upton. At times, Dapolito holds his head in his hands, cries and twists the wedding ring on his finger.
On Thursday in York County Superior Court, Dapolito sat close to the video screen. He wiped his eyes with his hands — a gold band is still on his left hand — while the video played, and reached for a tissue during a break.
Investigators brought in a specialist from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives because there were questions about the position of the shooter and Winslow, said Herb Leighton, a Maine State Police homicide detective.
Some of the information investigators had from the bathroom indicated that Dapolito knew what had happened, but what he said about the gun’s position was inconsistent with the evidence, Leighton said.
Gregory Klees, the specialist, testified that the bullet’s path through Winslow’s head and the vanity cabinet door, before it hit the drain trap, indicated that the gun could not have been in the position Dapolito described.
The prosecution showed the jury photos of a Styrofoam head on the bathroom floor with a rod indicating the bullet’s path. In some of the photos, Klees demonstrated possible body positions for the shooter.
In questioning Klees, defense attorney David Van Dyke and Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber each got down on the floor in front of the jury box to demonstrate the positions they were discussing.
Klees said the shooter could have had his right shoulder against the floor and under his torso, but that would have required a very awkward wrist position. He pointed out that in a photo of himself in that position, his finger could barely reach the trigger.
More likely, the shooter’s chest was off the floor, his torso propped up with his right forearm, Klees said.
Klees also testified that the downward tilt of Winslow’s head would have been very uncomfortable for sleeping. He said something — which could have been a firearm — applied pressure to her head to put it in that position.
The defense says Dapolito turned to drug dealing after he lost his job as a specialist in pipe gauges for the oil industry.
Van Dyke said Dapolito clung to his story about the accidental shooting until after a meeting in June 2010, when authorities raised the possible role of the drug trade in Winslow’s death.
Van Dyke said he learned of Dapolito’s drug business later from one of Dapolito’s daughters. He said Dapolito abandoned his account of the accidental shooting when he realized that authorities knew about his drug activities.
Dapolito initiated the meeting with authorities because he wanted to counter their assertions that Winslow’s death was an act of domestic violence, Van Dyke said.
In the audio recording of the meeting, played for the jury, Dapolito describes Winslow as his “hippie chick,” whom he treated like a princess.
He says their cocaine use brought them closer because it was a “truth serum” that prompted long discussions in which they poured out their feelings. He says they decided to get married — which they did in December 2009 in Mexico — because of their deepened relationship.
Dapolito responds with profanity when asked whether Winslow threatened to inform on him. When a detective asks him about being controlling or jealous, Dapolito says he “shared” his wife.
They were swingers, he says, and often spent time at Platinum Plus, a strip club in Portland where she had worked.
Regarding the handcuff that was found on Winslow’s body, Dapolito says she initially wanted to try handcuffs as an experiment on a date night. He says she later started handcuffing them together because she was insecure and wanted to be attached to him. He denies ever using handcuffs to prevent her from leaving the house.
The trial is expected to continue today, weather permitting.
Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be reached at 791-6383 or at:
akim@pressherald.com
Correction: This story was revised at 9:45 a.m., Jan. 27, 2012, to correct the name of Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
