ALFRED — Patrick Dapolito was lying on the bathroom floor with his wife, Kelly Winslow, nearby. He had been using cocaine and she had taken prescription painkillers before Dapolito fell asleep.

The gunshot woke him. The weapon was in his right hand. Winslow, a handcuff attached to her right wrist, was dead.

That is how Dapolito recounted what happened in the couple’s home in Limington on March 16, 2010. He told police it was an accident and he was in a panic afterward.

Authorities have described Dapolito as a jealous abuser who intentionally shot Winslow in the head.

A jury was selected Monday and will begin hearing the two theories this morning as Dapolito’s murder trial gets under way in York County Superior Court. The trial is expected to take about three weeks.

Dapolito’s lawyer, David Van Dyke, said the state is simply wrong, and that revelations from the past 22 months will bring to light what actually happened. Dapolito, 41, is looking forward to taking the stand in his defense, Van Dyke said Monday.

“I think that when the jury hears the entire story, they’ll be left understanding what happened,” he said.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese declined to comment.

Dapolito and Winslow got married several months before the shooting, about six years after they met. A police affidavit said Dapolito was jealous and had accused Winslow of infidelity.

Winslow’s teenage daughter from a previous relationship told police about instances when Dapolito abused her mother. He had burned her hand with a cigarette, attacked her with a pool cue and fired a gun near her, she said.

In recounting the shooting, Dapolito told police that Winslow, 30, liked it when they were handcuffed together because it made her feel secure, according to the affidavit. He had taken off the handcuff before the shooting because it was uncomfortable.

The couple, who slept with a gun nearby, used drugs before lying on the bathroom floor on the day of the shooting. She was naked and he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

The gun “just went off,” Dapolito told his father by telephone later that day.

Dapolito used bleach to clean the bathroom. He wrapped his wife’s body in a blanket and plastic before putting it in a freezer in the basement. He borrowed his brother’s truck and loaded Winslow’s body into it.

He took the gun and bloody clothes with him as he headed to Upton, west of Bethel. When he got there, he put the body behind the home of his father, who was in Florida, and covered it with a tarp.

Dapolito went to Portland the next day with plans to fly to Florida. He changed his mind and instead got in touch with the sister of an ex-girlfriend, whom he met with her husband off the Maine Turnpike in Kennebunk. Ultimately, Dapolito got in touch with David Sanders, his ex-girlfriend’s lawyer.

Authorities learned of Winslow’s death when Sanders called them on March 18. Dapolito went to the Maine State Police barracks in Gray the next day. Authorities found Winslow’s body that afternoon in Upton.

If he is convicted of murdering his wife, Dapolito faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com

 

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