Case #10: The Amityville Murders: Part 3 (The Trial)
The Prosecution:
On October 14, 1975, Butch's case finally went to trial. The prosecutor for the case was Gerard Sullivan, the assistant district attorney with Suffolk County, NY. Even though Butch had confessed, led investigators to the evidence, and investigators had positively identified his own .35 caliber rife as the murder weapon, Sullivan chose not to take any chances. During the pre-trial and jury selection, Sullivan studied and questioned Butch. Sullivan allegedly knew that Butch was a pathological liar, and could be evasive. Sullivan's goal was to make sure the jury knew for sure that Butch was completely sane, and was acting methodically. However, he was also able to see that the idea that Butch was insane might actually not be enough to convince a jury of Butch's insanity. Throughout the trial, many witnesses were called to stand. But, it would appear that the witness who would help Sullivan the most was Butch DeFeo himself. When Sullivan would eventually have to cross-examine Butch, he did everything he could to push Butch's buttons. Sullivan called Butch out because Butch had said on the stand at one point that he didn't recognize his own mother when he was shown a picture of her. Sullivan would eventually take things further by calling Butch out for conflicting evidence. Sullivan's questioning led to being centered around the murder. Ultimately, Sullivan was able to goad Butch into threatening his life. The prosecution did have a prominent psychiatrist. However, Sullivan chose to rely on his own skills as a prosector instead. One of the witnesses called for the defense was a man named Dr. Daniel Schwartz (who would later gain notoriety for diagnosing David Berkowitz as criminally insane). I mention this here because the defense's own questioning seemed to give Sullivan a break for the prosecution. When it came time for Sullivan to question Schwartz, he questioned the doctor enough, that he was able to poke holes in the doctor's diagnosis. Sullivan's goal was to prove that Schwartz didn't have enough exposure to Butch as a person. So, now, let's circle back to the psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dr. Harold Zolan. Zolan saw Butch as having antisocial personality disorder.
The Defense:
On the other hand, Butch's defense lawyer was a man named William Weber. Weber's idea was to lean into the insanity defense for Butch. Before the case even went to trial, Weber allegedly tried to have the case dismissed outright. He claimed that Butch wasn't allowed counsel just before his confession, and that the confession was obtained under duress. Fortunately, neither of Weber's claims held up to scrutiny. I mentioned when discussing the prosecution's side of events that Butch would actually be a great help to the prosecution. This came from Weber calling him to the witness stand. Butch claimed to have killed his family in self defense. Weber continued on with his questioning. One of the responses Butch had was: "As far as I'm concerned, if I didn't kill my family, they were going to kill me. As far as I'm concerned, what I did was self defense, and there was nothing wrong with it." So, when I talked about Dr. Schwartz in the prosecution side of things, the defense did seem to gloss over things, which is why this tactic seemed to end up working more in the prosecution's favor. Something I should note is that I was unable to find if Schwartz had diagnosed Butch. Weber did try to use the same tactic on Zolan that Sullivan used on Schwartz. This didn't really work in the defense's favor, however.
Final Notes:
On November 21st, 1975, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. Two weeks later, Butch was sentenced to 25 to life. Over the years, Butch recanted and changed various pieces of his story. This included attempting to blame his mother and his sister at various times. However, he was constantly denied parole. He died in prison on March 12, 2021.
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