Replay of testimony in Leniart murder trial sought by jurors
By Karen Florin

Publication: The Day

Published 02/26/2010 12:00 AMUpdated 02/26/2010 01:43 AM
A quartet of witnesses dubbed "The Four Horsemen" by defense attorney Norman A. Pattis quickly became the focus of a jury that began deliberating Thursday in the murder trial of George M. Leniart.

Leniart, 44, of Montville, is accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 15-year-old April Dawn Pennington, who disappeared from her parents' Montville home on May 29, 1996. The state rarely prosecutes cases when no body has been recovered, but state police brought charges against Leniart, a convicted sex offender, 12 years after April went missing.

The jury of nine men and three women settled into their discussions in mid-afternoon after listening to closing arguments from the attorneys and to legal instructions from Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed. They elected a foreman, requested notepads, and as the business day came to a close sent the judge a note asking for a replay of the recorded testimony of the four men who implicated Leniart.

The panel will listen this morning to the testimony of Patrick "PJ" Allain, who said he and Leniart raped April on the night she sneaked out a window and climbed into the then-30-year-old Leniart's pickup truck. Allain, who said he was dropped off first, said Leniart told him the next day that he had killed the girl and disposed of her body.

The jury also wants to listen again to testimony from Kenneth Buckingham, Michael Douton and Zee Ching, jailhouse informants who testified that Leniart confessed the murder to them when they roomed together or crossed paths in prison.

Thursday morning, the New London courtroom had filled up with spectators for the closing arguments of the seasoned attorneys for the state and defense. Detectives who had investigated the case, some of whom had been sequestered during the trial, filled a few rows of benches behind the state's table to hear the attorneys' summations. Leniart, who had opted not to testify on his own behalf, busied himself with a pen and notepad at the defense table.

Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney gestured toward Leniart while describing him as a man who took pleasure in telling people he would not be charged with murder because April's body has not been recovered. "No body, no crime," Leniart allegedly said to fellow prison inmates.

Carney acknowledged the state's key witnesses are convicted felons, but asked the jury to consider that they "may just be trying to do the right thing" in this case. He pointed to the similarities between the sexual assault that Leniart had committed just six months before April Pennington went missing. The state had called the victim of that crime as its last witness.

Leniart's lawyer continued to attack the credibility of Allain and the three "snitches." He called them "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in a Biblical reference to when God sends four horsemen to wreak havoc on the world. Noting each of the witnesses gave a different version of Leniart's alleged confession, he asked the jurors to play the "telephone" game in which each person whispers something to another, and the message becomes convoluted as it is passed on from person to person.

Pattis tossed out theories for the jury's consideration, including the fact that April Pennington could still be alive or that Allain is the one who killed her.

"I can tell you straight up: I don't know where April Dawn Pennington is, and you don't either," he said.

k.florin@theday.com

Posted by Thomas A. (Tad) DiBiase, No Body Guy