Conflicting memories from a key witness and an investigator delayed the start of a long-anticipated murder trial, but the conflict only pushed the trial back two days.
Jury selection is now slated to start Wednesday morning in the trial of Mark De Simone, accused of the 2016 homicide of 34-year-old Juneau man Duilio Antonio “Tony” Rosales. The presentation of evidence is expected to begin Monday, April 30, Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige said.
De Simone, 55, sat quietly in court Tuesday morning as attorneys questioned a witness and the lead investigator for the case who had different recollections of their interactions.
According to the original indictment, Alaska State Trooper Ryan Anderson responded to a call for help at Excursion Inlet on May 15, 2016, to find Rosales deceased with two gunshot wounds in his head. He and De Simone were two members of a hunting party, court documents state. One of the other men in the hunting party, Sam Bradshaw, is a witness in the case.
Last week, Bradshaw told prosecutors he had given an interview to Anderson a few weeks after the incident (which happened May 15, 2016). Both men called into court Tuesday. Bradshaw spoke first, saying he called Anderson in the middle or end of June 2016 to share one last anecdote from the incident. Not only did Anderson say he did not have a record of the interview, but he said he didn’t recall it happening.
“I don’t have any recollection of it in my memory or in my notes or in my reports,” Anderson said in court Tuesday.
Anderson said he records everything that has even he most minute importance in an investigation. De Simone’s defense attorney Deborah Macaulay said the same in court Monday, saying she’d heard recordings of calls as minor as Anderson calling people and leaving a voicemail.
The issue at hand Tuesday, Judge Philip Pallenberg said in court, was whether the prosecution acted improperly with this possible recording. Pallenberg laid out a variety of possible scenarios to explain the confusion, but he said he didn’t feel there was any evidence that Anderson or the prosecution willfully kept discovery from the defense.
“I can’t find with any certainty that there was any misconduct,” Pallenberg said.
Macaulay said she would be ready to proceed to jury selection as soon as Wednesday morning, and Paige agreed. Pallenberg scheduled jury selection to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Pallenberg said he expects there to be 14 jurors selected over the next couple of days, to have a couple alternates in place. One issue, Pallenberg said, is that these jurors were summoned to be on duty for the month of April. This trial, Paige has estimated previously, could last around three weeks, which would take the trial well into the month of May.
Pallenberg said he expects that prospective jurors might have made plans in May, expecting to only be on jury duty for the month of April. That could make the selection process difficult, he said. After jury selection, both attorneys will have a chance to make opening statements.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
Mark Anthony De Simone, 53 at the time, arrives in Juneau District Court for his arraignment is this May 2016 archive photo. (Micheal Penn | Juneau Empire File)
