Defense lawyer says slay suspect has brain damage

[bruce p]

Defense lawyer says slay suspect has brain damage

03/11/98
By John Ellement, Globe Staff
According to his defense lawyer, Wayne Barbetta was the person who stabbed
an East Boston woman 47 times with a carving knife in the living room of her
home and sexually assaulted the body, but he was driven to the murder by
brain damage.

The lawyer, Roger Witkin, made that contention during opening statements in
Barbetta's first-degree murder trial in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday.
Witkin said Barbetta's mental state is to blame for the death of Jodi
Phillips, 26, in April 1996.

Witkin said his evidence should convince the jurors that Barbetta should not
be convicted for Phillips' murder on the grounds that it was premeditated or
because he stabbed Phillips so many times.

''I am not talking about insanity,'' Witkin said of Barbetta. ''This man is
brain-damaged, and that brain damage was exacerbated'' by years of abusing
alcohol and drugs.

But David Meier, Suffolk County's chief homicide prosecutor, told the jury
that Phillips died a horrific, painful death, and Barbetta - a family
acquaintance who pretended to mourn at Phillips' wake - should be held
responsible.

''Jodi Phillips is no more because Wayne Barbetta viciously and brutally
stabbed her to death,'' Meier said.

Authorities say Barbetta attacked Phillips with a 9-inch carving knife in
her Everett Street apartment after she refused to have sex with him. When
she collapsed, Barbetta pulled off her clothes, then sexually assaulted the
body.

According to court records, investigators linked Barbetta to the murder
through DNA tests. Mental health specialists examined Barbetta, but found no
evidence of mental illness and judged him competent to stand trial.