Cahill: Husband Accused of Assault and Poisoning
WWWoLadyA
The prosecution has already rested and the defense begins today.
The defense appears to be conceding Cahill's guilt, while challenging the
prosecution's contention that his conduct amounted to first-degree murder
warranting a death sentence.
James "Jeff" Cahill III 39, of Spafford is charged with murdering his wife,
Jill, in October by poisoning her with cyanide in her bed at University
Hospital. She was recuperating from severe head injuries Cahill is accused of
inflicting with an aluminum baseball bat during a fight April 21, 1998, in the
couple's home on East Lake Road. The bat used to batter Jill Cahill belonged to
the couple's 10-year-old son.
He could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
State police investigators who handled the assault investigation and obtained
several statements from Cahill are expected to testify about that phase of the
case. Cahill gave a three-page statement that April morning, admitting he had
struck his wife with the bat but claiming she had attacked him first with a
knife. He then gave a one-page statement admitting he had inflicted some
scratches on himself to make it look as if there had been more of a struggle.
Another law enforcement official is expected to testify about what the
prosecution contends were extensive Internet inquiries about cyanide that
Cahill made from a home computer. A large screen has been set up on the wall of
the courtroom, and an overhead projector will help the prosecution show that
evidence to the jurors.
The prosecution also is expected to rely heavily on the testimony of University
Hospital employees who identified Cahill as a man they saw near Jill Cahill's
hospital room, posing as a member of a cleaning crew, the night she was
poisoned.
Graphic detail of the assault:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/stwednesday/19990804_rnjeff.html
A blurry pic of the defendant:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/sttuesday/ pic
Some excerpts from the week:
Mark Cahill (the defendant's brother) said he and his mother went to the
defendant's home the morning of Oct. 31. He claimed they were looking to get
T-shirts for Jeff, to check the house for vandalism and to check a piece of
construction equipment. When Fitzpatrick asked why he needed to check on that
piece of equipment, he said he wanted to see whether it was in good condition
to sell.
Syracuse police Detective Tom Derby later testified that he refused to let the
Cahills in the house or on the property because he was guarding it in
anticipation of the execution of a search warrant. A short time later, as
officers searched the area near the piece of construction equipment Mark Cahill
wanted to see, they found a bottle of potassium cyanide slipped inside a cinder
block under the edge of a shed, Derby said.
Donohue also testified the computer files showed 64 connections to the Internet
either searching for information about cyanide and how to order it, or calling
up documents with that information resulting from the search.
Thursday: James "Jeff" Cahill's mother and brother testified as prosecution
witnesses. Other witnesses testified about a stranger in sunglasses and maroon
baseball cap in the vicinity of the General Super Plating plant in DeWitt, near
where a cyanide shipment was intercepted from a deliveryman in July 1998. A
University Hospital employee identified Cahill as the man, wearing a wig and
pushing a dust mop, whom she saw slip into Jill Cahill's hospital room about
one week before she was poisoned in October.
Friday: Other hospital employees are expected to testify about identifying
Cahill as the wigged stranger they saw near Jill's room the night she was
poisoned. The jurors also are expected to hear from police.
The victims sister testified that there had never been any sign of physical
violence in the Cahill marriage. By Christmas 1997, her sister was planning to
get a separation from Cahill because "things were so difficult."
WWWoLadyA
Mouth Bruises, Cyanide Linked
By Jim O'Hara (Syracuse Online)
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick rested the prosecution
case against James "Jeff" Cahill Friday after the medical examiner testified
Jill Cahill suffered mouth and chin injuries around the same time she was
fatally poisoned with cyanide last October.
Dr. Mary Jumbelic said the scrapes and bruises to the victim's chin and lips
were consistent with her mouth having been forced open or closed, but not
consistent with medical intervention to save her life.
Jumbelic then said there were only two ways the cyanide found in Jill's stomach
got into her system: through her mouth or through the feeding tube she was
attached to in University Hospital. The jurors heard from another witness that
there was no evidence of cyanide in the feeding tube or the contents of the
feeding bag.
When it comes time to sum up the case, Fitzpatrick is expected to argue the
evidence suggests Jill's killer forced cyanide into her mouth.
Jeff Cahill, 39, is charged with first-degree murder. He also is charged with
assault, accused of using an aluminum baseball bat to inflict the severe head
injuries that put Jill in the hospital on April 21, 1998. If Cahill is
convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death penalty.
Fitzpatrick rested the prosecution case at 2:40 p.m. Friday after calling 42
witnesses and presenting more than 120 exhibits in the past four days. Defense
lawyers Richard Priest and Gary Miles said they expected to call witnesses on
Cahill's behalf Monday.
Fitzpatrick and Chief Assistant District Attorney Stephen Dougherty spent
Friday seeking to further link Jeff Cahill to the fatal cyanide attack in the
hospital about 10 p.m. Oct. 27.
Nurse Julie Labayewski testified she discovered a small white plastic cap in
the bed beside Jill's neck when she found the patient gasping for breath with a
white, waxy substance strewn across her chest.
Tamara Danner, a forensic chemist with the Syracuse Police Department,
testified that cap fit on a plastic vial rolled up in the bedding from Jill's
bed. Danner testified she also compared the cap and vial to a capped plastic
tube seized from the Cahill residence on East Lake Road in Spafford the morning
of Oct. 28.
Danner said the two caps were identical. She said the vial found in Jill's
hospital bedding appeared to be a cut-down version of the tube found in the
Cahill home.
Dr. Timothy Rohrig, the county's director of laboratories, testified Friday a
washing from the vial found in the hospital bedding tested positive for
potassium cyanide as did one of two swabs taken from the neck and chest from
Jill.
Rohrig said the level of cyanide found in Jill's stomach was not necessarily
lethal, but indicated a much larger dose had been administered to the victim
since cyanide is so rapidly absorbed in the system. Cyanide also was found in
the victim's blood, he said.
Both Rohrig and Jumbelic explained to the jury that cyanide kills by causing
suffocation on a cellular level, where the body is unable to use oxygen.
Labayewski told the jurors Jill had no pulse and had stopped breathing within
two to three minutes after she was found gasping for breath in her hospital
room about 10:15 p.m. Oct. 27. Jumbelic testified the victim was pronounced
dead the following day.
Five other University Hospital employees positively identified Cahill in court
Friday as the stranger they saw wearing a wig and pushing a broom or mop near
Jill's hospital room moments before she was found gasping that night.
The jurors also heard Friday about the discovery of other evidence at the
Cahill residence during a search of the property Oct. 31.
Syracuse police Detective Robert Teater testified he found the charred remnants
of a wig in a 55-gallon drum on the property that Halloween afternoon.
Detective Mark Abraham said he found a bottle labeled potassium cyanide in a
cinder block under a shed the same day, and Rohrig said the contents tested
positive for cyanide.
On Friday, the prosecution rested after medical examiner Dr. Mary Jumbelic said
bruises on Jill Cahill's mouth and chin were consistent with her mouth being
forcibly opened or shut when she was poisoned. What happens Monday: Defense
lawyers plan to file a written motion challenging the prosecution case.