A judge has allowed a man accused of killing his wife’s parents in 1989 to be released from jail on $200,000 bail — an order the Vermont Supreme Court upheld following appeals from both the prosecution and defense.
Superior Court Judge Cortland Corsones declined prosecutors’ request to withhold bail from Michael Louise, 80, of Liverpool, New York, who is facing twin charges of second-degree murder in Rutland County. Each offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Last October, 33 years after George and Catherine Peacock were fatally stabbed at their home in Danby, Louise was arrested in what had been considered a cold case. Police said advances in DNA technology revealed new evidence pointing to Louise as the culprit: A spot of blood found inside his car in 1989 turned out to match George Peacock’s blood.
But, after hearing the evidence that the state had against Louise, Corsones ruled on March 31 that the spot of blood can’t be admitted as evidence to hold the defendant without bail while he awaits trial.
The judge said the state didn’t present any oral or written testimony about how the blood spot was collected from Louise’s car mat, only chain-of-custody records once authorities had taken possession of the mat.
“There is no direct evidence that the defendant murdered the Peacocks,” Corsones said in his 13-page decision. The state Supreme Court affirmed that the chain of custody records were inadmissible in the bail hearing.
The prosecutor, Deputy State’s Attorney Jared Bianchi, had appealed to the Supreme Court to send the issue back to the Superior Court so it could consider all the evidence in deciding Louise’s bail.
“Even if the underlying paper record of the chain of custody itself is not admissible here at this phase, it was used to show that the state can establish a sufficient chain of custody to admit the actual analysis come trial,” Bianchi said during oral arguments before Supreme Court Justice Nancy Waples on April 21.
Waples, in a written decision on Friday, said the state can still try to offer the records as evidence at trial. The state has said the person who collected the mat from Louise’s car, a New York state trooper, has since died.
Without that spot of blood, the state’s other evidence against Louise is “insufficient” to establish that he killed the couple, Corsones said in his ruling.
He was referring to circumstantial evidence in the case, including what investigators described as a couple of “suicide notes” Louise left for his wife shortly after her parents were killed, as well as his whereabouts on the day the homicides occurred.
Louise told police in 1989 that on the day his parents-in-law were killed, he’d decided to drive to their home but turned around after traveling more than halfway to Danby. If he’d continued on, police said, he would have arrived at their residence around the time they were killed.
Louise’s statement contradicted the story that his niece, Patricia Gannon, told investigators she heard from him in 1989. In the presence of his wife, daughter and Gannon, Louise reportedly said he remembered “getting into Vermont” that day but what followed was blank or a blackout.
“The evidence is insufficient to establish more than that the defendant may have been at the scene during the window of time that the Peacocks were killed, and that he, subsequently, lied about whether he had gone to VT on the day in question,” Corsones wrote.
Louise’s lawyer, on the other hand, had asked the Supreme Court to throw out the $200,000 bail order and allow Louise to be released on nonmonetary conditions only. Defense attorney Daniel Sedon had said that would be enough to guarantee his continued court appearances.
During the Supreme Court oral arguments, Sedon had emphasized that Louise never fled or even changed residences in the past three decades, despite knowing the police had been seeking to prove he was involved in the Peacocks’ killings.
“When authorities went looking for him,” Sedon said, “they knew right where to look, and there he was.”
The attorney also said Louise doesn’t have the means to post $200,000 in cash bail or its 10% premium through a bail bond. He said Louise and his wife reside in a small home and live on Social Security, and he questioned how the Superior Court came up with the bail amount.
The Supreme Court also affirmed Corsones’ bail decision, saying he’d properly weighed the number and seriousness of Louise’s charges, and his complete lack of ties to Vermont. It also said the judge had considered Louise’s financial resources, taking note of the equity in his residence and potential retirement savings.
“The trial court need not provide a mathematical computation of its bail determination,” Waples wrote in her six-page decision.
The prosecutor and defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday on the court rulings.
Since October, when Louise was extradited from New York, he has been detained at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
Once released on bail, Corsones ordered that Louise must remain on home detention for at least 10 hours a day, from 8 p.m. till 6 p.m.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday at the Rutland Superior criminal court.