Bennington Banner from Bennington, Vermont • 7

REGION BENNINGTON BANNER TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1998 A year after murder shocked state, trial begins i ALEXIS CHIU duct tape, a plastic container, Jeleniewski guilty in stabbing death of Salem teen-ager cement and lime to help decompose the body. After dumping the corpse, Sicari returned to Curley's i neighborhood where he hand ed out fliers about the missing boy, an action prosecutors say he knew was futile. "He knew Jeffrey Curley was ap Associated Press Writer CAMBRIDGE, Mass. It was an odd matchup from the start: Two grown men befriended a young boy, took him on trips, promised him gifts, even let him steer a Cadillac. That friendship cost 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley his life when it became clear what the men wanted in return, prosecutors said Monday as the murder trial of one of the accused, Salvatore Sicari, got underway at Middlesex Superior Court.

'This case is about a seduction that led to murder," prosecutor David R. Yannetti said, alleging that the child was stalked for weeks, lured by the men with promises of a new bicycle and then killed when he resisted their sexual advances. A lawyer for Sicari, 22, didn't dispute much of what prosecutors contended, and even called Sicari's actions "disgusting, despicable, inexcusable and criminal." But Arthur Kelly said Sicari did not kill Jeffrey, and maintained that Sicari's only real crimes were failing to do more to save the boy's life and helping cover up the murder. "The actions and inactions of this man are reprehensible," Kelly told the jury. "He could' ve prevented the death, but he didn't." As expected, Kelly told jurors the blame instead should be Murder suspect Salavators Sicari Is seen during opening statements at his trial In Middlesex Superior Court In Cambridge, Monday where he stands accused of helping to kill 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley In October 1997 and dumping his body In a Maine river.

at the bottom of a river in Maine," Yannetti said. When questioned by police, Sicari began to implicate Jaynes, and eventually he made a full statement fingering Jaynes as the principal killer while admitting a role as a witness to the grisly murder, prosecutors said. Kelly said defense witnesses will say it was Jaynes alone who had plotted to have sex with Jeffrey, and had taken him on trips to Boston and western Massachusetts as part of the scheme. Kelly said Sicari was a pawn used by Jaynes in his quest to take advantage of the boy. Jaynes is to face trial on kidnapping and first-degree murder charges after Sicari.

The first witness after opening statements was Jeffrey's mother, Barbara Curley. Before she took the stand, Barbara Curley clutched a tiny framed picture of Jeffrey at age 2 and nervously sipped water in a courthouse bathroom. "I have to be strong for Jeffrey," she said. "He doesn't have a voice anymore." pointed at co-defendant Charles Jaynes, whom he called a "300-pound monster" and a BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) Eric Jeleniewski, one of three Massachusetts men accused of killing two Salem teen-agers last year, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder.

The Rockingham County Superior Court jury deliberated nearly eight hours Friday and Monday before reaching its verdict early Monday afternoon. Judge Douglas Gray immediately gave him the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. "This was a senseless murder and the worst case I have sat on in my IS years on this bench," said Gray, who will retire next week. "There was no reason for those girls to die, other than to satisfy you and your grisly gang." "Get him out of here," he directed the bailiffs. Jeleniewski, 20, of Lunenburg, was convicted of stabbing 18-year-old Kimberly Farrah to death on Sept.

13, 1997. Farrah's parents said they were pleased with the verdict. "People like that should be executed, pure and simple. He does not belong on this earth. There's no value to that human being," said the victim's father, William Farrah.

Her mother, Carol Horton, said she believed that if Jeleniewski had been freed, he would have killed again. "I'm just relieved that he can't do this to anyone else's family," she said. "He deserves to die a little bit every day." During six days of testimony, Jeleniewski's lawyer tried to shift the blame onto the prosecution's star witness, James Grant, 20, of Fitchburg, who has already pleaded guilty to helping kill Farrah's best friend the same 'b night. Farrah's partially clothed body and the body of her friend, Leeann Millius, 17, were found A at Hedgehog Park, not far from their homes in Salem. Both had been stabbed repeatedly.

Grant pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against Jelen- iewski in exchange for a 25-year- to-life sentence. The plea bargain also calls for Grant to testify against third suspect, Christopher Doucette, A 19, also of Lunenburg. Doucette will go on trial in March for Millius' death. According to Grant, Jelen- il iewski was obsessed with the horror movie "Scream" and liked A to play games based on scenes 3 from the film. 'J Grant testified that the three 1 men and the two girls spent the day of the murders at Millius' il house.

Grant said he stole a knife 2 from Millius' dresser to use as a weapon in robberies the three planned. li Grant said the five went to in Salem that evening, and eleniewski told Grant he and 4 Doucette planned to kill the girls, i The men worked to separate the girls when they got to the pond, he said. Grant said Jeleniewski killed Farrah first, and Millius wass i killed about two hours later. Earlier this year, Jeleniewski 4 pleaded guilty to murdering I Farrah in exchange for a recom- a mendation by prosecutors that he serve a minimum of 33 years in prison. But Gray rejected the plea 1 bargain, saying Jeleniewski i should serve at least 55 years, Rubbermaid container weighted with cement and tossed into the Great Works River in Maine, prosecutors said.

A courtroom packed with Jeffrey's friends and relatives including his parents and two older brothers listened Monday as Yannetti detailed the final hours of the boy's life and the measures Sicari and Jaynes took to get rid of the body. He described an alleged trail of evidence documented with receipts and store videotapes left behind as the men bought pedophile. Sicari and Jaynes, 23, are accused of plotting to lure Jeffrey from his East Cambridge neighborhood and kidnapping him on Oct. 1, 1997. The men allegedly smothered the boy with a gasoline-soaked jag before taking him to Jaynes' Manchester, N.H., apartment, where his corpse was molested.

The fifth-grader's naked body then was stuffed into a Region News in Brief Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pamela Wechsler, assistant district attorney, conceded the case is over for now but said it wasn't all for naught: The charges drove the fraternity off campus and prompted MIT to change its alcohol and disciplinary policies. Police seize in heroin and cocaine McEvoy said. The bones appear to have been at that location for at least two years, he said, adding that the remains found Monday were in two locations several feet apart, slightly below the field's surface. Despite earlier reports that the' bones may have come from two bodies, McEvoy said doctors from the state Medical Examiner's Office believe they are the remains of one person.

POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT BOSTON (AP) Police seized an estimated three kilos of cocaine and more than 400 grams of heroin in a drug bust on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Case against MIT frat put to rest because of lack of defendant feJoSTdf AP)rf fl--JheS I fVA drug.vhad an -estimated manslaughter case against say 4 1 nree, men wno ponce men who police ELECT ALLEN. PALMER STATE REPRESENTIVE for POWNAL Vote November 3rd State commission moves offices from Albany to Schenectady SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) The state agency that oversees programs serving the mentally disabled is moving to the former Woolworth Building in this ailing city's downtown. Pataki administration officials said Monday that the Corn-mission of Quality Care for the Mentally Disabled will move nearly 100 state jobs to Schenectady when it relocates from its current headquarters in Albany.

"We are continuing our coWJ mitment to revitalizing the town areas of bur state' for the' good of all New Yorkers," Gov. George Pataki said. Authorities find more human bones In field CHELMSFORD, Mass. (AP) Human bones found in a field next to a car wash appear to belong to one person between the ages of 14 and 17, preliminary test results show. Police were called Saturday after an employee at the Chelmsford Car Wash discovered a bone while playing ball in an adjacent field, said First Assistant District Attorney John McEvoy.

Search teams on Sunday and Monday found more of what appears to be one skeleton, whose sex has yet to be determined, City has few minorities in top-paying positions BOSTON (AP) While Boston officials boast of an increase in the number of minority city employees, records show few minorities in top-paying positions, according to a published report. Minorities make up 28 percent of city employees. Yet only 7.8 percent of city employees making $70,000 or more are minorities, The Boston Globe reported Monday. The rest, 92.2 percent, who make that much are white. Officials said union rules promote employees based on seniority.

But the city hopes to level the playing field for minorities who have less seniority by instituting job reviews next year. Mayor Thomas M. Menino's administration will also review department heads and how they managed diversity. The mayor does feel there is clearly room for improvement, but that we have made great strides," said Jacque Goddard, a mayor's spokeswoman. New law allows judge to signpost-conviction orders of protection ALBANY, N.Y.

(AP) Convicted criminals could be barred from going near witnesses who testified against them, under a new law allowing judges to issue post-conviction orders of were bringing the drugs trom New York to Boston were arrested Sunday near the Prudential Center exit of the turnpike. Boston police identified the three suspects as Fernando Eatista, 37, and Carlos Delmonte, 37 of New York City, and Eduvijies Reyes-Rivera, 37 of Allentown, Pa. The three pleaded innocent to drug trafficking charges Monday at their arraignment in Roxbury District Court. Rivera was held on $50,000 cash bail, while Eatista and Delmonte were held on $25,000 cash bail. MIT.

fraternity. in the i death of a freshman effectively ended Monday because the frat has disbanded and there is no one to answer the charges. Last month, prosecutors took the extraordinary step of bringing manslaughter charges against Phi Gamma Delta the organization, not its members in the case of 18-year-old Scott Krueger, who drank himself into a coma at a party and died. Since no individual members were named in the indictment, the case quickly unraveled when the fraternity disbanded. On Monday, the Superior Court magistrate who had issued a warrant against Phi Gamma Delta filed it away in case the fia- ternity tries to reorganize at the WE NEED To Restore Local Control To Bring Economic Progress to Pownal I WILL WORK FOR POWNAL Paid for by 1h Committee to Elect Allan Palmer- Prtecllla Palmar, Treasurer We need doctors making important medical decisions, not insurance companies.

ii ii ii ii ii ir rY7T7T7Tl ATATAYATATATATAl 1 PRKLASIK mtf nn nnr inr Seminar r'vii II I Mil II 'OL-yu uvuouuu uuu State Senate PtU lor by CommMM lo Bad Judy Muphy, Box 2614, MmcftMtor Centtr, VT 082M ADVANCED EYECAREpc Usee protection in New York, Formerly, judges had been permitted to issue orders of protection for witnesses only before a conviction was obtained. The bill signed into law Monday by Pataki strengthens New York's witness protection statute by providing witnesses with the same legal protections as crime victims. It would allow judges to bar criminals from showing up at the homes, schools or places of employment of witnesses. Arrest leads to probe of child porn distribution KENNEBUNK, Maine (AP) The arrest of a Kennebunk man for allegedly molesting his girlfriend's daughters has led to an investigation of child pornography on the Internet, police said. Richard Brown, who was -accused of molesting the 7- and 9-year-old girls late last month, was released Monday from the York County Jail after posting bail, a jail official said.

If convicted, Brown, 34, would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for unlawful sexual contact. The investigation was launched after Brown's girlfriend caught him molesting the children in her living room, according to a police affidavit He was arrested Friday. Besides the alleged molestation, the police investigation is focusing on pornographic images depicting children that were downloaded from the Internet, authorities said. DATES: Wednesdays Oct. 28 Dec.

2, 1998 TIME: Starts at 6:00 p.m. Reduce Your Dependence on Contact Lenses Reduce Nearsightedness Discuss Methods Used to Correct Your Vision Are You a Candidate for Refractive Surgery? i RSVP to Tina Harrington 802-447-8700, ext 212 322 Dewey Street Bennington, Vt Featuring Marshall Case Local Wildlife Biologist Marshall Case, local resident and President of Trust for Wlkitfe, will show participants various techniques of bird ktontfication In addition to color and form. Everyone can learn to Identify a dozen or more of the most common species found in our area. SPECIAL PRICING ON BIRD FZZDZH3 A FOCD FC.l fn if It 1 WORKSHOP PARTICPA -Ay 321 Vlzla CsRrJnsten, Vermcr.t C22-44Z-3131 41.