Indiana man to stand trial for homicide and attempted murder of 18-month-old
A 50-year-old Indiana County man was ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges of homicide and attempted homicide in the brutal shotgun slaying Oct. 6 of a Plumville woman and the shooting of her 18-month-old son as he slept.
District Justice George Thachik of Clymer ruled there was sufficient evidence presented during a three-hour preliminary hearing for Randy C. Whitacre of 10 Redding Run Road, Home, for the suspect to stand trial for the killing of Theresa Dalessio, 32, and the shooting of her son, Dylan, with a 12-gauge shotgun at 1:27 a.m. Oct. 6. Whitacre, who pleaded not guilty, remains in the county jail without bond.
Indiana County District Attorney Robert Bell introduced evidence at the hearing that the shooting stemmed from a four-year-long feud between Whitacre and Theresa Dalessio's husband, Douglas, over a faulty septic system. Douglas Dalessio testified yesterday that he and Theresa sold Whitacre a house in 1997, which Whitacre claimed had a faulty septic system.
Dalessio said Whitacre had filed a civil lawsuit against him "and called me several times to complain about the septic system." Court documents said Whitacre became "obsessed" with the lawsuit, and Whitacre's wife, Nancy, admitted to police that Whitacre was "extremely upset" the matter had not been resolved.
"I had left it up to my insurer (to litigate). After the shooting, I learned that the day before (Oct. 6) there had been a hearing, and they had to start all over again with the lawsuit," Dalessio said.
Douglas Dalessio also testified that he was home in bed when the shooting occurred.
Dalessio said he was awakened when Theresa got out of bed and walked into the hallway to investigate a noise.
"She walked to the doorway, and I heard the first gunshot. She walked back into the bedroom - staggering and laid on the floor," Dalessio said.
Dalessio testified he rolled off the bed, away from the doorway, and felt through the dark for a .357-magnum handgun he often stored in a nightstand by the bed. However, he said while searching through the drawer he remembered that he had moved the gun downstairs.
Within seconds of the first shot, Dalessio said he heard a second gunshot.
"Did the shooter say anything?" Bell asked.
"It was a male voice. He said: 'Does anyone else want some of this?'" Dalessio said.
After the second shot, Dalessio said he crawled beneath the bed and reached for the telephone on the floor. He said he did not initially realize his wife was mortally wounded.
"But then I heard a gurgling noise while she laid on the floor. She was trying to talk. She told me she wanted to get up, but couldn't," Dalessio said.
Realizing his wife was wounded, Dalessio said that he reached from under the bed as he telephoned 911 and rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her.
"I put my hand on her back and told her to stay down," Dalessio said, his voice cracking.
He said he remained under his bed, on the telephone talking with 911 dispatchers, until state police arrived.
Under cross-examination by Whitacre's attorney, Thomas Ceraso of Greensburg, Dalessio admitted that he did not recognize the shooter's voice or see him.
Troopers Steven Colo and Chris Adams were the first police officers to arrive. Ironically, Colo said the troopers had passed by the Dalessios' home on routine patrol along Route 85, just "five or 10 minutes" before the call.
"I'd estimate we arrived back there in less than two minutes. The front door was wide open and the lights downstairs were shining onto the street," Colo said.
Colo searched outside the house for the shooter, while Adams went to the second-floor bedroom, where Theresa Dalessio was lying on the floor. Unable to locate the gunman, Colo noticed the front door was damaged, as if it had been kicked in.
"I noticed a strong odor of burned gunpowder while I was climbing the stairs. I also noticed a 12-gauge shotgun shell casing on the stairs," Colo said.
Colo said he assisted Douglas Dalessio from the bedroom to the first-floor living room and noticed a trail of blood leading downstairs.
"He (Dalessio) informed me his 18-month-old son was missing. I proceeded through the living room, past the laundry room and into the kitchen where I saw a child - wet, covered in blood, laying motionless on the floor.
"I thought he was dead - he was real gray in color. But as I touched the child, he started to cry," Colo said.
Theresa Dalessio was pronounced dead at Indiana Hospital. Dylan Dalessio was initially treated at Indiana Hospital, then transferred to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh for a gunshot wound that almost severed his arm.
Plumville fire Chief Mark Downey testified that he was at the fire hall that night preparing for a chicken barbecue fund-raiser Oct. 7 in Smicksburg. Downey said the fire hall is only 600 feet from the Dalessio residence.
Downey said he saw a modern, white Ford pickup truck with a large black ladder rack driving next to the fire hall toward the Dalessio home, "then back past" around the same time as the shootings. Under cross-examination, Downey said he did not hear any gunshots.
The following day, Downey said he observed "an identical four-wheel drive, white pickup truck" parked in Whitacre's driveway in Home, several miles from Plumville.
"It was the same truck" Downey said.
Corp. Jack Wall, a state police forensic firearms examiner from Erie, testified that a scientific examination of markings on the empty shotgun shell recovered from the stairway of the Dalessio home revealed that it was fired from a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun confiscated from Whitacre's house on Oct. 25.
"I was able to come to the conclusion that the shotgun shell was discharged from that shotgun," Wall said.
After the hearing, Douglas Dalessio said he was pleased Whitacre was held for court on all the charges. He also said that his son, Dylan, "is doing really well."
"He still has some limitation with a few fingers on the arm, but he's doing really good. He's just starting to talk - almost at the point where he's always talking," Dalessio said.
Ceraso said at trial he likely will challenge the validity of the expert testimony linking Whitacre to the shotgun that police allege he used in the shooting. Whitacre volunteered to have the shotgun examined by state police experts.
Ceraso, who is being assisted in defending Whitacre by Indiana attorney Thomas Johnson, repeatedly questioned state police as to whether they can prove Whitacre was "exclusively" the only person with access to the shotgun.
"There's also the testimony of the white truck. Nobody who can identify him driving it or even say it was his indeed his truck. There's also a discrepancy in testimony over whether it was seen the evening before or after the shooting," Ceraso said.
