PEABODY — Was it a case of self-defense against an angry and armed man, or violent payback for a previous dispute over parking?
That's the question a Salem Superior Court jury began considering yesterday in the case of Fernando Aristy, 25, who is charged with killing Chad McDonald, a 34-year-old Peabody father, outside a Lynn warehouse in October 2010.
"When he picked up that piece of wood and began to strike Mr. McDonald's face and head, he had a plan," prosecutor Maureen Wilson Leal told jurors during her closing argument yesterday. "That plan was to kill Chad McDonald."
Wilson Leal urged jurors to find Aristy guilty of first-degree murder under two separate legal theories: deliberate premeditation (under the law, something that can take place in seconds) and extreme atrocity or cruelty. She described how McDonald's condition deteriorated over the next 11 days, until doctors concluded they could not save him.
Aristy's lawyer, Raymond Buso, suggested the evidence showed otherwise.
"There is evidence Chad McDonald was completely willing to kill him (Aristy)," Buso said.
When McDonald grabbed a screwdriver, "it was reasonable for any human being to fear death," Buso said. "It's not an unlawful killing because all he did was act in self-defense."
Both sides concede there was a fight between the two men in the early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2010, outside the Bennett Street storage facility where McDonald worked and had been staying.
Aristy and his friends were at a nearby auto body shop, drinking and playing dominoes. McDonald showed up during the night, and at first things seemed calm.
Both sides acknowledge that at some point, words were exchanged, and McDonald armed himself with a screwdriver.
But while Buso has characterized his client, Aristy, as being in fear for his life, Wilson Leal suggested that Aristy quickly got the upper hand, surrounded by his own friends, and was eager to "show off" in front of those buddies.
A few weeks earlier, Aristy had parked his Jeep in a way that partly blocked access to the entrance to McDonald's business. McDonald attempted to tow the Jeep himself, hooking a chain to its bumper.
Wilson Leal suggested that Aristy was still seething over that earlier incident, which could have caused serious damage to the Jeep.
At 3 a.m. on a deserted side street, Aristy saw his chance to get back at McDonald, Wilson Leal told jurors.
"He was not afraid," Wilson Leal said. "He was not scared. He was angry."
And, the prosecutor pointed out, he had backup — a group of friends with names like He-Man (who stood 6 feet 5 inches tall), Coco and Cece, as well as Wilfredo Mordan, the only witness who saw Aristy with the board prosecutors say was used to beat McDonald.
But Buso argued that Aristy, who took the stand in his own defense on Friday, was over it, and suggested that it was McDonald who was still angry about the encounter.
Recalling testimony from a friend of McDonald that he never liked to get police involved, that he took care of things himself, even if it meant destroying the Jeep, Buso suggested to jurors, "What does that tell you about him?"
Buso also attacked Mordan's credibility. Mordan, who had given police a fake name, Antonio Santos, when questioned after the beating, was subsequently deported, then brought back to the United States temporarily to testify.
Wilson Leal countered that Mordan, who now has to return to the Dominican Republic, had nothing to gain by making up a story.
Jurors will be allowed to consider both first-degree and second-degree murder, as well as manslaughter, as possible verdicts, along with the option of finding him not guilty.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or jmanganis@salemnews.com.
Raw Video: Hail Storm Batters Oklahoma City
California's Foie Gras Ban About to Begin
6-Year-Old Going to National Spelling Bee
Video Essay: Funky Winkerbean Comic Turns 40
On Thailand Trip, Suu Kyi Visits Migrants
Raw Video: Pink Diamond Auctioned for $17.4M
Hurricane Andrew Remembered, 20 Years Later
Sister Says She Reported Brother in Patz Killing
Patz Suspect's Sister: I Went to Police in 1980s
Diplomatic Expulsions Follow Fresh Syria Report
15 Dead in Northern Italy's 5.8-magnitude Quake
Witness Describes Fla. Face-chewing Attack
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108
Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows
Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
New Ticks Spread Across Southeast, Diseases Rise
Bring Your Own Tech Programs Charge Up Students
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
