Witness For Dibartolo Can’t Refer To Hearsay Judge Denies Man Who Says He Heard 2 Men Talking Of Attack

A defense witness can’t tell jurors in the Tom DiBartolo murder trial that he thinks he knows who the real killers are, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The trial begins in Spokane County Superior Court today and is expected to last four to six weeks.

In the final day of pretrial motions, Judge Neal Q. Rielly prohibited jurors from hearing a defense witness repeat statements made by men he says are Patty DiBartolo’s murderers.

The 39-year-old woman died from a gunshot to the head on Nov. 2, 1996, while walking with her husband in a South Hill park.

Prosecutors say Tom DiBartolo, 42, a former sheriff’s deputy, planned and committed the murder to end a bad marriage and collect insurance money.

DiBartolo has said two black men accosted the couple and demanded money that night. One of the men grabbed a gun from the DiBartolos’ parked van and shot his wife in the head, the defendant said.

DiBartolo said he was wounded in the abdomen when the same gunman fired a second shot before fleeing.

Defense attorney Maryann Moreno planned to have Spokane resident Sam McNeal testify that he drove across town with two black men the night of the murder and heard them talk about a killing.

One man said to the other: “You didn’t have to kill the bitch,” McNeal told investigators.

Moreno hoped that statement would help jurors decide whether other suspects to the murder do exist.

Police said they listened to McNeal’s statements after the murder and ruled them out as unreliable.

Rielly said court rules prohibit testimony from a witness about another person’s statement.

“That is clearly hearsay and is not permitted,” he ruled. He also held that the statements made by McNeal’s back seat companions were not made “under duress” or as “excited utterances” - conditions that would allow them to be repeated to jurors.

Moreno still has the option of having McNeal testify and describe what he saw, what he saw others do and what reaction he had to what others did that night.

In another key ruling Tuesday, Rielly said a Spokane dog handler could testify on DiBartolo’s behalf.

The handler, Sid Harty, was asked by police to use a trained dog to examine Lincoln Park for the trail of the men DiBartolo claimed killed his wife.

At that point, DiBartolo was not considered a suspect in the murder.

Harty’s dog, Judge, followed a trail from DiBartolo’s van southeast toward an apartment house. Prosecutors had challenged Harty’s credentials and said the dog’s tracking doesn’t suggest there are other murder suspects.

Between 40 and 60 witnesses are expected to testify at the trial. DiBartolo is charged with first-degree murder.

, DataTimes