Nurse Says Dibartolo Kissed Another Woman Witnesses Testify Deputy Was Hysterical At First, But In A Short Time His Attitude Changed

Tom DiBartolo cried and acted hysterical in his first meeting with Spokane police at Sacred Heart Medical Center the night of his wife’s murder.

About seven hours later, a nurse came to his hospital room and saw a young, blond woman draped over his bed, kissing him passionately.

Prosecution witnesses Friday described those contrasting encounters during the third day of DiBartolo’s first-degree murder trial.

DiBartolo, a 42-year-old former sheriff’s deputy, is accused of plotting the murder of Patty DiBartolo, 39, his wife of 19 years.

DiBartolo has said he and his wife were attacked by two black men while walking in Spokane’s Lincoln Park last Nov. 2. He said one man grabbed a pistol from their van, shot Patty in the head, then wounded him in the abdomen as DiBartolo struggled to take the gun away.

Police rushed to Sacred Heart within minutes after hearing a 911 call made by DiBartolo while he was driving himself and his wife to the emergency room.

Officer Sherry Malinak said she was the first police officer to go to the emergency room where DiBartolo was being treated for a gun wound.

She testified the first thing she noticed was DiBartolo “crying hysterically, saying he and his wife had been robbed and both shot.”

Malinak told jurors her main task was to gather the off-duty deputy’s jacket, jeans and shirt as evidence. Malinak then obtained descriptions of the attackers, she said.

Other officers arrived at the hospital, and after further interviews and treatment, DiBartolo was moved to a fourth-floor room at about 3:30 a.m., said Sacred Heart nurse Judy Edmonds.

Edmonds, who was the night nurse on DiBartolo’s ward, told jurors she went in and out of his room several times that night.

At 5 a.m, she testified, she walked into his room, then stopping and watched silently while an unidentified young woman lay across DiBartolo’s bed.

“She was kissing him” for approximately 60 seconds before Edmonds said she left the room.

Hospital workers that night were told that no one outside the hospital was allowed to know DiBartolo’s name or room number for security reasons, she added.

Asked by Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz how the woman got to DiBartolo’s room, Edmonds said she had no idea. “Someone would have had to tell her where he was,” she said.

Prosecutors will tell jurors they believe the woman was Christine Ritchie, with whom DiBartolo was having an affair before and after his wife’s death.

Edmonds said she never got a good look at the woman’s face.

She also said DiBartolo requested a phone be brought to his hospital room, and staff brought him one about at 4:30 a.m.

She said he wanted the phone to be able to call his family. She said he told her he was especially concerned about his youngest daughter, 10-year-old Lindsay, who would take her mother’s death the hardest.

In contrast to Malinak’s description of DiBartolo, the nurse said his demeanor during her shift was “very calm and matter-of-fact.”

Afternoon testimony in Spokane County Superior Court focused on the first interviews detectives had with DiBartolo.

Police Detective Roger Bays told jurors he met with DiBartolo in the hospital and went over in detail the attack the defendant said he survived in the park.

In the course of that long interview, Bays related how DiBartolo changed at least one detail of the alleged attack.

Asked about DiBartolo’s condition during the interview, Bays said the deputy seemed “intense” and eager to provide as much information as possible.

Bays testified DiBartolo described the moment one attacker took the gun from the van, then pointed the pistol loosely, allegedly saying, “Maybe I should cap you.”

DiBartolo then said he rushed the gunman and placed his left hand over the gun, trying to take it away, Bays said.

The gun went off then, with that bullet allegedly killing Patty DiBartolo, Bays said he was told.

Hanging onto the gun with his left hand and the gunman’s arm with the other hand, DiBartolo said he shifted his left hand so that it now covered the pistol’s firing hammer, Bays said.

At that point, the gunman squeezed the trigger a second time, causing the wound to DiBartolo, Bays said he was told.

After reviewing that struggle with DiBartolo, Bays said the deputy then changed his mind, insisting he had not placed his left hand over the firing hammer.

The reason, Bays added, was DiBartolo’s admission that the second shot could not have been possible if he had grabbed the gun in that way.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT Testimony in the murder trial against former sheriff’s deputy Tom DiBartolo resumes Monday and is expected to last about a month. Later next week, the nine-man, three-woman jury will go to Lincoln Park in the evening to examine the crime scene.