Woman Says Friend Admitted Killing Witness Third To Testify Man Killed Apartment Manager With Ax

It was early in the morning when Ricki Bobo got a shocking phone call from her boyfriend.

“He said he had killed a man and he was at Denny’s and wanted me to come down there and meet him,” the woman told a Kootenai County judge Thursday.

“I was just totally in shock. I didn’t believe him.”

Gerald Barcella, the 37-year-old son of a Connecticut police commissioner, has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly beating his elderly apartment manager to death with an ax.

William Smith, 69, was found dead on April 3, 1995, at the Harmony House boarding apartments he both managed and lived in on Indiana Avenue. Smith was well-known for his stained-glass artwork.

Thursday was the second day of Barcella’s preliminary hearing to decide if there is enough evidence for him to stand trial.

Bobo is one of three witnesses who have testified that Barcella admitted to them that he killed Smith.

But Barcella’s public defender, John Adams, pointed out that two of those witnesses have changed their stories. One even passed a lie-detector test when he first told police he didn’t know anything about the murder, Adams said.

On Thursday, Bobo testified that she and Barcella had talked about getting married at one time. The mother of a 13-year-old boy had lived with Barcella - a man with a history of violence - for a time in Wallace.

She said she was planning to move into his Coeur d’Alene apartment in April 1995 when, just hours after killing Smith, Barcella called her and admitted he had murdered the man.

Throughout that day, she continued to question whether he’d killed the aging artist, unable to believe it was true.

“I asked him if he was sure Bill was dead,” Bobo told 1st District Magistrate John Luster.

Bobo said Barcella described for her how he hit his apartment manager once with the ax.

Barcella didn’t want the elderly man to recover and identify him so he hit Smith again to make sure he was dead, Bobo said.

Bobo also testified that before Smith’s death she noticed an ax in Barcella’s room. After the killing, it was gone. She said it looked like the one police found in Smith’s room, where he had been killed.

But Adams noted that Bobo first told police she didn’t know how Smith had died.

“I was, and still am, terrified of Gerry,” she said. “He is a very violent man. He has threatened to kill me before.”

Bobo said Smith and Barcella had argued several times about Barcella coming home drunk and loud.

She said the elderly man also told Barcella to take down a sign Barcella had hung on his apartment door saying: “No niggers, no Jews, no queers allowed.”

Ken Thrift, who lived next to Barcella, testified that he spent the night of the murder drinking with Barcella. That night Barcella vowed to “kill Bill Smith one of these days,” Thrift said.

When they returned home, Smith threatened to evict Barcella. Thrift testified he later saw Barcella standing at Smith’s door, wiping off the knob with a cloth.

Defense attorney Adams said Thrift first denied any knowledge of how Smith died. When police had him take a lie-detector test, the examiner felt Thrift was telling the truth.

It was only after Bobo talked to Thrift that he came forward with testimony against Barcella, Adams said.

But the prosecution’s case is bolstered by a convicted felon who spent time in jail with Barcella. That man testified last week that Barcella told him he killed a man with an ax.

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