Massachusetts vs. Leahy (this occurred in my town)

[ColdFront77]

This occurred on my birthday in 2002 in the town I used to live in, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.


Mass. v. Leahy: Rest stop murder

Convicted rapist Paul Leahy admitted stabbing Alexandra Zapp at a rest stop, but claimed he didn't mean to kill her

She was a sailing enthusiast who had a passion for charity and yachting. He was a convicted rapist and ex-con who worked as a fast food cook.

It was unlikely that Alexandra Zapp and Paul Leahy would ever cross paths, but their worlds collided, leaving Zapp, 30, fatally stabbed in a Massachusetts rest stop bathroom.

He faced life in prison without parole if convicted of murder, but claimed he never meant to kill Zapp, even though he admits he stabbed her.

It was left to a Plymouth County jury to decide Leahy's fate in a trial that began in September 2003.

Rest Stop Violence

Zapp, who worked as a trainer for U.S. Sailing, had more time to dedicate to her charity work since quitting her job with plans to move to New Zealand and work with the America's Cup organization.

On July 17, 2002, she was only too eager to attend a charity cruise in Boston with a friend who worked for Boston Magazine. After the cruise, the two attended a concert, and called it a night at about 11 p.m., when he dropped her off at her car. He apologized for the fact that they had not had a chance to eat very much, but she laughed off the apology telling him she could always stop at the Burger King on the way to her Newport, R.I., home.

Around midnight, she pulled off at a rest stop that housed a Burger King and restrooms. After ordering a cheeseburger, according to investigators, Zapp returned to her car to sleep for a few hours before resuming her drive.

Meanwhile, Paul Leahy was working as a Burger King employee responsible for cleaning and preparing the next day's meals. According to company records, Leahy finished taking a 30-minute break a little after 4 a.m. Police say that's around the time Zapp woke up and went inside to use the restroom. Videotape from a surveillance camera shows a figure hanging around the restrooms at that time.

About 10 minutes later, a state trooper using the men's restroom heard screams drowned out by loud music coming from the women's restroom. He went to investigate and saw drops of blood near the door of the restroom. He drew his gun and entered.

He saw Paul Leahy washing his hands of blood and Zapp slumped over a toilet with stab wounds to her neck and chest. She was already dead.

At the time of his arrest, police found the key to Zapp's car in Leahy's pocket.

Leahy, 40, was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and armed assault with intent to rob.

Sordid Past

Leahy's criminal history dates back to 1981, with a history of sexual offenses beginning in 1984. Some of his victims were as young as 13 years old. He served 13 years of an 8-to-15-year term for the aggravated rape at knifepoint of a 21-year-old woman who worked in a pizza restaurant. As he tried to strangle her a customer walked in, which allowed the victim to escape.

A few years after he was released from prison, Leahy was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior and accosting a person of the opposite sex after he allegedly demanded oral sex from an underage girl. He was on probation for DUI at the time, and was ordered to serve six months behind bars on a probation violation.

Before Zapp's murder, the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office sought to have Leahy civilly committed in a petition filed in October 2001. A judge dismissed it, however, criticizing prosecutors for failing to include an opinion by a mental health professional.

Prosecutors responded by filing an amended petition, this time including a report from a psychologist who agreed with the assessment that Leahy would be at great risk of committing another offense if he was released into the community.

Despite the report, the judge denied the petition. The statute provides for civil commitment of defendants if they are serving a sentence for sexual assault. At the time, Leahy was incarcerated for accosting or annoying a person of the opposite sex in conjunction with a sentence for drunk driving. This fell short of the requirement for a statutory offense.

The Prosecution's Case

Prosecutor Frank Middleton boasted a "slam-dunk" case against Paul Leahy. Middleton says the evidence is overwhelming, thanks mostly to the testimony of Lt. Stephen O'Reilly, the trooper who caught Leahy in the act of cleaning up after the alleged murder.

Among the evidence were grisly crime scene photos, telling a story of a bloody and violent struggle the petite victim endured before she died. Her white blouse and pants, almost completely brown from being soaked in her own blood, were framed in Plexiglas and presented to jurors.

According to the medical examiner, Zapp suffered 27 knife wounds, including five that severed her aorta and jugular vein.

Also key to the prosecution's case was a statement Leahy made to police, in which he confessed that he intentionally stabbed the young woman. After initially conceding that he had only stabbed Zapp twice in the arm, he admitted to stabbing her in the chest when he was confronted with autopsy results.

He also admitted that Zapp fought hard, at one point head-butting him, biting him and escaping from him twice toward the door, only to be dragged back inside. Leahy said that during a lull in the fight, Zapp even tried to reason with him, telling him that she would tell people that he had saved her from an attacker if he agreed to let her go. But Leahy said he refused because he did not think anyone would believe her.

Leahy's criminal record for rape, however, was not admissible in court. While everyone from the investigators to Zapp's family believes Leahy's intent was to rape Zapp, these suspicions were kept out of the trial, fearing that such speculations would sidetrack the jury.

The Defense's Case

With a mountain of evidence facing his client, defense lawyer Frank Spillane did not make a case to get his client acquitted of all charges, but instead concentrated his efforts on proving Zapp's death was not an intentional act of murder.

Spillane argued that his client's actions were in response to the circumstances confronting him. He said that his client did not plan, plot or lie in wait for Alexandra Zapp.

When Leahy was waiting for Zapp to come out of the restroom, Spillane said, he was deciding whether or not to rob her. When she came out, and saw him with the knife and started screaming, he reacted by waving the knife to calm her down. Spillane said his client did not intend to hurt Zapp, and that the battle in the bathroom erupted spontaneously. The defendant was simply reacting to a situation that had spiraled out of control.

Spillane elicited testimony from state witnesses that reinforced the confrontation between Alexandra and the defendant, even attributing some of her serious wounds to being defensive in nature.

Click Here to access the CourtTV Website to read the verdict/aren't interested in finding out what happened on CourtTV.