A few months before Gregory Sears was killed, he and his fiance were dining with friends when Sears’ fiance said she had killed a former husband, one of the friends testified Friday.
Annette Downey was describing a February 2000 conversation that she said took place at a steakhouse with her husband, Sears and Norma Jean Cook, who became Sears’ wife a few months later.
Downey was testifying for the defense in the trial of John Carroccia. He is charged with murdering the Hampshire police sergeant June 1, 2000, in a Hampshire industrial park.
Carroccia’s lawyer used Downey’s testimony to try to shift suspicion to Sears’ widow.
At the steakhouse, Sears’ fiance “said she killed her first husband–that he was abusive. So they ruled it justifiable,” Downey said.
But under questioning by prosecutors, Downey acknowledged that she didn’t like or trust Sears’ wife, and that even though Downey had suspicions about her after Gregory Sears was killed, Downey never voiced those concerns to police.
She acknowledged she didn’t even tell defense lawyers about the steakhouse conversation until soon after Carroccia’s trial started.
And defense attorneys acknowledged Friday that they were not sure which husband Norma Jean Cook allegedly was referring to during the dinner Downey described.
Sears’ wife had been married twice before marrying him, but police say her first husband is alive, and she insisted in testimony Thursday that her second husband died of cancer in 1996.
Downey said Cook also talked about how much money she would receive if he were killed in the line of duty. Sears’ wife testified she has no memory of what happened in the three weeks following his death–and said she was unaware of the financial benefits due the widow of a slain officer.
