Hockey Dad Manslaughter Trial

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Anyone following this trial? It's had tons of media coverage.

Here's the background:
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Court TV) — It should have been fun — a summer day, an open ice rink and enough boys to get a pick-up hockey game going. But on July 5, 2000, the play on the ice was rough, two fathers got angry, and in the end, one beat the other to near death in front of several young players. The victim, Michael Costin, died two days later from his injuries.

The killing of Costin, the informal referee of the game, by Thomas Junta, who was unhappy with the on-ice roughhousing, drew national attention to parental violence in youth sports, a phenomenon dubbed sideline rage.

Now, a jury must decide whether Junta killed Costin in a fury over the game and should be convicted of manslaughter, or was simply defending himself and should be acquitted. The trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 2, is expected to include dramatic accounts of the fatal fight from Junta and the victim's children, who watched as Junta beat their father unconscious. If found guilty, Junta, a 44-year-old father of two, faces 20 years in prison.


THE CRIME

The truck driver went to the Burbank Ice Arena in Reading on the afternoon of July 5 to pick up his 10-year-old son, Quinlan, and two playmates and take them for a swim. When he got to the arena, where the boys had been skating for several hours, he found them engaged in a scrimmage with other young players, including the three sons of Costin. All were in full protective gear. Costin, a 40-year-old part-time laborer who Junta had never met before, was refereeing the game.

Immediately, Junta did not like what he saw.

"They were hitting each other, cheap shots the whole way," Junta told detectives in an interview after a mortally wounded Costin was taken to the hospital. "Mainly the other kids — not our kids. Our kids were just, like retaliation things."


Junta said he ran to the door of the rink and yelled, "None of that cheap shot bull----. This is supposed to be fun hockey." He said Costin was dismissive and replied, "That's hockey." A few minutes later, Junta told detectives, another player knocked Quinlan in the face.

"I seen my son holding his neck and his face, and he gets off the ice, and he's in the locker room crying," said Junta. "I told him, 'If you are going to play here like this you have to...defend yourself and stuff.'"

From outside the locker room, Junta told detectives, he heard Costin again say, "That's hockey." The two men began yelling profanities and soon "we started going at it."

According to Junta, the men lunged at each other and Costin ripped Junta's shirt and kicked him with ice skates. Eventually, Junta said, two bystanders separated the men. Junta told his son to get dressed quickly and then went to the parking lot to wait. Prosecutors claim he was ordered to leave by an assistant rink manager. Junta told detectives that after a couple of minutes, he worried about his son's safety and re-entered the arena.

There, he met Costin. According to prosecutors, Costin tried to punch Junta. Both men were about 6 feet tall, but at 275 pounds, Junta outweighed Costin by 100 pounds. The bigger man pinned Costin to the ground and began punching him. Junta told detectives that Costin was trying to hit and kick him, and said he threw three or four punches, enough, he admitted, to make both fists sore.


Prosecutors contend Junta hit Costin as many as six times and twice slammed his head against the floor. Junta said he heard his son and his playmates yelling for him to stop and noticed that Costin had a nose bleed. He got off the floor, but Costin lay still.

"[O]ne of his kids said, 'Dad get up,'" Junta recalled.

Costin could not get up. The assault injured an artery, preventing blood flow to his brain, and he died two days later in the hospital.

Costin's death shocked the community and devastated his four children, ages 9 to 12, whom he was raising alone. Family friends said one of his sons was so distraught he tried to climb into the casket during the viewing.

In August, a grand jury indicted Junta for manslaughter. Prosecutors said the evidence did not support a murder charge because there was no indication that Junta intended to kill Costin.

Junta is free on $5,000 bail.

THE DEFENSE

Junta's lawyers, Thomas Orlandi Jr. and John O'Connor, will try to convince jurors that Costin was the aggressor in the fight and that their client was merely trying to defend himself.

The defense originally intended to attack Costin's character, but Middlesex Superior Court Judge Charles Grabau, who will preside over the trial, has ruled inadmissible much of the evidence that Costin was, at least at some point, a violent alcoholic with a long rap sheet and a troubled family.


Costin's own father, Augustine, was convicted of manslaughter for the 1976 stabbing of his elder son Dennis. As a young adult, Michael Costin ran afoul of the law and over the next dozen years, served seven different prison sentences for crimes ranging from assault on a police officer to breaking and entering.

At one point, Junta's lawyers said Augustine Costin had volunteered to testify for the defense that his son had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, had assaulted his former wife and children, and had extensive psychiatric problems that resulted in several hospitalizations and Social Security disability payments. The elder Costin denied offering to testify and accused the defense of exaggerations, but acknowledged that his son was a troubled person.

Costin was carrying several medications at the time of the beating, including drugs to treat anxiety, depression, insomnia and seizures.

Judge Grabau, however, ruled that the defense cannot tell the jury about Costin's mental history, nor the medications.

Without that evidence, the defense will rely heavily on the testimony of Junta himself. To back up his self-defense story, his lawyers can draw bruises and scrapes Junta sustained during the fight.

Also, in court papers, prosecutors backed up at least one part of Junta's account — that Costin took the first swing during the fatal fight. In his statement to detectives just a few hours after the altercation, he said that Costin was violent, tore his shirt and kicked him with his skates.

THE PROSECUTION

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Junta killed Costin in a rage over body-checking during the scrimmage. Prosecutors will try to prove that Junta was not acting in self-defense but in anger. And their strongest witness may be Junta himself. He told detectives just a few hours after the altercation, "He wasn't afraid of me, I wasn't afraid of him." If Junta did not fear for his life, prosecutors will argue, how can the killing be self-defense?

Junta also says in the statement that he pummeled Costin with both fists until they hurt and heard children screaming at him to stop even as he hit Costin.


Among witnesses to the altercation prosecutors may call are skating rink staff and the young players, including Costin's children.

In court last month, Assistant District Attorney Sheila Calkins said she wants to call a witness who claims to have overheard a conversation between Junta and Quinlan prior to the first fight. Quinlan, according to the prosecutor, told his father that Costin told him not to cross-check. That infuriated Junta, who felt his son had repeatedly been checked by other players, Calkins said.

Another key part of the prosecution case is the size difference between the two men. Prosecutors will show the jury pictures of Costin, quite diminutive compared to Junta, and suggest the smaller man could not have intimidated Junta.

The maximum penalty for a manslaughter conviction is 20 years.

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A Mass. jury must decide whether Thomas Junta feared for his life or was simply irate over his victim's policing of a youth hockey game.
What do you think Junta's punishment should be? Was this just self defense?