Friday, January 18, 2013
The judge will hold a hearing for new evidence from the Tormasi trial.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Friday, January 18
Superior Court Judge John Pursel agreed Wednesday to hold a hearing concerning a document in which late Bridgewater resident Attila Tormasi admitted to arranging for the death of his wife and letting his son take the fall, according to an article on NJ.Com. According to the article, Tormasi's son, Walter, has been granted a hearing into the confession, which would be the first step toward a new trial. In the document, the article said, Tormasi allegedly admits to hiring a private detective to shoot his 39-year-old estranged wife, Frances, in 1996, and then bribing his son's attorney to conceal his involvement. Attila Tormasi died in 2010. Walter Tormasi, 33, was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for shooting his mother in what …
Friday, July 13, 2012
The date hinges on the outcome of a hearing on another defendant's confession.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Friday, July 13, 2012
A trial date has still not be set for Rocky DiTaranto, one of the men accused in the 2009 Memorial Day weekend murder of Bridgewater resident Carolyn Stone, according to an article in The Star-Ledger. According to the article, Superior Court Judge John Pursel denied a motion Thursday to either set the trial date, drop the $1 million bail against DiTaranto or dismiss the charges against him. Another defendant in the case, Gary Wilson, 29, has already pled guilty in the crime, and told the judge that he and friends were attending a Memorial Day weekend barbecue at an Oak Street home, and became intoxicated after drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine. In the middle of the night, Wilson said, DiTaranto led Stone, who was …
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
July hearing scheduled in 2009 Memorial Day weekend murder in Bradley Gardens.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Mike Deak
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
A hearing will be held in July on a report by an expert witness that one of the Bridgewater men charged in a murder three years ago may have given a false confession because of his heroin addiction. Katharine Errickson, attorney for David Granskie Jr., told Superior Court Judge John Pursel on Tuesday that Dr. Clarence Watson, a forensic psychiatrist and lawyer based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, will testify that Granskie, 25, gave a false confession to murdering Carolyn Stone, 45, in the backyard of a Bradley Gardens home during the 2009 Memorial Day weekend. But Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Rocchietti said he was “skeptical” both about the science in Watson’s report and some of its facts which opined that Granskie gave the…
Monday, April 16, 2012
Walter Tormasi appeals his conviction of shooting his mother outside Martinsville home.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Mike Deak
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Monday, April 16, 2012
A Bridgewater man, sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his mother outside their Martinsville home in 1996, was back in court Monday and asking for his conviction to be reversed, citing newly discovered evidence. Walter Tormasi, 33, was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for shooting his mother, Frances Tormasi, in what authorities called an "ambush" outside their Middle Road home. Tormasi, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was tried as an adult. David Ruhnke, Tormasi’s lawyer, told Superior Court Judge John Pursel on Monday afternoon that the new evidence was an affidavit from Tormasi’s father, Attila, who died on Nov. 16, 2010. Ruhnke did not tell the judge the contents of the affidavit. Pursel scheduled a hearing on …
Like co-defendant, Wilson may rely on false confession defense in Bradley Gardens killing.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Mike Deak
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Monday, April 16, 2012
A township man who pleaded guilty to a May 2009 Bradley Gardens murder may be considering the withdrawal of his plea after he learned that one of his co-defendants has obtained an expert witness on false confessions. The news that Gary Wilson—who pleaded guilty in July 2011 to murdering Carolyn Stone, 45, in the backyard of a Bradley Gardens home during the 2009 Memorial Day weekend—is thinking of withdrawing the plea came Monday afternoon in Superior Court during a status conference for his co-defendant, David Granskie Jr. Superior Court Judge John Pursel said Wilson has not formally filed a motion, but has written a letter to the court. “I’m not paying any attention to it,” the judge said, adding the letter will be forwarded to Wilson's …
Sandra Lynn Granskie
10:33 pm on Saturday, March 30, 2013
Whoever the hell I am???? Im David Granskie's mother. He had nothing to do with the murder of Carolyn Stone. He lived in the same house with her and his father my ex-husband. He cared very much for Carolyn and they were close. He would never do such a brutal thing. He was originally arrested that day on outstanding warrants. He is a heroin addict not a murderer. Im not related to the Stone family… more ›