Says shooting was an accident
By Associated Press | March 30, 2010
ALFRED, Maine — A Limington man accused of domestic abuse told police he accidentally shot his wife in the head, hid her body in a freezer, and moved the body to his parents’ property miles away. Prosecutors say the shooting was the culmination of an abusive relationship.
Patrick Dapolito entered no plea yesterday during his initial appearance in York County Superior Court, where he was charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife, Kelly Winslow-Dapolito, on March 16 at their home.
Dapolito, 39, told police that his handgun went off accidentally while he and his 30-year-old wife were sleeping on a bathroom floor after he had gone on a cocaine binge and she had taken the prescription painkiller Oxycontin, according to a state police affidavit.
Prosecutors allege the shooting was the latest episode of domestic violence in the couple’s nearly six-month marriage. The two argued every day, and he had previously beaten her with a pool stick and burned the top of her hand with a cigarette, according to the affidavit.
“Frankly, we don’t believe this was an accident,’’ said Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese.
Police were notified of Winslow-Dapolito’s death on March 18 when they received a call from Dapolito’s attorney, David Sanders, who said Dapolito had accidentally killed his wife two days earlier.
Dapolito was charged Saturday after turning himself in to police and is being held at York County Jail.
Sanders said yesterday he had no comment on the case.
The affidavit describes how Dapolito wrapped his wife’s body in a blanket and plastic and put it in a basement freezer so his 13-year-old daughter wouldn’t see it when she returned home from school.
Dapolito later took the body in his older brother’s pickup truck to Upton, where he left it under a blue tarp at his parents’ home in western Maine about 80 miles from his house. His parents were in Florida at the time.
“Dapolito said he spent the next several minutes talking to Kelly Winslow telling her he would be back to get her in a few days,’’ the affidavit said. “He stated he also prayed and cried during this time.’’
When police found Winslow-Dapolito’s body, a pair of handcuffs was attached to one of her wrists. Dapolito told police his wife liked to be handcuffed to him at night in bed because she felt more secure.
Winslow-Dapolito’s 14-year-old daughter later told detectives that Dapolito was abusive toward her and her mother, and that her mother wanted to leave Dapolito but was scared of him, according to the affidavit.
Police attempted to serve Dapolito a protection-from-abuse order on behalf of Winslow-Dapolito’s daughter the day after the shooting, but Dapolito wasn’t home, the affidavit says.
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