Published: November 23, 2009 08:40 pm      

HAMILTON TRIAL: Conversations with cops and eyewitness ID will be admitted

An eyewitness identification and most of the statements Adam Hamilton made to police in the aftermath of his Feb. 7 shooting spree that wounded two Falls cops and his estranged girlfriend can be presented at his trial.

In a series of rulings that followed a nearly day-long hearing Monday, Niagara County Court Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza rejected requests from Hamilton’s defense team to have statements he made to police officers and detectives barred from use on his case. The judge also ruled that an identification of Hamilton, made from a police photo array, was also admissible.

The statements, which the Gazette has reviewed from documents it obtained, reflect conversations Hamilton had with a Falls police officers not long after the shoot-out, an interview with detectives at the Erie County Medical Center and a meeting with a pastor, that also took place at the medical center.

Hamilton expressed remorse and apologized just after he shot Falls Police Officers Walt Nichols and Mike Bird and his estranged girlfriend, Stephanie Turk, in a wild gun battle on South Avenue. He even told police that he’d been hearing “voices in his head” prior to the shoot-out.

The defense team of Joel Daniels and Daniel Henry fought to keep the statements out of a possible trial, claiming cops failed to properly inform Hamilton of his rights and eavesdropped on “confidential conversation” with the pastor.

However, Sperrazza ruled that Hamilton made a spontaneous statement to one officer, could not have expected to have a “confidential conversation” with a police office standing at the end of his hospital bed and knowingly waived his rights when talking to detectives.

Officer Steven Gizzarelli testified that he was assigned to go with Hamilton on an ambulance that transported him to Memorial Medical Center to be treated for the wounds he suffered in his shoot-out. Gizzarelli said moments after his arrival in the emergency room at Memorial, and while Hamilton was being treated by doctors, Hamilton cried out, “Oh my God. What did I do? I’m sorry.”

Daniels showed Sperrazza medical records indicating Hamilton had been given at least two doses of a powerful painkiller and argued his client may not have realized he was speaking with a police officer next to him.

“He was under severe pain, he was wounded by gunfire,” Daniels said. “We believe (his) medications would have affected her alertness.”

By late afternoon on Feb. 7, Hamilton had come out of surgery and was being moved to a jail facility within ECMC. Officer Thomas Rodgers testified he was assigned to guard Hamilton at that time and allowed a man identified only as a “pastor” from the medical center to speak to him.

Rodgers said the pastor said a prayer and told Hamilton to “be strong” before asking if he had any message for his family.

“(Hamilton) said, ‘Tell my family I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shoot (Turk) or the cops.’,” Rodgers said.

Daniels told Sperrazza that statement should be barred from a trial because it was “confidential.”

However, Assistant District Attorney Robert Zucco told the judge the conversation could be confidential if, as he testified, Rodgers stood at the end of Hamilton’s bed while he was with the pastor.

“A clergyman may not be forced to disclose (a conversation with a penitent) if it’s done in private,” Zucco said. “But not where what they say can be overheard. No one could reasonably expect that is confidential. When you make a statement in public, you can’t later claim it’s confidential.”

Sperrazza said she agreed with Zucco.

“Because the defendant and pastor saw the officer in the room, and spoke, that is not confidential,” the judge said.

The judge did rule out a conversation between Hamilton and Officer Richard Abramowski. Abramowski was assigned to guard Hamilton the day after the shooting. He said Hamilton asked him for a priest and when he said he couldn’t get him one, then asked to speak to him.

Abramowski said he told Hamilton, “OK. Sure.” He said Hamilton then told him, “he did not mean to hurt anyone” and “that he had been hearing voices in his head.”

Sperrazza ruled that Abramowski’s comment was “an invitation to talk” without advising Hamilton of his right to remain silent and was “not admissible.”

Statements Hamilton made to detectives Patrick Stack and James Galie can also be used at trial, because Sperrazza said Hamilton “knowingly waived his rights” after being read his Miranda warnings and then speaking to the investigators.

When Stack and Galie asked Hamilton what had happened, the accused shooter expressed worry for the fate of the officers he had shot.

“I’m sorry,” Hamilton said. “This is going to affect those officers for the rest of their lives.”

Even though Stack and Galie reassured Hamilton that Nichols and Bird were expected to recover from their wounds, he doubted what they told him.

“No they’re not, no they’re not. Don’t lie to me,” Hamilton said. “Look what I did. I hurt my babies’ mother and police officers who were trying to help people. I’ve hit bottom.”

Daniels argued, that like the statement Hamilton made at Memorial Medical Center, the comments to Galie and Stack should be thrown out because his client was “medically incapable of waiving his rights.”

Sperrazza said she believed Hamilton was alert and able to waive his rights. She pointed to testimony from Stack that Hamilton said he recognized him and Galie from an encounter on the streets.

“(Hamilton) said, ‘You used to hassle me on the way to the library. You all used to hassle us.’,” Stack said.

Sperrazza said that showed Hamilton was “coherent and realized what was going on.”

The judge allowed the eyewitness identification from a photo array into the case, calling it, “extraordinarily fair.”

Hamilton, 35, 2718 22nd St., has pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted first-degree murder, a single charge of attempted second-degree murder and one count of aggravated criminal contempt. He is being held without bail.

Sperrazza set a final pretrial hearing for Dec. 21 and said a trial would begin on Feb. 16.