Death Penalty Sought Against Barcella Man Used A Pulaski To Smash The Skull Of Apartment Manager; New Trial Sought

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the son of a Connecticut police commissioner convicted of killing his apartment manager with a firefighter’s ax.

Gerald Barcella’s use of a Pulaski to hit his 69-year-old victim four times and his subsequent bragging about the crime are among the aggravating factors Prosecutor Bill Douglas listed Friday in support of his decision.

“Bill Smith was on the floor, trying to crawl underneath his bed, defenseless and in a fetal position when the defendant hacked him repeatedly in the back of the head with a 20-pound Pulaski,” Douglas wrote in his notice to seek the death penalty filed in 1st District Court.

Jurors deliberated only three hours in December before convicting Barcella, 37, of bludgeoning Smith to death. Barcella continues to maintain his innocence.

Police found Smith, a renowned stained-glass artist, dead at the Harmony House boarding apartments he both managed and lived in. The Pulaski, a firefighters’ tool with a hoe on one side and an ax blade on the other, was found under Smith’s bed.

“In essence, the defendant shattered Bill Smith’s skull,” wrote Douglas, who did not return a call to his office Friday.

Barcella has requested a new trial. His attorneys contend the jury was prejudiced by a witness’ claim that Barcella had gotten away with two prior shootings.

Second District Judge John Bengtson instructed jurors to disregard the statements, but Public Defender John Adams contends the damage already had been done.

“I looked at that jury,” Adams said recently. “When they heard that, the trial was over.”

Bengtson is considering Barcella’s request for a new trial. Adams was out of the office Friday.

Prosecutors maintain they won a fair conviction. Barcella’s action leading up to and after Smith’s death justify the death penalty, Douglas said.

At least four people heard Barcella’s threats to “get even” with Smith for making him take down a sign filled with racial slurs and homophobic dogma, Douglas said.

Barcella made good on those threats in April 1995, prosecutors said. Smith’s request that a drunken Barcella turn down his television, and the landlord’s insistence that Barcella move out when he refused prompted the fatal attack, according to prosecutors.

Spokane pathologist Dr. George Lindholm, who performed the autopsy on Smith, testified at Barcella’s trial that two of the blows struck by the Pulaski shattered Smith’s skull, Douglas said.

The day after Smith’s murder, Barcella bought a pistol so he could “shoot it out with the cops” if they came after him, Douglas said.

Barcella’s father, Angelo Barcella, is a longtime police commissioner for the Berlin Police Department in Connecticut.

The death penalty notice Douglas filed Friday marked the second time in less than a year he has sought death as a punishment. In the first case, Judge James Judd ruled in December that life in prison without parole was appropriate for Stephen Cherry.

Judge Gary Haman was the last to impose the death penalty in Kootenai County, in 1983 to Donald Paradis. Gov. Phil Batt since has granted Paradis clemency.

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