SKOWHEGAN — The witness who proved so forgetful on the stand Monday was the main actor in a video that was shown to jurors Tuesday, the fourth day of the home-invasion trial of Daniel L. Fortune.

In the video, Fortune’s foster brother, Leo R. Hylton, leads police on a walk-through of the Guerrette family’s home in Pittston and shows police how he hacked with his machete at the father and daughter who interrupted the robbery attempt.

Police taped the walk-through, with Hylton in custody, two days after the home invasion.

Fortune, 22, is charged with more than a dozen crimes, including aggravated attempted murder, related to the home invasion on May 27, 2008, and the theft of a safe from the Guerrettes’ home that contained more than $100,000 in cash and other valuables on Nov. 17, 2007.

Hylton, 20, pleaded guilty to charges related to the home invasion and is serving an initial 50-year prison term. On Monday, he told jurors that he could recall little of what he and Fortune did around the time of the home invasion.

The video shows the 6-foot-6-inch Hylton leading police in through the garage to the kitchen. At one point, it shows him peering through a door pane to make sure the kitchen is empty.

He tells police that an intruder alarm went off loudly when he opened the door, and that he turned to look at Fortune, who was behind him.

“I don’t know if he said, ‘Let’s go’ or ‘Go,’” Hylton says on the video. “I don’t know what came over me, but I went in.”

He says he saw William Guerrette Jr. with a silver gun in his hand and thought about turning around and leaving.

“But I didn’t feel like getting shot,” Hylton says.

He says he initially hit Guerrette in the neck with the machete.

“He stumbled back and I just kept swinging. He was in complete, total shock. I just kept swinging. I can’t remember if he fell or not,” Hylton says on the video.

At one point, Hylton says, Guerrette fell and began to crawl back toward the master bedroom. Hylton says he could see the gun’s red laser sight.

“He kept aiming at me, so that’s why he had so many slices on his arms,” Hylton says. On the video, Hylton tells police that he probably struck Guerrette 15 times.

Guerrette spent weeks in the hospital, and lost a finger. He and his daughter also suffered brain injuries.

Hylton said he scaled the stairs rapidly to reach Nicole, then 10, who had come out of her bedroom and seen him.

He said they couldn’t leave witnesses, so he struck the girl about five times with the machete.

On the video, he says Fortune spent all of his time at the back of the kitchen, until they fled down the stairs to the basement.

The video contrasted sharply with Hylton’s testimony Monday, in which he spent almost four hours frequently saying, “I do not recall,” in reply to a prosecutor’s questions about the incident.

Hylton didn’t appear Tuesday in Somerset County Superior Court.

The transcript shows him putting the blame on Fortune and apologizing for his role in the home invasion, saying he should have stopped Fortune, the man he viewed as his older brother.

The trial is to resume at 9 a.m. today.

 

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