ALFRED – At the start of Jason Twardus’ murder trial Monday, all eyes were on the 29-year-old defendant, who is accused of killing his ex-fiancee, Kelly Gorham.

After three days of wildly conflicting testimony, witnesses with memory lapses and testy exchanges between the lawyers, jurors now have three men to consider as they try to figure out who strangled Gorham and buried her body in far northern New Hampshire.

And at least a week of testimony remains before jurors will be asked to return a verdict.

Gorham was last seen alive on Aug. 7, 2007. Police found the body of the 30-year-old nursing student three weeks later in a shallow grave on a piece of land owned by Twardus’ father.

John Durfee, who was Gorham’s landlord, and Calvin DeGreenia, who worked on Durfee’s paving crew and lived on his property in Alfred, both testified that they had dinner and drinks with Gorham the night before she disappeared, then they parted ways and went to bed.

But under relentless questioning by defense lawyer Daniel Lilley, Durfee and DeGreenia did little to deflect the suspicion he has been heaping on them: that one of them killed Gorham and they lied to protect each other.

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Lilley has described Durfee as a longtime PCP addict, and DeGreenia as a thief and a drifter who struck up a romance with Gorham in the week before she vanished, then allegedly made jokes about her death.

Lilley has mentioned several times that the men have criminal records and met in prison.

With DeGreenia taking the stand on Tuesday and Durfee on Wednesday, both men gave testimony that was at odds with statements they made to police in the days after Gorham’s disappearance.

They often appeared to be confused as they tried to recall the events of August 2007, and they sometimes contradicted testimony that they had given just minutes earlier.

Durfee, DeGreenia and a man who worked with them, Garth Steffens, initially told investigators that they saw Gorham outside her apartment on Durfee’s property in the late afternoon or early evening of Aug. 8, 2007. The men described a red vehicle, driven by an unknown man, that pulled into the property and picked up Gorham.

All three have since changed their minds. They testified this week that it was not Gorham, and it must have been another woman getting into the car.

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“Why did you change your story? You told them you saw a red car,” Lilley asked Durfee on Wednesday.

“Maybe I didn’t see the red car,” Durfee said. “I couldn’t remember if it was a red car or a purple car or a blue car.”

Lilley continued to press. He suggested that the men changed their story about the sighting after finding out that Maine State Police detectives believed Twardus had killed and buried Gorham by noontime on Aug. 8.

Durfee said he had no reason to concoct a story or an alibi.

“I had nothing to do with the death of Kelly Gorham. She was a friend of mine, a tenant,” Durfee said.

Durfee testified that he went to New Hampshire on Aug. 8. On further questioning by Lilley, he said he may have gone to New Hampshire that day for a haircut or to measure a driveway for his paving business, but he couldn’t be sure. Still later in his testimony, he denied going to New Hampshire that day.

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The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General William Stokes, asked Durfee if he had been anywhere near northern New Hampshire, where Gorham was found buried. Durfee said no.

Today, jurors are expected to hear some of the taped interviews of Twardus by detectives. It will be the first opportunity for the jury to hear directly from the defendant. Lilley has said that after the state rests its case, Twardus will decide whether he will testify.

Twardus and Gorham lived together in the apartment in Alfred and were engaged to be married on Aug. 4, 2007, Stokes said during opening statements.

Gorham broke off the engagement around Christmastime of 2006, and in June 2007 she asked Twardus to leave. He moved in with his father in Rochester, N.H.

The state claims that Twardus arrived at Gorham’s apartment and strangled her sometime on the morning of Aug. 8, 2007.

The trial is expected to last through next week.

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com

 


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