ALFRED — Jason Twardus is arguing in York County Superior Court today for a new trial based on information about the two men his defense says framed him in the 2007 murder of Twardus’ former fiancee, Kelly Gorham.
Twardus, of Rochester, N.H., is now serving a 38-year sentence for the strangling death of Gorham.
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He was convicted in October 2010 of killing the 30-year-old nursing student at her home in Alfred, and then burying her body at a northern New Hampshire property owned by his father.
Twardus’ bid for another trial is based on new information about the defense’s alternate suspects: John Durfee, Gorham’s landlord, and Calvin Degreenia, who lived on the same property.
Twardus’ lawyer, Daniel Lilley, said that the new evidence was not provided to him in a timely manner.
Lilley contends that the new evidence, if it had been available to a jury, would have led the jury to acquit his client. During the trial, Lilley claimed that Durfee and Degreenia killed Gorham and framed his client for her death.
Some of the information came from Kenneth Villella, a cellmate of Durfee’s. Villella told police Durfee had said he “knew how to bury people” and that Durfee had help burying Gorham. But Durfee told police he could not remember that person’s name.
Durfee died in August.
Under questioning by Lilley this morning, Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said he sent Lilley the written reports within days of receiving them himself. The police interviews took place in June and October, and the information was sent to Lilley in October and December.
Twardus had alredy been convicted at the time of those interviews of Villella, but he had a previous motion for a new trial pending when the first of the interviews took place. That first bid for for a new trial was unsuccessful.
Lilley is also pointing to information that Degreenia was arrested in April 2011 in Nashua, N.H., for trying to strangle his girlfriend. Someone told Lilley about the arrest in an email.
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