Elizabeth Larson – Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT On Tuesday, the trial of a man charged with a local woman”s murder entered its fourth day and finished by featuring its 17th witness, with two pivotal witnesses scheduled to appear today.
Paul Smiraglia, 46, is on trial for first-degree murder with a special allegation of using torture in the July 2002 homicide of his ex-girlfriend, 43-year-old Dierdre Coleman.
Since the trial began June 6, Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff has been building a case against the Nevada resident based mostly on the testimony of former friends and acquaintances of Smiraglia and Coleman when they lived in Clearlake.
The witnesses so far have been consistent in stating that Smiraglia and Coleman were involved with drugs, with Smiraglia in particular running a methamphetamine lab. Many of the witnesses also stated that the couple didn”t seem particularly affectionate, and that Coleman disappeared not long after Smiraglia became involved with another woman, Sharmon Hawley.
Indeed, although she has yet to testify, Hawley”s presence has been keenly felt in the proceedings thus far. It was Hawley who reportedly took police to the location of Coleman”s body along Highway 20 a year after her murder. Hawley also recently came forward with additional information in the case, saying that she heard the final argument between Smiraglia and Coleman one morning in July 2002 at her home on Alvida Street. That, the prosecution alleges, is when Smiraglia allegedly killed Coleman with a blow to the head.
Hinchcliff told Judge Arthur Mann he will call Hawley to the stand today.
The prosecution”s first witness on Tuesday was John Irwin, a Clearlake Police officer who retired in 2004. While on duty on Aug. 15, 2002, Irwin arrested Hawley and Smiraglia for drug and weapons charges.
Irwin testified that both appeared to be under the influence. Hawley had a glass pipe and vials of meth, and Irwin found other drug paraphernalia inside the car, including a scale and packaging items.
Smiraglia who became combative with the other officers who arrived to help Irwin refused to give his real name, and had no identification with him.
He did, however, have a bag underneath his seat that contained a sawed-off 16-gauge shotgun with a live round in the chamber and other live rounds in the bag.
Some previous witnesses have testified to seeing Smiraglia with the gun, which he allegedly used to threaten some of them into keeping quiet about their suspicions about Coleman”s disappearance.
The day”s second witness, referred to here at Witness Two, is the common law wife of a witness who gave testimony last week in the case. The names of both have been withheld from publication due to threats of retaliation against them for their testimony.
This past February, Witness Two who said she was friends with both Coleman and Hawley was at the Clearlake Police Department on another matter relating to her husband when Chief Bob Chalk approached her.
She recounted on the stand that Chalk asked her if there was any information she hadn”t come forward with regarding the case. When she told him she was scared, she said Chalk told her that there would be no retaliation, because Smiraglia wasn”t going to get out of jail.
“He convinced me that it would be OK,” she said.
Chalk”s talk with Witness Two appears to have yielded significant information for the prosecution, because it suggests that she and her husband may have been in Hawley”s home shortly after Coleman”s murder.
During nearly three hours of testimony, Witness Two recounted in detail a visit she and her husband made to Hawley”s home after Coleman disappeared in July 2002. While using the bathroom, she noticed a long object, wrapped in plastic and duct tape, in the bathtub, with another sheet of black plastic placed over about two-thirds of it.
The house was very hot, all of the curtains were closed and Witness Two noted “The whole house smelled horrible,” which was most remarkable because she said Hawley “keeps a clean house.”
Except the bathroom was too clean, Witness Two said, noting that Hawley”s makeup was usually spread around the counter and was gone at that time.
Smiraglia, she remembered, was sweating, hyper, jumping around and talking nonsense, and telling Hawley to be quiet. Hawley, Witness Two said, wasn”t happy to have the visitors in her home and spent some of her time in the back bedroom, at Smiraglia”s order.
Later, Witness Two”s husband told Smiraglia, “My old lady thinks you killed Diedre,” at which point she said Smiraglia told them both, “Loose lips sink ships.”
During his cross examination of Witness Two, defense attorney Doug Rhoades compared some of her current testimony with previous statements to police, some of which were inconsistent.
He also pressed her on why she didn”t go to police with the information earlier. She replied that she and her husband were concerned for their safety and that of their children.
“I”m still scared sitting in this room with this man, right now,” she said, looking in Smiraglia”s direction.
Indeed, during most of her testimony, Witness Two spoke softly, often haltingly, with long pauses.
The day”s last witness was Cesario Jacobo, a friend of Coleman”s who appears to have been the most persistent in trying to find answers to her disappearance.
Jacobo recalled a visit to Hawley”s, at which time Smiraglia said he and Coleman had a falling out, and that he had beaten her up. Jacobo looked in on her, sleeping in her bedroom, with her back to him. When he returned a few days later to check on her, no one was around, and her car was in the driveway, with the keys in it, her possessions gone and the windows partially down. It was a situation he said he found “really odd.”
Jacobo said he took the car keys at that time to “ground” the car so he could see who was using it. He went back again to find the car”s ignition pulled out and a terrible stench “like bad meat” coming from the back of the house. Jacobo said he didn”t believe Smiraglia and Hawley”s story that it was simply “garbage.”
It was Jacobo who later would see the newspaper ad Coleman”s mother, Revae Leppanen, took out in search of information. He called and told her what he knew about Coleman”s last known whereabouts and some of the people with whom she was involved. Leppanen took that information to sheriff”s investigators, launching the official investigation into Coleman”s fate.
Smiraglia”s trial continues today at 9 a.m. in Judge Arthur Mann”s Department 3 courtroom.
Contact Elizabeth Larson at elarson@record-bee.com.
