Amid Easter's joy, a life lost, three more ruined

Zachary 'D.J.' Pinette in court on Thursday (WMUR/Channel 9 image)

Aaron Wilkinson

As many of us celebrated Easter on Sunday, and all of its implications of rebirth and renewal and heavenly ascension, it's unlikely David Orlando was feeling the same rapture such a joyous holiday should surely evoke.

Or maybe he was. Maybe he was able to find some comfort in some nook and cranny of faith that will comfort him.

He wasn't feeling that comfort on Thursday, the day Zachary D.J. Pinette, 19, of 5B Rankin St. of Sprinvale, told a Strafford Superior Court judge he was guilty in the brutal stabbing death of 19-year-old Aaron Wilkinson of Madbury, a young man known intimately by Orlando in the past.

"He lived with me for several years," said Orlando as he leaned on a pair of rough-hewn crutches in the upstairs hall of the Strafford County Superior Courthouse moments after a judge accepted the plea, a deal that calls for Pinette to serve 30 years to life in a New Hampshire state prison.

Pinette, 19, pleaded guilty on Thursday to second degree murder, robbery and falsifying physical evidence..

Sitting quietly in a chair in an orange jail jumpsuit next to his defense attorney Richard Sanperil, Pinette hardly looked like the kind of young man who would carry out such a bloody crime, in which a medical examiner identified some 22 stab wounds to Wilkinson's back, shoulder and head.

Michael Tatum, 22, of 236 Young Road in Barrington, and Tristan Wolusky, 18, of 46 Lowell St., Rochester, along with Pinette, are all charged in the death of Wilkinson, 18, of Madbury, last June 21.

The three are accused of killing Wilkinson sometime around 1:30 a.m. on June 21 on the property of his 36 Evans Road home where he lived with his father.

According to court testimony from assistant district attorney Peter Hinckley, Wolusky that night shined a light from outside to signal Wilkinson to come out and Wilkinson told his dad he was going out to see his friend.

The next morning his dad noticed he was missing, went outside to find a pool of blood in his driveway and called police.

Later in the afternoon a woman walking her dog on Long Swamp Road in Lebanon found Aaron's body by the side of the road, blood stains marking where the trio is suspected of dragging his body into bushes.

Hinckley noted in his statement that Wolusky was the one who tackled and dragged the much smaller and slighter Wilkinson to the ground that fateful night, and that Tatum and Wolusky began stabbing him, and that Pinette later joined in.

Tristan Walusky

Michael Tatum

Tatum and Pinette are both expected to testify against Wolusky at his June trial, which Hinckley said could last three weeks.

In the shadow of Easter's joy, Orlando, who dabbed at his eyes throughout the plea hearing on Thursday, must find solace hard to come by.

And his tribulation is far from over. There will be another plea hearing for Tatum to listen to later this month and then a full blown trial in June for Wolusky, who is facing a life sentence on a first-degree murcder charge. He has pleaded not guilty.

Wolusky told Tatum and Pinette, they would steal money from Wilkinson who would have "drug money" on him, Hinckley said. Court documents show they took less than $30 from Wilkinson's dying body.

These are all kids, they all knew each other. Some of the relationships were casual, some more close.

So what kind of darkness did these three experience, one would have to wonder, that they could do such a foul deed.

"Three lives ruined," Orlando said, of Wolusky, Tatum and Pinette, "and nothing will bring Aaron back."