Figliola’s second appeal based on errors in law
TORONTO — Juries have twice found Maria Figliola guilty of hiring a hit man to kill her husband.
But she wants to try her luck again.
The long and winding saga that led Frank Figliola to a secluded waterfront trail the night he was bludgeoned to death, then revealed his unfaithful wife had him killed to inherit his money, has now entered the grand door of the Court of Appeal for Ontario (again) in the hope Maria will be granted a new trial.
Her lawyer, Michael Lacy, put on his gown, neatly unpacked 26 volumes of trial transcripts — each at least 400 pages long — and spent Monday trying to persuade a panel of three justices there were errors in law made during his client’s most recent trial.
Lacy represented Maria at that five-month trial, which heard from 85 witnesses and ended with her conviction for first-degree murder in September 2013.
That trial was granted after she successfully appealed the same verdict from her first trial.
This time Lacy is arguing a new trial should be granted because Justice Alan Whitten erred in his treatment of evidence from a key witness, and failed in his instructions to the jury to properly relate evidence to the position of the defence.
As they have for virtually every court appearance since Maria’s arrest in 2003, Frank’s younger sister, Joanne D’Andrea, and her husband were in the Toronto courtroom to bear witness.
Nobody appeared to be in the courtroom to support Maria, who remains in prison.
Frank’s battered body (his skull smashed) was found on a dark path at the foot of Millen Road in Stoney Creek at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 7, 2001. The trial would hear a pathologist testify he had been beaten with a pool cue.
Maria was having an affair with a younger man and Frank, 49, who worked for 28 years at Dofasco, was on the eve of leaving her.
The Crown argued that Maria, a bank employee, hired a killer to murder her husband of 26 years (with whom she had two children, adults by the time of the homicide) because he was worth more to her dead than alive. She stood to gain $677,000 with his death.
The defence has suggested Frank was a problem gambler who was beaten as some kind of message. And that it may not have been the attacker’s intention to kill him.
In the two years between the murder and her arrest, Maria’s every move was watched by police.
Her phone calls were wiretapped, her money was followed, her friends were questioned.
Her lover, Geoffrey Gonsalves, became paranoid Maria was framing him for the murder.
To reassure him, she wrote him a letter that said she takes “full responsibility” for the murder.
Gonsalves gave that letter to his lawyer, who turned it over to police.
Another friend, Daniel Di Trapani, was convicted alongside of Maria. The jury decided he was the hit man. His conviction was also overturned on appeal.
They were each to stand trial separately the next time around, but Di Trapani made a surprise guilty plea to accessory after the fact to murder. That means nobody is convicted of fatally beating Frank.
Yet another friend was Teresa Pignatelli (now Teresa Mascia). As in the previous appeal, Lacy is once again arguing the only reason the Crown called her as a witness was to demonstrate she was a liar who was attempting to cover up for Maria. In particular, he argues the Crown picked on an inconsistency in the timing of her sighting of Di Trapani on the night of the murder. He argued the Crown wasn’t as interested in the truth about timing as it was in casting Pignatelli as a liar.
“There was no legitimate basis to call her as a witness. It was not a good faith exercise,” he said.
Justice David Doherty — who often aggressively challenged the lawyers involved in the current appeal — used the term “straw woman” to summarize Lacy’s argument about Pignatelli. Doherty also countered that “she clearly had relevant evidence to give.”
That is the position taken by Appellate Crown Rosella Cornaviera. The trial Crowns had a “legitimate basis” to call Pignatelli, who was best friends with Maria and very close to Di Trapani.
The appeal continues Tuesday in front of Justices Doherty, Gloria Epstein and Sarah Pepall.