Opening statements begin in murder trial
Trial of accused killer of city official William Chamberlain underway
TROY, N.Y. » Nearly 18 months after William Chamberlain, a city employee for three decades and its director of operations since 2004, was killed near his Wynantskill home, opening statements in the trial of the man accused in the deadly stabbing began Wednesday.
A total of 125 potential jurors were brought in to Rensselaer County Court on Monday, from which 12 jurors and three alternates were chosen to decide the fate of Joseph N. Vandenburgh, 29, a parolee whom authorities say attacked Chamberlain late at night on Dec. 17, 2015.
Police said Chamberlain, 56, was attacked as he walked in the neighborhood near his home on Powell Street between 10 and 10:30 p.m., shortly after a meeting of the Troy City Council. Chamberlain was found by his wife after their dog returned home on his own after the attack.
Vandenburgh was picked up by police on a parole warrant the next day and returned to prison. He was indicted by a Rensselaer County grand jury in July 2016 on charges of second-degree
murder and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Vandenburgh sat in the main courtroom of the Rensselaer County Courthouse on Wednesday with his attorney, Danielle Neroni-Reilly of Albany, as Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove began his opening statements to the jury and to Judge Debra Young.
“The evidence in this case will show and the people will prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that on Dec. 17, 2015, shortly after 10 p.m., this defendant, Joseph Vandenburgh, intended to cause the death of William Chamberlain and in fact did cause the death of William Chamberlain that night,” Abelove said to the jury. “The people will further prove that the defendant committed the crime of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree with the intent to use it unlawfully against William Chamberlain.”
Abelove went on to tell the jury that they will hear some pretty graphic evidence during the course of this trial.
“That evidence will show that Joseph Vanenburgh brutally and viciously attacked and murdered William Chamberlain that night, stabbing him over, over and over again,” said Abelove. “Ladies and gentleman, I’ll be able to prove to you the who, the what, the where, the when and the how, but what I will not be able to tell you is the why and as we discussed during the jury selection, I’m not required to prove to you why this happened; motive is not an element of any offensive.”
Abelove went on to give more details during his 30 minute opening statement, like DNA evidence that can be proven during the trial along with video surveillance footage of the defendant entering numerous stores near the crime scene that night.
“I would again ask you to pay close attention to what the defendant is wearing in those videos and to also pay attention to the condition of his clothing and his right hand,” said Abelove.
Once Abelove finished his opening remarks, Neroni-Reilly then began her brief seven-minute opening statement.
“This is a case where there is no motive and there are no eyewitnesses,” said NeroniReilly. “Nobody is going to come in here and tell you that Joseph Vandenburgh knew William Chamberlain, nobody is going to come in here and tell you that they saw this happening. But you’ll hear evidence that there were two suspects well before Joseph Vandenburgh became a suspect.”
Neroni-Reilly said that two other males were originally approached and interrogated by police during the investigation, with one of those males being Chamberlain’s son Patrick, who was traveling home from college the night of the homicide.
“Adam Sharp, who the police knew to be a known heroin addict, who was robbing people at knife point with a large hunting knife, that was eerily similar to the knife found inside William Chamberlain,” said Neroni-Reilly. “Who else was a suspect? Patrick Chamberlain, the son, who for hours and hours was interrogated. Patrick Chamberlain says that he was coming home from college in Rochester that night. At 9:23 p.m. his father texts him, ‘are you almost home’ and at 9:43 p.m., Patrick says, ‘I’m almost home.”
According to state prison records, Vandenburgh served more than seven years of a nine-year sentence for first-degree burglary in a 2005 North Greenbush break-in. He was released on parole in December 2014 and was to remain under post-release supervision until December 2019.
Authorities have not said what they believe motivated Vandenburgh to kill Chamberlain. Vandenburgh was reportedly living with his mother at the time of the homicide in a home on Curtis Road, about a half-mile from where Chamberlain’s body was found.
Young said in court Monday she expects the trial to last about two weeks. If convicted, Vandenburgh faces as much as 20 years to life in prison on the murder count and as much as seven years behind bars for the weapon charge.