Accused murderer Jeanette Maxfield will go on trial next week.
The 23-year-old woman is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing of a Hyde Park man, Chris Cafferky, 48, who was described in police records as Maxfield’s boyfriend, in his house last February.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 9 a.m. at Lamoille County Superior Court, and the trial is slated to begin the next day and run until Jan. 30.
Since the county is currently between state’s attorneys — Joel Page retired at the end of last month and newly elected Paul Finnerty starts in February — the prosecution will be handled by Benjamin Luna, the lawyer Page brought in to help with the transition.
Representing Maxfield is St. Johnsbury attorney David Sleigh, along with co-counsel Kyle Hatt and David Tartter.
Sleigh filed motions last summer, asking that the second-degree murder charge be dropped, suggesting that Cafferky actually committed suicide. According to chief medical examiner Steven Shapiro, the cause of death was a single stab wound to the upper abdomen with a large kitchen knife, which Maxfield had purchased earlier that day.
Toxicology reports showed Cafferky’s blood-alcohol content was at 0.244 percent — 0.08 is proof of intoxication — with four different antidepressants in his system. Medical records showed that Cafferky had been diagnosed with depression, and had suicidal thoughts.
Shapiro told Sleigh in a deposition that he is aware of only one single-stab suicide in the last 10 years.
“This is a very unusual way for people to kill themselves, by knife wounds, to begin with,” Shapiro said.
Sleigh also asked the court to consider if police used “intentionally deceptive or coercive tactics” in their questioning of Maxfield, and asked the court to toss any statements she made to police.
On Feb. 17, 2014, police responded to a frantic 911 call from Maxfield, who told police that she and Cafferky had been drinking all day and she had passed out, awakening to find herself covered in blood and with the bloody chef’s knife nearby.
According to court affidavits, Maxfield told police she was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder or mood disorder during a 2013 stay at the Brattleboro Retreat. She told police she has little interest in life.
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