A Down East man convicted of a triple murder who claimed on the stand that the shootings were accidental and an act of self-defense is now arguing his attorney was not effective.
A jury convicted Thomas Bonfanti, 69, of Northfield on three counts of murder and one count each of aggravated attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault for a shooting spree on Feb. 3, 2020. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Bonfanti killed Jennifer Bryant-Flynn, 49, of Machias; Samuel Powers, 33, of Jonesboro; and Shawn Currey, 57, of Machias. Regina Hall Long of Machias, who was 49 at the time of the shooting, was shot and survived.
Bonfanti’s lawyer at the time of the trial, Jeff Toothaker, was ineffective, Bonfanti claimed during a post-conviction review hearing Monday morning at the Penobscot County Judicial Center in Bangor.
Toothaker had 47 days from when he was appointed to the case to the start of jury selection, Toothaker testified. He said he cleared his other cases and focused solely on Bonfanti’s case.
Before and during the trial, Bonfanti was “involved in every decision made,” but Toothaker was not told the full story before the trial, Toothaker said. He said he learned details about the case when Bonfanti took the stand.
“We never went over the case,” Bonfanti said. “He didn’t want to know what happened.”
Bonfanti insisted on testifying and kept saying what an “incredible story this is,” Toothaker said.
“He wanted to go to trial,” Toothaker said. “He was involved in every decision. He made it very clear he was running the show.”
Bonfanti said Monday that he did not want to speak during the trial and that Toothaker did not prepare him to testify. Both men agreed that Bonfanti was told he had to testify if he wanted to claim self-defense.
Bonfanti’s new attorney, James Howaniec, said the focus of the hearing was about the lack of forensic evidence and witnesses presented by Toothaker during the trial. Bonfanti visibly rolled his eyes at that statement, a reporter from the Bangor Daily News saw.
Howaniec called Marc Dupre, owner of Focus Forensics, to talk about the various ways forensic evidence may have been able to provide different perspectives of the crime.
Bonfanti said that Toothaker had “very little concern about the facts of the case” and that everything felt rushed.
At the trial Bonfanti testified that he shot Powers by accident when his pistol went off. He then went to Bryant-Flynn’s home and shot her by accident because her dog was snarling. Bonfanti said Bryant-Flynn threw something at him, hitting his arm and causing the gun to go off.
After that Bonfanti went to a home shared by Long and Currey. He said at the trial he shot them both after his gun fell out of his coat pocket and they jumped toward him to try to grab the gun,
“It was a pretty bad day for all of them, not because they got shot, but the situation they were in,” Bonfanti said Monday. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, OK. It was a perfect storm.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Jennifer Bryant-Flynn’s name.