[NY Times article about the murder of Joyce Aparo] Part: 1 of 2

                                
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THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1990

Young Love Gone Wrong Is Theme of Trial in Slaying

HARTFORD, May 25 - A confessed
killer took the witness stand here this
week to tell a Superior Court jury the
tale of an impassioned teen-age love af-
fair that went "beyond obsession" to
murder and, ultimately, betrayal.
But in a case that has captured pub-
lic attention for nearly three years with
its mix of sex, psychology and death, a
question for the jurors will be who be-
trayed whom as the former lovers
square off in the drama's final act.
Most of the crime has already been
solved. Dennis Coleman, who is now 22
years old, admitted in early 1988 that
he strangled Joyce Aparo, a 47-year-
old Glastonbury resident in the bed-
room of her condominium in August
1987 with a twisted length of pantyhose.
He received a sentence of 34 years in
prison last fall.
What began this week, with Mr. Cole-
man and his credibility firmly in the
spotlight - and with many of the de-
tails of the killing emerging for the
first time - was the trial of Mrs.
Aparo's daughter, Karin, who now
stands accused of being Mr. Coleman's
accomplice in the murder and of con-
spiracy to commit the murder, which
took place when she was 16 and Mr.
Coleman was 18.
The prosecution argues that Ms.
Aparo and Mr. Coleman, who were
lovers from the time she was 15, plot-
ted the murder together to collect in-
surance money and to free Ms. Aparo
from the restrictions of a domineering
parent. Ms. Aparo has said she was
abused by her mother but has pleaded
not guilty to all the charges against
her. She faces up to 80 years in prison if
convicted.
What has heightened the tension and
interest in Ms. Aparo's trial is the fact
that, under questioning, she apparently
turned Mr. Coleman in to the police
shortly after the murder, and he is her
main accuser.
'It Was Beyond Obsession'
Mr. Coleman testified today, for ex-
ample, that at the moment of the mur-
der he was unable to think of anything
except doing whatever would make Ms.
Aparo happy.
"It was beyond obsession," Mr. Cole-
man said under questioning by an
assistant state's attorney, James E.
Thomas. "There was nothing I would-
n't do for her - that I loved her is an
understatement."
Ms. Aparo's lawyer, Hubert J. San-

.ssociated Press
Dennis Coleman, who was Karin
Aparo's boyfriend at the time of
the murder, has confessed to kill-
ing Joyce Aparo, below.

tos, began his cross-examination with
questions about Mr. Coleman's past
use of LSD, cocaine and marijuana and
whether his professed agnosticism had
made the sworn witness's oath to God
meaningless. He suggested that Mr.
Coleman was vindictive and out to get
Ms. Aparo.
"My client had some sort of spell
over you?" Mr. Santos asked at one
point. Mr. Coleman replied that yes,
that had indeed been roughly the case.
Mr. Santos then confronted Mr. Cole-
man with a statement made to a psy-
chologist before the sentencing, in
which Mr. Coleman bragged that he
had had Ms. Aparo "wrapped around
his finger."
The dynamics of teen-age love have
so far been a focus of the trial, and
many letters between Ms. Aparo and
Mr. Coleman have been made public by
the prosecution. Some of the letters in-
clude jarring juxtaposition of apparent
references to a murderous conspiracy
with ordinary concerns of a 15-year-old
girl.
In one of the letters, she wrote, in
what prosecutors say was a reference
to the murder plot, "Leave the logistics
to me." Then, only a sentence later, she
added, "Got my school schedule,
signed up for chemistry."
From the setting in a condominium
development in Glastonbury - the
young lovers' families lived across the
street from each other on Butternut
Lane and met at Glastonbury High
School - the case has also jarred other
sensibilities of suburban Connecticut,
with enough sex, intrigue and sensa-
tional news coverage to draw crowds to
the courtroom.
Letters Filled With Angst
"I just think it's a fascinating case,"
said Peter Wolfgang, a 20-year-old stu-
dent at Manchester Community Col-
lege who hopes to be a lawyer and said
he was drawn to the trial by the legal
issues. "If you're planning a murder, it
doesn't make any sense to write it
down in a hundred letters all over theI
place. I want to see how the defense
deals with that."
Both Mr. Santos and Mr. Thomas de-
clined to comment on the trial or their
strategies because Judge Thomas H.
Corrigan has forbidden any of the par-
ticipants to speak with reporters.
But the love letters - often full of
teen-age angst - are already emerg-
ing as the centerpiece for both sides,

Weather Report

National Forecast
Summery weather will prevail from
Texas to the Carolinas today for the
unofficial start to the summer season.
Hazy sun, uncomfortable humidity and
high temperatures will be accompanied
by stray thunderstorms, with overnight
readings inthe 70's or 60's.
Isolated strong thunderstorms will de-
velop from northern Texas to Missouri
ahead of a weak storm on the Plains.
Many areas will see no rain, but brief-
downpours and gusty winds may ac-
company any thunderstorm. Scattered
rains and thunderstorms will deliver lo-
cally heavy rain to the Carolinas through
tonight. A jet stream disturbance cross-
ing the Appalachians will lift very humid

with questions about when a letter was
sent as well as what the language was
intended to say.
In one long letter from Ms. Aparo,
which Mr. Coleman says was a turning
point in his decision to commit the
murder, she compared Mr. Coleman's
departure one morning from his drive-
way-without saying goodbye to her
- to the way her father drove off on
her seventh birthday.
'I Would Do Anything for Her'
"You both left when I needed you
most," Ms. Aparo wrote.
Under questioning by Mr. Thomas,
Mr. Coleman said the letter "struck a
chord in me I guess - I felt as though I
would do anything for her."
Mr. Santos suggested, however, that
for all the obvious attempts by Ms.
Aparo to bind Mr. Coleman to her
through guilt, Mr. Coleman had mis-
used the letter for his own purposes to
justify the murder.
Mr. Coleman is to continue his testi-
mony when the trial resumes on Tues-                                                    Stephe"D"""/Pool Photo
day. The jury is expected to get the  Karin Aparo, who is being tried on charges of conspiring with her boy-
case early next month.               friend to kill her mother, listening to testimony yesterday in Hartford.
Police Arrest 2 Injured in Bomb Blast

Continued From Page 1
charges of illegal activities against
members of the group. Four people, in-
cluding the group's founder, David
Foreman, have been indicted in Ari-
zona on charges of trying to fell a 137-
foot-high electrical transmission tower
that provides power to the Central Ari-
zona Project, a mammoth irrigation
system.
1he F.B.I. said the attempt was a
tri 1 run for the destruction of power
\lin?5 that provide electricity to the
Palo\Verdi nucle power plant in Ari-
zona,Ithe Diab  Canyon nuclear plant
in California and the Department of
Energy's plutonium fabrication plant
in Colorado.
No Other Explosives - -
The authorities here today decle'd'
to give details of their in stigation,/
but they said they had t discovered

Meteorology: Pennsylvania State University

Today's High Temperatures and Precipitation
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\     \"70's I\                         \   Detroit
N60s                 1            -
70's Veas             70's
Chicago 70's
SanSalt LakeCina
Frarcsc  ;  City    "     -   - -
racsoDenver \                  \\
8'\Las  70's          Kama                             's\  \ \ \
S'Vegas\\ \8o s\\                                             p
Los                 Igh

any more explosives in their searches
of Mr. Cherney's van or at a house in
Berkeley that serves as the headquar-
ters of Seeds of Peace, a support group
for opponents of nuclear weapons. Ms.
Bari and Mr. Cherney had attended an
organizing  meeting  for "Redwood
Summer" at the house on Wednesday
night.
Friends said Ms. Bari and Mr. Cher-
ney were traveling to the University of
California at Santa Cruz to recruit stu-
dents for the protest when the bomb ex-
ploded, about noon on Thursday.
Mr. Cherney, who suffered minor in-
juries, was being held today in the city
jail. Ms. Bari was in Highland Hospital,
where her condition was listed as seri-
ous, With injuries including a fractured
pelvis.
Tod   Mr. Cherney used the one tele-
-'on   all allowed him by the police to
call/rdio station KMUD-FM, a com-
unity-owned station in Garberville, to
'givea brief interview.
S"So mebody's trying to kill us," Mr.
Qherney said. "We are demanding, de-
na ding that the Oakland Police De-
par/ment and the F.B.I. seek out this
-assassin and bring him to justice im-
Supporers Denounce Charges
Friends, family o d activists in the
en ironme    V      ert- denounced
the cha'rges as r i cilous; some as-
serted that timberidtstry interests or
Government o iclais were responsible
for the bombing.
At a news conference here today,
Susa. B. Jordan, a lawyer representing
Mvs. 'n rimaid, "This-is clearly an at-
tempt d der by someone who did
not w nt them do nonviolent protest
in th redwoods thi summer."
Ms. Jordan continued: "This charge
is insane. There's a person out there
who attempted murder. Why aren't
they looking for that person? It's real
easy to solve the crime this way, by
putting it on the victims. These are
yadic T environmentalists. It's easy to

pick on someone who's unpopular."
In a brief telephone interview from
her home in Silver Spring, Md., Ruth
Bari, Ms. Bari's mother, said: "I'm
terribly upset. I don't believe what the
police are doing. She has been really
emphasizing nonviolence. I can't see
any  way  she would   be carrying
bombs."
Elizabeth Ball, the coordinator of the
Mendocino Environmental Center in
Ukiah, about 150 miles north of San
Francisco, said: "It's not even a re-
mote possibility. These people are
working for the life and survival of all
species. Bombing is against everything
they believe in. This is another case of
blaming the victim."
Threats Were Reported
Ms. Ball said the and Ms. Bari had
recently received threats by telephone
and in unsigned notes. Three weeks
ago, a note was foundtaped to the door
of the center, which serves as the ad-
dress for the "Redwood Summer"
planning, that showed a picture of Ms.
Bari's face through the cross hairs of a
rifle scope.
Violence has also been directed
against timber interests recently. The
authorities refused to comment today
on whether they believed that the car
bombing on Thursday was related to a
pipe bomb discovered May 8 at a lum-
ber mill owned by the Louisiana-Pa-
cific Company in Eureka.
Ms. Ball said the center had been
flooded with calls today from people all
over the country expressing concern
for the two activists and promising to
participate in "Redwood Summer,"
which is to begin June 20 with a demon-
stration in Eureka. The protest is pat-
terned after the "Mississippi Sum-
mer" civil rights protests that drew
thousands of college students to the
South in 1964.
"This tragedy is only going to make
'Redwood Summer' bigger," she said.
"It has brought a sense of urgency,
solidarity and total commitment."

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