Guilty Verdict in Nantucket Murder Trial

June 21, 2007 — -- The jury in Nantucket's first murder trial in nearly a quarter century convicted Thomas Toolan III today of first degree murder for brutally stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Lochtefeld in October 2004.

Toolan, 39, and Lochtefeld engaged in a six-week whirlwind romance after they met Labor Day weekend 2004. Lochtefeld ended the relationship three days before her death.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for about one hour Wednesday afternoon and three hours today, the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror reported. Judge Richard F. Coonan sentenced Toolan to life in prison without parole, a sentence that automatically results in an appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court.

Toolan was also convicted on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The guilty verdict means that the jury rejected the defense's claims that Toolan, a former vice president at Citigroup, was insane at the time of the murder — the result of chronic drug and alcohol abuse.

At the trial, which began June 8, Toolan's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, argued that Toolan didn't have full cognitive ability when he flew to Nantucket from New York City, bought a knife, went to a cottage Lochtefeld was renting and stabbed her 23 times. Reddington claimed drugs and alcohol combined with Toolan's already fragile mental state had rendered him unable to stop himself from killing Lochtefeld, a 44-year-old entrepreneur.

Reddington also presented evidence that Toolan had frontal lobe damage in his brain that made him impulsive and aggressive, and witnesses for the defense testified he also suffered from dementia, psychosis and depression — all made worse by his alcohol and drug abuse as well as the emotional stress caused by Lochtefeld's rejection.

Reddington pointed to Toolan's troubled past, including his arrest after an attempt to steal a bust from an antiques show in New York. Toolan's lawyer later told a local paper he "had a lot to drink" the night of the arrest. Not long afterward, Toolan was asked to leave his job at Citigroup.

Toolan's mother also testified about her son's diminished mental capacity before the murder. Delores Toolan said on the stand that her son had called in the days before the murder upset about his breakup with Lochtefeld. He was distraught, she said, and was so drunk he could barely talk.

But First District attorney Brian Glenny argued that Toolan couldn't be considered insane at the time of the crime because he showed full cognitive function in planning the murder and knew his actions were wrong because he had tried to cover them up. Glenny said substance abuse wasn't an excuse for murder.

Although Toolan had a history of severe alcohol abuse, Glenny noted that much of it was self-reported and that Toolan's claims of blackouts often coincided with unfortunate or embarrassing events in his life.

"Oh, I got fired. Blackout! I stole a bust. Blackout! I committed murder. Blackout!" Glenny said.

To prove to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Toolan was guilty of murder, Glenny demonstrated that Toolan, although he may have been drunk and high, was able to fully plan and execute the crime, even after his first attempt to fly to Nantucket was foiled when he got caught trying to carry a 10-inch knife onto the flight.Toolan made up at least three excuses as to why he had the knife, according to court testimony, and ended up just taking a flight to Nantucket the next day and buying another knife upon his arrival to the island. The knife that killed Lochtefeld has never been found.

After the murder, Toolan left the island and was arrested in Rhode Island for drunk driving hours after Lochtefeld's body was found.

After Toolan and Lochtefeld met on Labor Day weekend in 2004, they had a whirlwind romance that initially left Lochtefeld smitten, but the relationship ended dramatically when Toolan reportedly held Lochtefeld hostage in his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side after she refused his marriage proposal and instead broke up with him. She escaped at about 4 a.m. after Toolan fell asleep, police said, and went back to Nantucket.

Three days later she was dead.

Lochtefeld's brother, Tom, told ABC News while the trial was going on that his sister at first was happy with Toolan, but that this bliss sharply declined before the breakup.

"Three weeks prior she was bubbling," he said. "All of a sudden she is not bubbling."

Tom said he got a bad feeling from Toolan, whom he met a week prior to his sister's death.

"You have some apprehension," he said. "He didn't put me at ease."