Verdict brings relief for Gorhams
Saturday, October 2, 2010 12:08 PM EDT
ALFRED — Kelly Gorham was a beautiful person, said her mother, Pauline Gorham Friday.
“She was the most caring girl in the world.”
Gorham, a 30-year-old nursing student, went missing from her Alfred apartment sometime after Aug. 7, 2007. Her remains were found a month later in remote Stewartstown, N.H., just a few miles from Maine’s border with Quebec. The land where her body was found is owned by Brian Twardus, the father of Jason Twardus, with whom Gorham had once been engaged.
On Friday at 10:20 a.m., after a three-week trial, a seven-man, five-woman jury returned a guilty verdict in the murder case against Jason Twardus at York County Superior Court.
Twardus, 29, showed no emotion as the jury foreman read the verdict.
Twardus was interviewed early and often after Gorham disappeared. He was indicted by a York County Grand Jury and arrested in connection with Gorham’s strangulation murder in January 2009.
For Pauline Gorham and her family, the guilty verdict came as a relief. It has been more than three years since her daughter went missing and was later found dead.
Pauline Gorham said she went numb when the verdict was read.
She said remembered thinking, “I’ve got to wait and make sure this is real.”
Defense counsel Dan Lilley had advanced the notion that Gorham’s landlord, John Durfee, was responsible for Kelly Gorham’s death, in concert with Calvin Degrennia, whom Durfee had met in jail. Degreenia worked for Durfee, lived on the Durfee property and had recently established a relationship with Gorham.
The three had grilled steaks on the evening of Aug., 7, 2007. Kelly Gorham was not seen alive after that night.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said Lilley’s theory was impossible – particularly since Durfee’s cell phone was using towers in Sanford for a signal on Aug. 8 and could not have been in northern New Hampshire. Instead, Stokes said Twardus came onto the Durfee property, where Gorham had an apartment, killed the woman he once hoped to marry and then drove away to New Hampshire, taking Gorham’s body with him.
Stokes, outside the court Friday morning following the reading of the verdict, said the evidence in the case against Twardus was powerful.
“It doesn’t bring Kelly back,” Stokes pointed out.
And he expressed sympathy for the Twardus family – Brian Twardus, his daughter and other family members who, like the Gorhams, sat in court throughout the entire three-week trial. Twardus’ sister wept following the verdict and was comforted by her father.
“I feel bad for the Twarduses,” Stokes said. “They’re innocent victims, too.”
During closing arguments, Stokes described Twardus as a jealous man, obsessed with Kelly Gorham.
The jury deliberated for more than three hours Thursday afternoon and for 50 minutes Friday morning before sending a note to Justice G. Arthur Brennan that a verdict had been reached.
Jury foreman Mike Dinneen of Saco said the jury believed a video image of a man at Big Apple convenience store in Colebrook, N.H. near Stewartstown, N.H. on Aug. 8, 2007 was indeed Jason Twardus. But he said the jury also wondered why the police had not used a cadaver dog to search Twardus’ car.
Dinneen said the jury felt Twardus was “ a little cocky,” on the witness stand, but acknowledged that even if the defendant had appeared humble, it wouldn’t have changed his testimony.
He said Twardus had “tons of detail” about what he did when his testimony could be corroborated and less detail when there was no corroboration. He said the defense’s suggestion that Durfee was involved in Gorham’s death just didn’t add up.
Brennan ordered that Twardus be held without bail pending sentencing.
Nancy Durfee, who testified at the trial, said Kelly Gorham often stopped by the house in the evening before making her way further down the driveway to her apartment. They’d talk and have pie and were friends, she said.
Nancy Durfee said her family has had some nasty calls in connection with the trial. She said she’d glad it is over.
“I loved her, she was like family,” said Nancy Durfee.
“Kelly Gorham was an outstanding citizen of Alfred. She was a very good person,” said John Durfee in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. She was a terrific girl and came from a nice family.” A nurse, he pointed out that Gorham dedicated her life to saving lives.
As for Twardus, “I hope he doesn’t see the light of day again,” Durfee said.
Stokes, deputy attorney general, said his team will meet with Attorney General Janet Mills to prepare a sentencing analysis and make a recommendation. He said the process generally takes a few months.
In Maine, a murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of 25 years to a maximum of life in prison.Lilley, defense counsel, could not be reached for comment.
For Pauline Gorham, the last three years have been very difficult, she said. She’s managed to present an upbeat demeanor, but acknowledged it was not easy.
“I knew I had to do it for Kelly,” she said.
She shook her head when asked what she would say to Jason Twardus if she had an opportunity, but she did speak of his family.
“It has been almost as difficult for them,” she said. “I wish them well.”
http://www.journaltribune.com/articles/2010/10/02/news/doc4ca67fcf45a01486814772.txt
